The late South African pianist, saxophonist, vocalist, composer Bheki Mseleku. All of his work has a spiritual element, but his solo pieces even more so. Yes he's playing piano and tenor at the same time.
My understanding from back in the day was that Spiritual Jazz had a black consciousness aspect to it, whereas cosmic jazz did not.
I was just listening to Miles Davis "Big Fun" last night, which to me is one of the most spiritual musical experiences ever. That music is timeless, and not too many people continued carrying that torch. Another good one is of course "Apocalypse" by Mahavishnu Orchestra. And of course, Keith Jarrett's opus in the early-mid 1970s. Oh, and I almost forgot Eberhard Weber! But definitely Miles electric period is the king of spiritual music -- "Big Fun", "Dark Magus", "Agharta" (and some claim "Get Up With That", although I'm still on the fence with that one).
Norman Connors - Dance of Magic / Dark of Light Nothing like his later R&B music, even if the lousy cover art suggests otherwise. A favorite!
I agree with you in general, but many would call Miles 70's electric stuff and certainly Mahavishnu "rock"...yeh some Mahavishnu tracks are about as "spiritual" as it can get.
I am, I guess, and power the music had was from a time and a place; 40 -50 years on those times and places are a different country. It was political, social, cultural and personal. All the context has been forgotten and/or wiped away, a genre has been been named retrospectively. I had a similar discussion in a thread with someone who wanted 'greasy' gospel music, and they didn't want to know there was no such thing. Gospel wasn't soul. The distinction was lost all these years on, and I guess it is here, all for the sake of a mixtape sensibility, everything gets mixed together, ironically, with no sense of history.
Not sure I'd call any Miles Davis album spiritual, but maybe I've been listening to too much Alice Coltrane.
I think there's an overlap with Spiritual Jazz and much of the Avant Garde. I'm an admirer of the couple of CD's I have by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. If Spiritual Jazz can be minimal, then that's what I'm hearing in a track like this:
I would love opinions on this: Recorded around 1970/71 in Norway, billed as Spiritual/Christian folk jazz with Nordic mystic shades. I am not sure what to make of it, but I like like it, kinda. That's Why: That's Why, by That's Why
Les McCann - Invitation to Openness Joe Henderson - Power to the People I've recently added both these albums to my cosmic/spiritual jazz playlist.