ABSTRACT
The blues has often been linked to early psychedelic music. But jazz also has significant connections to early psychedelic music. Members of four West Coast bands associated with early psychedelic music have repeatedly professed their admiration of jazz: Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby of the Byrds, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore of the Doors and Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Coincidentally, these psychedelic musicians largely praise the same two jazz musicians: Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The chapter discusses the connections between jazz and early West Coast psychedelic music using interviews and autobiographies, including references to recordings influential to these psychedelic musicians, including Davis’ Kind of Blue (1959) and Sketches of Spain (1960), plus Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things”, “Olé”, “Africa”, “Chasin’ the Trane”, “India” (all 1961) and “Tunji” (1962).
