November 15, 2006

Eric Dolphy, Jazzmatazz

1. To start with my own bit of blashemy, I've never thoguht Guru did a good job at all of mixing jazz and hip-hop on the Jazzmatazz albums. Few of those tracks rose above mediocre by hip-hop standards, and the "jazzy" elements were a muddle of aimless noodling over bland backbeats. It impressed me only as a testimony to Premier's genius, hearing how music suffers in his absence.

2. The Eric Dolphy thing made my head explode too, Noz, but I can understand how Horace Silver et al are better gateway drugs. I had to leave Eric and come back years later to really hear it. One side note though: calling Eric Dolphy "the clarinetist" is like saying "the rapper Pete Rock": not technically wrong but it doesn't look right.. he was equally virtuosic on alto sax, bass clarinet and flute, and rocked each regularly (with most of my favorites on the sax, just cuz it's my favorite instrument).

3. Props to XXL for putting Jalylah in the mix.. and for the record I asked her to guest blog for us way before this, so if you ever see her up in here it's not cuz we're biters.. we're just slow on the follow-through.

4. Do y'all have any other recommendations for hip-hop/jazz mixtures that worked?

Posted by jsmooth995 at November 15, 2006 6:53 PM

Comments

Does Madlib's Yesterday's New Quintet qualify?

That's about as far as I've ventured.

However, I strongly recommend Kraftwerk.

Not Jazz.

Not totally hip-hop.

But genius. From Autobahn to Minimum-Maximum to Senor Coconut (who rocked the covers).

Out.

-Black People

Posted by: Black People at November 15, 2006 6:46 PM

Salut! Tis possible that Dolphy (multi instrumentalist indeed) will grow on me but I do tend to have an aversion to freeish players...

And Breath of Life featured a jazz/hip hop hybrid by the Rebirth Brass Band feat. Soulja Slim a while back that I liked. Their link is dead but I re-uped it.

Posted by: jb at November 16, 2006 9:59 AM

Yeah I felt the same way about jazzamatazz, and even buckshot lefonque only had a couple of killer tracks on.

I think the problem is the conflict between jazz as an improvised medium and hiphop which is mostly loop based.

I got really into modern day jazz stories by brit jazz heavyweight Courtney Pine, which was definitely more jazz than hiphop, but was the closest thing to real fusion I've heard.

Posted by: jaksoul at November 16, 2006 12:43 PM

Jsmooth...I made a jazz mixcd that took me over a year and a half to put together...do you have a mailing address? I will send one copy to you...peace maddbuddha

Posted by: Paul at November 16, 2006 1:48 PM

Greg Osby + C.L. Smooth + Ali Shaheed Muhammad: "Raise"

Posted by: kami at November 16, 2006 1:48 PM

I got no problem with Guru's JazzMatazz
I still think his best work was always with DJ Premier...
classic material when they got together
www.myspace.com/cripdognyc

Posted by: Mr13 at November 16, 2006 3:51 PM

Some of DJ Logic's stuff with small jazz groups has been pretty decent.

Posted by: laze at November 16, 2006 4:35 PM

"raise" was sick

Posted by: jb at November 17, 2006 2:02 PM

Branford Marsalis's solo on "Fight The Power"

Freestyle Fellowship's "Hot"
(The Fellowship's approach to emceeing/freestyling is the closest that hip hop has come to jazz)

Mikah 9 (most everything he does is jazz-inflected; check out his comp Timetable)

Ron Carter on "Verses From The Abstract"

One of Herbie Hancock's tunes from his "Rockit" period where he inserts some be-bop tinkling; can someone help me out here?

Posted by: ozu at November 20, 2006 9:45 PM

i always thought that digable planets' second album 'blowout comb' had a unique jazz aesthetic to it it that combined both hip-hop and jazz more organically than, say, us3.

Posted by: Del at November 21, 2006 10:52 AM

NYC-based Groove Collective. They've been around for a decade or more and have a gift for fusing historically-based, hard-playing jazz with more dancable/modern sounds. I wouldn't say it's strictly hip-hop--though they've got a few forgettable rhymes via from their MC Nappy G--but as long as we're throwing around Courtney Pine, Herbie Hancock, et. al. let's mention the Collective.

It's difficult to pick one album in particular but I guess 2001's It's All In Your Mind might not be a bad place to start.

P.S. They're AMAZING live. Catch them if you can.

Posted by: nessus at November 21, 2006 2:23 PM