Spiritual jazz emerged in the mid-1960s as a transcendent branch of the avant-garde, where improvisation became a vehicle for metaphysical exploration and social liberation. Pioneered by visionaries like John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, the genre fuses modal jazz's harmonic freedom with sacred musical traditions—Indian ragas, African polyrhythms, gospel fervor—creating extended, meditative compositions that feel less like performances and more like rituals. Unlike the cerebral complexity of much avant-garde jazz or the electric grooves of fusion, spiritual jazz prioritizes emotional catharsis and cosmic consciousness, often employing harp glissandos, tenor saxophone cry-outs, and hypnotic percussion to induce trance states.
The movement carried profound cultural weight during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, with artists like Sun Ra crafting Afrofuturist mythologies and groups like The Pyramids channeling Pan-African spirituality. Its DNA resurfaces in contemporary practitioners—Kamasi Washington's orchestral maximalism, Shabaka's cross-genre mysticism, Nala Sinephro's ambient-jazz hybrids—proving the genre's timeless capacity to dissolve boundaries between sound and spirit. While ambient music seeks stillness and chamber jazz prizes intimacy, spiritual jazz demands immersion: it's jazz as prayer, protest, and portal.
Listen to spiritual jazz not just to hear music, but to experience sound as a transformative force—a journey inward and outward simultaneously, where technical virtuosity serves something far greater than itself.
Click column headers to sort
List updated:
| #16 | ByYusef Lateef | Released:1961-09-05 | |||
| #2 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1965-01-01 | |||
| #33 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1965-02-01 | |||
| #25 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1965-11-23 | |||
| #89 | ByJoe Masters | Released:1966-01-01 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #8 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1966-02-01 | |||
| #39 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1967-10-01 | |||
| #40 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1968-01-01 | |||
| #30 | ByAlice Coltrane | Released:1968 | |||
| #29 | BySonny Sharrock | Released:1969-01-01 | |||
| #6 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1969-05-01 | |||
| #24 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1969-12-01 | |||
| #22 | ByAlice Coltrane | Released:1969 | |||
| #46 | ByIdris Muhammad | Released:1971-01-01 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #43 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:1971-04-16 | |||
| #21 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1971-05-01 | |||
| #38 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1971-12-08 | |||
| #1 | ByAlice Coltrane | Released:1971 | |||
| #66 | ByCount Ossie | Released:1972-03-26 | spiritual jazzspoken word | ||
| #45 | ByThe Awakening | Released:1972-04-06 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #5 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1972-12-01 | |||
| #85 | ByMtume Umoja Ensemble | Released:1972 | spoken wordspiritual jazz | ||
| #53 | ByLarry Young | Released:1973-01-01 | |||
| #61 | BySabu Martinez | Released:1973 | |||
| #67 | ByAntithesis | Released:1973 | |||
| #15 | ByLonnie Liston Smith | Released:1974-01-01 | |||
| #50 | ByHenry Franklin | Released:1974-04-08 | |||
| #10 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1974-11-01 | |||
| #36 | ByThe Pyramids | Released:1974-11-01 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #41 | ByBatsumi | Released:1974 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #7 | ByDon Cherry | Released:1975-01-01 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #47 | ByMarion Brown | Released:1975-01-01 | |||
| #11 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:1977-01-01 | |||
| #14 | ByHenri Texier | Released:1977 | chamber jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #9 | BySun Ra | Released:1979-01-01 | |||
| #44 | ByBilly Harper Quintet | Released:1979 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #42 | ByGeorge Russell | Released:1980-12-31 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #23 | ByWendell Harrison | Released:1981-01-01 | jazz-funkspiritual jazz | ||
| #97 | ByHannibal | Released:1981-04-24 | |||
| #79 | ByHannibal Marvin Peterson | Released:1981 | |||
| #95 | ByE.W. Wainwright, Jr. | Released:1981 | afrobeatspiritual jazz | ||
| #62 | ByManfred Schoof | Released:1986 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #58 | ByAlice Coltrane | Released:1987 | |||
| #78 | ByMcCoy Tyner | Released:1988-08-01 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #100 | ByByron Morris & Unity | Released:1994 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #51 | ByDavid S. Ware | Released:1996-10-21 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #18 | ByJohn Coltrane | Released:2001-09-25 | |||
| #35 | ByAlice Coltrane | Released:2004-09-28 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #63 | BySun Ra | Released:2009-01 | avant-garde jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #20 | ByMatana Roberts | Released:2011-05-10 | |||
| #76 | ByNat Birchall | Released:2011-11-28 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #74 | ByJuma's Sultan's Aboriginal Music Society | Released:2012-11-06 | avant-garde jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #71 | ByMenagerie | Released:2012-12-10 | |||
| #73 | ByWynton Marsalis | Released:2013-10-22 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #80 | ByTeotima | Released:2013-11-25 | |||
| #54 | ByThe Shaolin Afronauts | Released:2014-09-08 | |||
| #96 | ByYells At Eels | Released:2015-01-21 | |||
| #56 | ByNAÏSSAM JALAL | Released:2015-03-30 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #4 | ByKamasi Washington | Released:2015-05-04 | |||
| #84 | ByBentley | Released:2015-08-22 | |||
| #65 | ByThe Sun Ra Arkestra | Released:2015 | |||
| #91 | ByKalaparusha Maurice McIntyre | Released:2015 | |||
| #49 | ByVarious Artists | Released:2016-02-12 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #77 | ByWorld's Experience Orchestra | Released:2016-08-19 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #93 | ByILL CONSIDERED | Released:2017-08-01 | |||
| #98 | ByPalm Unit | Released:2018-04 | nu jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #88 | ByNEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM | Released:2018-06-26 | |||
| #94 | ByILL CONSIDERED | Released:2018-10-01 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #37 | ByMaisha | Released:2018-11-09 | |||
| #13 | ByThe Comet Is Coming | Released:2019-03-15 | |||
| #60 | ByAmirtha Kidambi | Released:2019-03-29 | |||
| #17 | ByIzaya Tiji | Released:2019-09-12 | |||
| #31 | ByMatana Roberts | Released:2019-10-18 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #69 | ByShake Stew | Released:2019-11-01 | |||
| #70 | ByNat Birchall | Released:2019-11-15 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #82 | ByPharoah Sanders | Released:2020-03-13 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #92 | ByMonocled Man | Released:2020-04-17 | |||
| #26 | ByTigran Hamasyan | Released:2020-08-28 | |||
| #90 | By김오키 | Released:2020 | |||
| #28 | ByILL CONSIDERED | Released:2021-11-12 | |||
| #52 | BySélène Saint-Aimé | Released:2022-03-25 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #32 | ByShabaka | Released:2022-05-20 | |||
| #55 | ByThe Pyramids | Released:2022-06-14 | |||
| #57 | ByPowers / Pulice / Rolin | Released:2023-03-03 | |||
| #72 | ByEABS meets Jaubi | Released:2023-05-12 | |||
| #75 | ByEABS & Jaubi | Released:2023-05-12 | |||
| #86 | ByBrent Cordero & Peter Kerlin | Released:2023-05-12 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #64 | ByPan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | Released:2023-06-16 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #68 | ByQuetzal Tirado Unit | Released:2023-06-16 | spiritual jazz | ||
| #59 | ByIdris Ackamoor | Released:2023-09-22 | |||
| #3 | ByAndré 3000 | Released:2023-11-17 | |||
| #81 | ByAndre 3000 | Released:2023-11-17 | new agespiritual jazz | ||
| #19 | ByShabaka | Released:2024-04-12 | |||
| #12 | ByKamasi Washington | Released:2024-05-03 | |||
| #87 | ByGoran Kajfes Tropiques | Released:2024-05-03 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #48 | ByRich Ruth | Released:2024-06-21 | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #34 | ByJaubi | Released:2024-09-01 | |||
| #27 | ByNala Sinephro | Released:2024-09-06 | |||
| #83 | ByBaikida E.J. Carroll | Released: | jazzspiritual jazz | ||
| #99 | ByIdRIS ACKAMOOR ☥ the PYRAMidS | Released: | spiritual jazz |