Space Cadet

This version of Space Cadet is from John Bickerton’s 2021 album release, Groovescapes.

Space Cadet mixes funk and hip hop influences with kaleidoscopic, spacey atmospheres to create a trippy spirit of adventure.  Trombone and electric piano and guitar are the featured instruments.

You mention Creed Taylor’s CTI jazz label as a main influence. If you had to choose only one album from the label, which one would you choose?

CTI produced records mainly through the 1970s. They issued records by established straight-ahead jazz artists like Wes Montgomery, Paul Desmond, and Chet Baker but also artists like George Benson who were beginning to incorporate soul and funk beats into a jazz context. One thing that kind of links both the straight-ahead artists and the jazz-funk artists is the use of electric piano in the recordings. You hear a jazz standard like ‘Autumn Leaves’ performed by Chet Baker but the production is more electronic/modern led by the Fender Rhodes electric piano. That’s a very ‘70s sound to me. Back then there was no radio genre called ‘smooth jazz’, the term hadn’t been invented yet but CTI was big about supporting artists interested in broadening jazz out into a more ‘radio-friendly’ sound. If I had to choose one record that’s most emblematic of CTI it would be ‘Good King Bad’ by George Benson from 1975. The first track is very melodic, very much in what would come to be known as smooth jazz, but there are also tracks where the playing is more intense and more demanding.  – Interview Secret Eclectic

Quiet Journey can be heard on this Spotify playlist.