By Chris M. Slawecki
Sometimes, especially in the hot and humid doldrums of summer, you just get in the mood for something different. Different haircut, different beverage, different topping on your burger, different anything, just so long as it's different.
Sometimes you just want to strap on some different ears and listen to some different music too.
Verve//Remixed (Verve)
One of jazz' most revered and historic labels, Verve has lately made more serious efforts than most to bridge the cultural gap between the classic jazz and hip-hop/electronic music generations. Three years in the making, Verve//Remixed features vocal performances from their hallowed vaults -- including a "Murderers' Row" of female singers in Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, and Billie Holiday -- selected then remixed by contemporary yet cutting-edge dance and electronic music producers. Purists might decry this sort of arrangement, but at the very least it can uncover unexpected twists in familiar places.
Some remixers take more liberty than others, creating from their songs new pieces. Earlier this year, Thievery Corporation (the DJ / production duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton) compiled, upon the label's request, a collection of creamy smooth and groove-alicious tracks from its catalog called Sounds From The Verve Hi-Fi. They renew their love affair with "The Girl from Ipanema" vocalist Astrud Gilberto (begun with her breathless version of "Light My Fire" on Hi-Fi) with their swirling meditation on Gilberto's dreamy "Who Needs Forever?" De-Phazz, one of the first electronica musicians to incorporate live jazz instruments and vocals, hangs Ella's "Wait Till You See Him" out like a fluffy pink kite flowing up into a balmy breeze, its lines pinned together with classic Burt Bacharach, soft-sounding horns. This is very tasty chill, made even better by its brief "Someone to Watch Over Me" quote. (Read more about Sounds From the Verve Hi-Fi.)
Chill-out hip-hoppers Rae & Christian recreate Washington's brassy "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" as a modern dance by upping the tempo, stabbing the beat with brass as counterpoint, and polishing her unmistakable voice to a glossy, contemporarily sharp edge. It…ah…sort of sounds like Miss Shirley Bassey ripping it up with Chic and the Memphis Horns behind her, and rocks solid. "This project presented such a great challenge," said Mark Rae, "because you are dealing with the music of legends."
Brooklyn wonderboy Joe Clausell, whose production and DJ skills are legend in NYC studios and clubs, rethreads Nina Simone's uniquely blue and strong vocal on "Feelin' Good" into dramatic new cloth. Recognizing that Simone's voice stands plenty strong, dramatic and blue on its own, he doesn't try to match power for power; rather, he cradles her vocal in a smooth, softly whispered Sade backing track so the full dramatic force of Simone's voice jumps out in stark contrast.
Tricky's metallic rendering of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" buzzes and flickers like a dying overhead arc light, conjuring a sinister ambience that makes this notorious composition sound even more dark and twisted. Dzihan & Kamien, international clubhoppers from Sarajevo and Germany, respectively, give the other Holiday song, "Don't Explain," more of a club-house twist that still allows the magnificence of Lady Day to groove on through.
Verve has also released the original versions of all these songs as a companion to Remixed on a compilation called Verve//Unmixed.
Rewind!: Original Classics, Re-Worked, Remixed, Re-Edited and Rewound (Ubiquity)
Rewind! takes the concept of Remixed one step beyond with remixes, complete reconstructions, and cover versions built from the bottom up by artists on the Ubiquity label, a consistently inventive and independent group of club and studio DJs and producers, and acid-jazz, soul-jazz, trip-hop and electronica musicians.
As in a childhood game of street rules kickball, some of these "do-overs" take more liberties, and are more successful, than others. The dub-in-space version of "Billie Jean" by electronic toaster Shinehead, for example, leaves the listener scratching his head in wonder -- as in, "I wonder who thought THIS was a good idea?"
Others remixes and covers seem to work better. The internationally-renown French production group Gotan Project adds a nice Parisian touch to their remix of Chet Baker's version of Monk's "Round Midnight," called "'Round About Midnight," setting the placid chatter of sidewalk cafÃÂÃÂÃÂés, acoustic guitar and strolling accordions peacefully in the background, as Baker's trumpet softly colors the landscape like brushstrokes in pastel, and by dropping out the rhythm section almost entirely. TrÃÂÃÂÃÂés continental. UK dub-monsters Rockers Hi-Fi reconstruct Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Sunshine of Your Love" (yes, by the rock power trio featuring Eric Clapton, Cream) mainly from percussion, whistles, and Ella's whoopin' and hollerin' like a house afire Hungary-based Yonderboi ice-sculpts an understated instrumental remix of a Doors' classic retitled "Riders on the Storm / Pink Solidism," stretching out the twinkling introduction like taffy across five minutes and underpinning it with a European techno beat.
Jack "Mr. Bongo" Costanzo serves as centerpiece with two songs nicely programmed back-to-back smack dab in the middle of the set. Fusion remixer Jazztronic pours on the lighter fluid and then drops the match with his remix of Costanzo's already incendiary "Quimbara," from his acclaimed 2001 comeback album Back from Havana. Next comes Costanzo's interpretation of "Calypso Blues," co-written by Nat King Cole (and on whose original version Costanzo played bongos) -- but remixed into the modern club format by As One.
Surprisingly rootsy soul music from two jazz fusion-leaning electronica groups, Beatless and Yesterdays New Quintet, comprise the remainder of the set. Beatless thump out an honest, chunky yet funky cover version of "Hercules," written by Crescent City songwriting legend Allan Toussaint and made popular by Aaron Neville. YNQ, led by producer Madlib, swim in a warm, liquid remix of the Ohio Players "Heaven Must Be Like This," then lie cool in the tall grass under the Fender Rhodes shade in the 70s retro soul of "Daylight" (originally by Ramp).
