It’s All Jazz

First and FOREMOST,

I have discovered the greatest drum solo ever. In fact, the greatest anything solo ever! Ladies and Gentlemen,

(the original video was of Mostly Other People Do The Killing playing A Night in Tunisia live.)

No, I promise not to Rick Roll you. And by the way, if you’ve ever seen those videos of people redoing songs in Mario Paint, then check this out: (stupid video of Rick Roll in Mario Paint)

But seriously, how could Bird be such a genius if he didn’t incorporate puppet shows into his solos? ;p .

Umm…. with all seriousness, MOPDtK (Mostly Other People Do the Killing, for those of you who didn’t watch the solo, and you should’ve), anyways, they have a new album, Shamokin!!!, which is absolutely amazing. It’s charismatic and crazy and full of shenanigans that they only have time for because OTHER people are doing the killing for them. What a time-saver!

The melodies are catchy, the harmonies are post-bop genious, and the solos are pure insanity.

So since I don’t have more time or a thesauraus to elaborate, that’s all for now.

G’nite.

OK, the first topic for the day is Jazz Reviews.

The second topic is a new Miles Davis EP I bought entitled Evolution of the Groove. It features 5 tracks, the first of which is a previously unreleased outtake of Freddie the Freeloader back when it had no title. The outtake has some great dialogue between Miles and Teo Macero and the tune itself has some killer 16th note basslines and vocals from Miles. Totally nuts.

Next you have two guest artist remixes. The rapper Nas appears on a remix of Freedom Jazz Dance, and Santana performs on It’s About That Time. Believe it or not, Nas is the better pick. Santana’s lines sounds forced and more of a marketing scheme then a musical choice.

Finally there are two short remixes of Honky Tonk and Black Satin. If any songs ever, these don’t need remixing. They’re pure groove. Honky Tonk of course comes from Get Up With It and Black Satin from the legendary On The Corner. The Honky Tonk remix adds a new drum beat and some atmospheric whole notes on bass. Also added is a long distorted guitar solo. Black Satin starts with the same intro and moves to a more rock-ish version with plenty of synthesizer and distortion.

All in all, it’s not a bad album, but it certainly could use work. Luckily it only cost me $2 at the Princeton Record Exchange (PREX, an amazing place btw). So for the price, it wasn’t a bad buy.

Finally on my list is Kid Koala. Koala is a turntablist signed with Ninja Tune records. He frequently incorporates jazz into his work, notably covering Basin Street Blues. So take a listen. Anyways, the reason I put him on here is because he does an absolutely beautiful version of Moon River that puts me in tears. Have a listen: (editor’s note: Video down. Feel free to search on YouTube)