any Hip Hop - Jazz - Fusion recommends?
milliondollars
568 Posts
i am wondering if there are any other good hip hop jazz fusion projects besides:JazzmatazzJustice Systemthe other one i know is Greg Osby 3-d Lifestyles which is OK but not really good...do you know any other nice LP's or 12" ???please, i need help...
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oh, i never paid attention to this one...thanks!
And Yesterdays New Quintet is okay.
The Courtney Pine efforts don't have any rapping, but have a whole bunch of scratching from DJ Pogo all over them. A better bet is Steve Williamson's "Journey to Truth" which has the Roots on it. The Pfffat Time track is the standout. It's on Verve IIRC. 1994?
I assume we are bypassing Miles and Herbie's efforts? Good.
I had a set from "Directions In Groove" somewhere - The were Oz kids IIRC. Good set.
and there's another pretty popular band from the 90s that had musicians playing hip hop music. what was their name? i forgot. see their records from time to time. not totally bad! ;-)
and my favorite:
Coup de Tat had some nice jazzy cuts that sound like they were backed by a live band.
Jumpworld has Hip Hop elements? I lost the cd, but i dont recall any Hip Hop.
The M.B.A.S.E. style does sprinkle some Hip Hop in there sometimes,but i wouldnt place that shit next to the 50/50 fusions.
I dont think the "genre" has any successful full length examples.
I cant listen to Jazzmatazz str8 thru anymore.
YNQ is probably the exception for me.
try some RH Factor - Hard Groove
Don Byron's - Nu Blaxploitation....but its the ususal stop/start mc style that weakens most Jaz Rap. Its really just one song w/ the Biz freestylin over improv shit. The rest is some spoked word trash over improv.
Both songs are excellent.
and also in the same vein but not quite as good
and as far as acid jazz goes I really dig this comp
Sure it does. It has a rap in there. And some scratching. Are we ticking the boxes?
I could write more, but someone else already has. You can skip the comic book bits if you want.
"Cassandra Wilson's fourth album Jumpworld (JMT 919 033-2) tackles the future even more emphatically than her first two productions Point of View (JMT 919 004-2) and Days Aweigh (JMT 919 012-2) which earned her the reputation as most promising heiress to the classic tradition of jazz singing.
Jumpworld was inspired by a science fiction-comic story of the same title, authored by Cassandra's husband Bruce Lincoln, a multimedia artist. The story goes like this.
Jumpworld is a planetary dimension or a dimensional planet. Jumpworld lies outside the space-time jurisdiction of the Grand System Masters, the G-masters. The G-masters on their homeworld of Ungain, have for time immemorial enslaved the race of cerebral mutants called Freak Thinkers. With the Dreamsapper, the G-masters harness the creative energy of the Freak Thinkers, using it to fuel their ultratechnological multi-galactic empire. The G-masters have literally taken over an area of the universe and made it into their own dimension where they dictate the rules of physics.
The most dangerous of the Freak Thinkers is Darvis Joval. Moreover, he is the sole outthoughtsman. Darvis Joval has the ability to think himself into the other reality that lies outside the Grand system and trigger Domination-Switch. This latter eventuality, however, is unknown to Joval on that fateful day he happpens to escape the Grand System, only to wind up in Jumpworld! Especially since the G-masters still hold captive Zoruun, Darvis' lover. Also unknown to Darvis Joval, he is the shiftmover of long forgotten Freak Thinker legend, bringing on Domination Switch. The end of the Grand System!
In a way that is characteristic for Afro-American storytelling, this story combines playfulness and seriousness, entertainment and social probing. Originally, jazz also had a dual function for Black people as entertainment and instrument of self-definition. The latter aspect, however, was getting more and more lost from view. It is time now, Cassandra Wilson finds, for jazz to reemerge from the museum and the ivory tower. For "our music is alive. It's part of us. It's more than just music."
Cassandra Wilson frees jazz from the corset of History by 'crossbreeding' it with elements of popular music. The New York Times described the original compositions in her repertoire as "Art Songs In Popular Context" and wrote: "Ms. Wilson latches on to the power of pop - good melodies, an assortment of rhythms and dance beats, songs and electronics - without sacrificing any of jazz??improvisational power. Without condescension, she makes an intelligent attempt to cultivate, by taking the best from both forms, an audience that reaches beyond the limits of each idiom."
This is exactly what Jumpworld is also striving to do. The original pieces on Point of View and Days Aweigh exhibited pop, r&b and reggae influences; the popular sources that Jumpworld draws on are primarily pop ballads and funky music. And hip hop. Jumpworld for example, the center track of the album, fuses jazz and hip hop, the technically advanced and presently most outspoken form of Black music, in a highly original fashion.
Some of the lyrics on Jumpworld are hardly less straightforward than what some of the hip hop heroes have to say (Domination Switch, Lies). Others emphasize science fiction elements (Love Phases Dimensions, Dream Time, Whirlwind Soldier). And Jumpworld is both about politics and fantasy. The relation of Cassandra Wilson's lyrics to the original story is fairly loose. She approaches the plot from the woman's perspective. In the beginning the Woman On The Edge wanders fearlessly through inhospitable streets, in spirit already off to a better world. Before she is reunited with her Whirlwind Soldier and sets out for Jumpworld, where " we live in harmony and we all are family", she takes the Grand Masters severely to task and warns "Domination Switch is On".
If one looks at how Jumpworld came to happen, it seems that 'utopian conditions' ?? la Jumpworld, the planet where creativity and communal thinking reign, have to a certain degree become reality. Jumpworld is the fruit of close interation between writer, lyricist/singer/composer and instrumentalists/composers. Steve Coleman, as and Graham Haynes, tp, Cassandra Wilson's long-time collaborators, have contributed to Jumpworld both as instrumentalists and composers. The members of Wilson's trio, Rod Williams, keyb, Kevin bruce Harris, b, and Mark Johnson, b, as well as guitarist David Gilmore, too co-wrote a few tracks. Hip hop artists Kirth Atkins and James Moore played a substantial role in creating the title track, Jumpworld. Further instrumentalists to be heard on Jumpworld are Gary Thomas, ts, Greg Osby, as, Lonnie Plaxico, b, and Robin Eubanks, tb, who also work often with Cassandra Wilson.
Cassandra Wilson: "Jumpworld is an occasion for me and my contemporaries to come together and tap into our collective memories and imaginations so that we might create another dimension of music."
Im not reading all that. I still have the cd jacket. '89 is BackPack dude, but i wouldnt lump her into that either. Im gonna re-cop today.
I have most of her output from those early Brooklyn/Steve Coleman days.
Coleman did try to incorporate Hip Hop w/ his own group so i could see JumpWorld being similar. BUt her other stuff is just str8 Mbase steez.
Listened to this when it was released in the early 90's, I remember the MC Line-up was solid.
I suppose anything after Herc must be
yeah that's what i have. Did u ever see these on wax?
There's one on GEMM. $83.81 if you must...
This project, which was recently released in Japan, features jazz funk organ work from Lyman Woodard, jazz guitar from Ron English, R&B Rhodes work from Skip "Van Winkle" Knape and other Detroit musicians of yesteryear.
If this seems remotely interesting, PM me and I can possibly shoot you a promo copy.