It’s All Jazz

In a world filled with samples, it’s strange that Jazz hasn’t appeared more often in the creations of DJs and hip-hop beat wizards. But here’s 7 Jazz-Sampling songs (in no particular order) that you should own or at least know.

1. The Garden- Cut Chemist: This song borrows vocals from Astrud Gilberto’s Berimbau and uses the same string samples as another favorite tune of mine, Goldrush by The Herbaliser.

2. Convolutions- Freestyle Fellowship: This 46 second interlude is a freestyle over a sped-up and slightly inverted version of Miles Davis’ So What.

3. The Gentle Rain (RJD2 Remix)- Astrud Gilberto: This remix of a bossa song also includes an inverted piano sample from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger’s Dat Dere.

4. Splattiorium-Pharcyde: This rap’s background is Vince Guaraldi’s Fly Me to the Moon with a hiphop beat.

5. Rodney Yates- David Holmes: Remember that killer electronic bossa from the beginning of Ocean’s 11? Well that groove came from Chico Hamilton’s MSP. Just take a listen!

6. Kraftworks- The UMC’s: This trippy, bouncy old-style hiphop track features Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder as its beat.

7. Down The Line- Nice & Smooth: the “A Night In Tunisia” bassline. Need I say more?

So that’s that. Hope you found some grooves you really like.

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)