• AllMyVinyl #146 – 147
• Band: Jazz Sabbath
• Album Title: Jazz Sabbath, Jazz Sabbath II
• Release Date: 10 Apr 2020, 22 Apr 2022
• Date purchased: N/A
• Location purchased: Got them comped from record label
• Color of vinyl: Black (#1), translucent orange (#2)
• Number of discs: 1 each (2  total)
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs (1 / 2) | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube (1 / 2) ]

Make no mistake.  If you don’t like jazz, you won’t like these albums.  But perhaps you should try?

Adam Wakeman is a keyboardist who has had some pretty famous gigs.  He certainly has a famous surname, but he’s far more than just the son of someone else with the same name.  Adam has played with both Ozzy & Black Sabbath for many years.  In Sabbath, he took over for Geoff Nicholls, and in Ozzy’s band he played live keys for a good number of years and was on the Scream album.  For Sabbath he was on the final “The End” live album.  But he’s also known as being a band member in the band Snakecharmer whose first album is a fucking masterpiece and should be owned by everyone.

But today I’m here to talk about his most famous other project, Jazz Sabbath.  It’s a Jazz trio led by Adam, but they solely perform Black Sabbath covers.  But as jazz songs.  No vocals, no nothing.  Just jazz covers.  But it’s not technically Adam.  You see the entire Jazz Sabbath project is a fictional thing.  Adam plays the part of Milton Keanes, and according to the fictional story, Jazz Sabbath is the band that wrote all the songs from the first several Black Sabbath albums and “that other band” stole them all.  It’s a funny bit.  Especially with some of the promo videos where Adam’s Milton character basically is an old man shouting at a cloud when talking about the albums.

While the concept is a bit of a joke, the music most certainly is not.  It’s some good jazz music, and just happens to be based around Black Sabbath tunes.  I would have loved to have been there when Adam proposed this to the Sabbath guys, as he was playing keys for them, and had to have asked them – I could easily see Ozzy having that furrowed brow going “What the fuck are you talking about mate?” hahaha.

But seriously, it’s good tunes, and if you like Jazz and Black Sabbath at all, you should check these out.  There’s been three albums released (in the real word, not the fictional story) this way.  All three of them are basically the same thing.  Instrumental jazz covers of Black Sabbath songs, and as such I decided to write about all three on one page.  I think this format will work well for the three of them.  Everything’s listed below.

It’s no secret I’ve been doing a Black Sabbath fan website for a few decades now, and I hate tooting my own horn, but I have to a little here.  The reason is said website has gotten me the attention of several band members, one of which is Adam Wakeman.  That has afforded me backstage access, and I’ve met Adam several times – once watching an entire Sabbath show from his keyboard vantage point offstage (Ozzfest 2005).  We chat semi regularly, and because of this, Adam put me in touch with his label promotion, and they hooked me up with all three of the albums on vinyl (plus CD and cassette as well). I didn’t buy them, but you should. They’re great stuff.

Jazz Sabbath I:

1. Fairies Wear Boots – A bit of a faster pace that the original song, nice keyboards here, makes me wonder what the original would sound like with them.
2. Evil Woman – This one changes the song a bit, the original isn’t AS recognizable as some of the other covers.  Nice bit of jazz here just the same.  Just that I don’t hear the original too much here.
3. Rat Salad – First off this has piano which the original doesn’t.  I kind of like this.  Bill’s drumming on the original is what makes that, but I like the upbeat tone to this despite Bill’s big drum stuff being mostly in the background here.
4. Iron Man – This one is a much slower version of the riffing we know from the Sabbath original.  It’s just Adam and a piano, at least until about 2/3 of the way through when the rest of the band joins the party.  Cool interpretation of a Sabbath classic – really like what was done here.
5. Hand of Doom – The original Hand of Doom has one of the biggest low end heavy ass riffs ever, and this is nothing like that.  The bass is a bit more focused on this track, but this is another where for my ears the original doesn’t shine through a ton.  Still love this song, however.
6. Changes – This song was already slow to begin with, so it fits the jazz mold easier than most – at least to my ears.  In fact after listening to it, I’d say it’s the closest to any of the tracks to the Sabbath original. So much so I can hear Oz’s vocals in my head with this tune.
7. Children of the Grave – Adam changes around the main guitar riff from this song to something a bit more upbeat than the original.  You can still hear the original in there, but it’s been expanded on.  Quite like what he did with the piano on this one.  Also musically ends the album well – love the closing note at the end.

Jazz Sabbath II:

My copy of Jazz Sabbath II appears to be a limited print run, presumably of the translucent orange vinyl.  It says there’s 999 copies of it, and mine is #436.   The piece of paper inside which has this number on it also has some artwork on the other side which almost seems like it belonged on an actual Sabbath album somewhere.  Picture is below.  :)

1. Paranoid – This is one of the track that expands a bunch on the original. Given the time difference (7:58 vs 2:50 for the original), this shouldn’t be a surprise.  The first two minutes are a slow keyboard piece until they get to roughly where the original track ends, and we get a 5 min jazz jam based around the primary riff of the song, which was nice.
2. Snowblind – One of two Sabs originals I don’t care for, but this one is different enough from the original that I really enjoyed it – better than the original I’d say.  Good blues jam – only could have used a few shots of whisky to make it even better.  :)
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep – Another one that sounds more original than the Sabbath version, which is fine with me, I’m enjoying the hell of Adam’s jazz noodling.  How authentic they are to the Sabbath original isn’t a major concern to me, but when those bits pop in, it’s great stuff.
4. Sabbra Cadabra – This one brings out the drums a bit more at the start, and almost instantly I realized how well the main riff from this song works itself to piano.  This is excellent stuff, might be my favorite one on the album!
5. Symptom of the Universe – This starts off with a slow keyboard sound which belies the heavy as fuck OG guitar riffage.  In fact, the heaviness of the original is mostly lost here as it’s a slower piano piece.  Sounds great, but doesn’t sound a lot like the original.
6. NIB – One of the better covers, mixes the original sound (which survives here strongly) with a few more minutes of really enjoyable jazz riffing.  I especially liked what Adam did with the slower part in the middle of the original.  REALLY great stuff.
7. Black Sabbath – Didn’t care for this one, sounded too different to the original for my ears.  Liked the jazz for the 5:56 it’s on, but not really as the song “Black Sabbath”.  Except for the end.  The absolute end of this sounded exactly like the Sabbath original.

Jazz Sabbath The 1968 Tapes

When I was starting this page for all three of them, I 100% forgot that I already did an entry earlier in the series about just “The 1968 Tapes”. I had originally constructed the page with the framework of doing all three on one, which is why some of the language might give that way.  If you want to read more about this third one, you can do so here, but I’ll still cover this one here like I did all the others as I constructed the page that way. :)

1. Into the Void – I wouldn’t think the heavy ass guitar work by Iommi & Butler would translate to piano terribly well, but this does.  I mean it doesn’t have that “heavier than gravity” guitar sound, but the riff is very familiar.  I love the speeding up Adam does here in the middle part of the original with “Find another world where freedom waits, yeah”.  Great stuff.
2. Spiral Architect – This is the longest on this album at 8:01.  The original is shorter than that, so we’re getting a lot of jamming I’d wager. :)  It starts off with a really moody sounding slow keyboard intro.  When the main part of the original song kicks in, the rest of the jazz band does here. This song is a bit slower than the original, and oddly the main piano riff in this version sounds like something my ears are saying “Didn’t you hear that on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood?”  I know that’s not intentional, but my stupid brain appears to be getting int he way of enjoy this one today.  Picks up with a fast jam the last two minutes.
3. Warning – Nice even more upbeat sound than usual in this one at times.  The back end of this cover has a weird synth keyboard sound to it like it wouldn’t be out of place in something like Planet Caravan.
4. The Wizard – I do love what Adam did with the harmonica sound from the original.  Nice strong bass run here – not sure if mixed higher than usual, or they’re just featuring it more here.
5. Electric Funeral – The main EF riff translates well to the piano, and it’s a very simple piano sound playing with some bass noodling in the background.  There’s a sax that comes in later, too.  Sometimes simple is the best.  Enjoyed this.
6. Supernaut – Faster paced cover that falls under the “doesn’t sound a ton like the original to me”.  I was wondering what they’d do with this one.  Has more electric guitar in it than the majority of JS songs do, plus a synth solo in the middle – definitely the most experimental Jazz Sabbath song.
7. War Pigs – My favorite of the “overplayed early Sabbath tracks”, so I was really hoping the original would come through here.  It does here.  There’s enough of the original to make it sound like it yet Adam does enough new so it doesn’t sound like “War Pigs”.. Oh lord Yeah!

The third album also has a bonus track that’s not on the vinyl.  That’s Hole in the Sky.  I can’t seem to find that on Youtube itself, but the album preview video for The 1968 Tapes below has a snippet of it.

I hit all three Jazz Sabbath albums in a row today – back to back to back.  Quite enjoyed that.  While not every song sounds identical to the Sabbath original, I do like jazz, so it was quite enjoyable whether they did or not.   If you like both Jazz and Sabbath, then these albums are right up your alley.  Check ’em out at the purchase link above, which goes to Basecamp where the albums can all be ordered.

When the third album came out I reached out to Adam and said if there is a Jazz Sabbath IV, they need to call it Snowblind.  The reason is that’s what Sabbath wanted to call Volume 4 but was prevented from doing so by the record label.  I thought that would be bloody hilarious.