Spiritual Jazz 3 - Europe (Modal, Esoteric And Ethereal Jazz From The European Underground 1963-1972)

Released in 2012 by the London-based label Jazzman, this compilation serves as the third entry in their Spiritual Jazz series. The collection was curated to document the experimental and soul-searching dimensions of the European jazz scene between 1963 and 1972. During this period, musicians across Europe were moving away from traditional bebop structures to explore modal improvisation and the esoteric, often meditative textures that defined the broader spiritual jazz movement originating in the United States.

The design and curation reflect Jazzman's commitment to excavating rare and underappreciated tracks from European labels that were often buried in obscurity. By gathering these recordings, the label sought to highlight how artists from countries like Germany, France, and Italy adapted the spiritual jazz ethos into their own cultural contexts. The compilation was received by critics and collectors as a vital archival project, praised for its careful sequencing and for providing a coherent narrative to a disparate and previously inaccessible underground movement.