Crash: Candy Shop

The Canadian quintet, Crash, is still one more group made up of talented musicians, like Maceo Parker and Medeski, Martin and Wood, who are reaching out to a younger audience by bridging the gap between jazz and contemporary pop and rock music. The result is a toe tapping, shoulder shaking conglomeration of musical styles incorporating ingredients of hip hop, funk, groove into such jazz styles as swing and fusion. The composing credits on the play list are collegially assigned to the group as a whole rather than individual members probably on the basis of "united we stand divided we fall". Trappings of modern musical reproduction are employed by the basic quintet and the various guest artists, including drum loops and artificially driven instruments. But unlike many albums of this type, they are cleverly and tastefully mixed in with the basic tools of the jazz trade, horns and rhythm. The result is highly listenable tracks as a funky "Interogatif" which is heard the way it was played, no overdubs or fixin' in the mixin' and featuring the soprano sax of Cory Weeds. One of the hip hop influences is an up beat "Gananoque" buoyed along by the driving drums of Jamie Kaufmann and the Rhodes of Brad Turner. Another characteristic of this set that attracts attention is the snappy name given to each of the tunes. None of the love or romance stuff. Instead terms are adopted that likely mean something to the younger set, such as greasy and candy shop. For those who want a birds eye view on a new way to configure jazz rhythms and to hear results of the practical implementation of the adjuration "this jazz is not your grandfather's music anymore" means, this album is a good place to start. As they say, if it's inevitable, might as well enjoy it.