Essential Jazz Playlist for Modern Dancers

The Pulse & The Flow

An essential jazz playlist curated for the modern dancer's body, mind, and creative spirit. Find your rhythm, break your patterns.

Forget the sterile practice room playlists. The relationship between jazz and dance is primal, a conversation of call and response, tension and release. Modern dance today isn't just about steps; it's about texture, intention, and raw expression.

This playlist is built not by era, but by kinesthetic quality. Each track is a world to inhabit, a partner to dance with. Listen for the space between the notes, the grit in the saxophone, the heartbeat of the bass. Let it move through you.

Footprints

Wayne Shorter

1966 • Modal 6:52

A wandering, hypnotic bassline over a 3/4 pulse that feels like a journey. Perfect for sustained, weighted movement and floor work. Explore spirals, falls, and rebounds against its resilient structure.

Try: Let the bass line dictate your level changes. Each repetition is a chance to deepen into the motif.

Compared to What

Les McCann & Eddie Harris

1969 • Soul-Jazz 8:55

Raw, political, and dripping with gritty funk. This is percussive and grounded energy. Use it for sharp isolations, contractions, and social commentary in movement. The vocals are a script.

Try: Isolate body parts to different instruments: head to the piano, ribs to the sax, feet to the drums.

The Creator Has a Master Plan

Pharoah Sanders

1969 • Spiritual Jazz 32:47

A transcendent epic of chaos and peace. Build from stillness to ecstatic, full-bodied release. The journey from whispered lyricism to screaming saxophone is a full-arc improvisational score.

Try: Dedicate the first 10 minutes to breath-initiated movement. Let the energy accumulate until it *must* explode.

E.S.P.

Miles Davis

1965 • Post-Bop 5:31

Complex, interlocking melodies that feel like a sonic puzzle. Ideal for partner or group work. Dance the conversation between instruments—answer a trumpet phrase with a limb, mirror a piano run with a quick foot pattern.

Try: In duets, one dancer leads with the melody line, the other with the rhythm section, then switch.

Black Focus

Yussef Kamaal

2016 • Future Jazz 5:14

21st-century broken beats meet hypnotic keys and bass. This is urban, syncopated, and cool. Explore quick directional shifts, pauses in the groove, and a feeling of effortless flow over complexity.

Try: Hit the "skip" in the beat with a sharp head or wrist flick, then flow through the subsequent groove.

Song for My Father

Horace Silver

1964 • Hard Bop 7:18

An iconic, soulful piano riff that's both nostalgic and driving. Its Latin-tinged swing is perfect for weight transfers, turns, and joyous, expansive movement. Play with momentum.

Try: Use the piano comping (the chords) to initiate a turn sequence, landing squarely on the bass walk.