My pleasure. It was a good way to waste time and now I get to head home in 1/2 an hour.

Verve Remixed

Actual remixes, SA. I think the AMG rating here is too low because this is pretty listenable. It kind of depends on whether you think anybody should even look at "Strange Fruit" crosseyed much less mess with it. Personally I don't think people should be reverent about remixing or doing covers. Either fuck with it seriously or leave it alone.

I think my favorite remix is probably "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" which really creates a great riff out of half a sample. Dinah Washington's voice is so big that she generally overpowers entire orchestras (I think she's a bit brassy). But she sounds better out in front of this big production.

"Spanish Grease" is good, but then the original Willie Bobo is all about the groove to start with, so that wasn't a big change. "Who Needs Forever" and "Return to Paradise" are also pretty cool. Ditto with "Summertime."

And I'm somebody with a large collection of jazz vocals and have the originals for these people. This doesn't replace the originals - the feel is very different. Chill out moody groove music.

There's also a second volume which I haven't heard: Verve Remixed 2

Personally I don't think people should be reverent about remixing or doing covers. Either fuck with it seriously or leave it alone.

How does Kenny G.'s fucking with Louis Armstrong fit into your world view?

Red Dust -- Iron & Wine

Just got one of their cds, and we love love love it.

Also, speaking of remixes and such. Does anyone know who does a sort of boyband cover of Boys in the Hood?

How does Kenny G.'s fucking with Louis Armstrong fit into your world view?

Heh. Kenny can do it, but he must also suffer the wrath of Pat Metheny.

Damn, that's a good band name: The Wrath of Pat Metheny!

I haven't heard the Verve remixes, David, so can't comment on them (and probably won't hear them, although that's a function of limited time & money, not because of a basic objection). I'm not a purist, but I'm also not interested in hearing watered down stuff. If the innovations are in the spirit of "this and this would sound really cool together" or "geez, I wonder what this and this would sound like together" then great, give it a whirl. That exploration is the music's lifeblood. But "lite jazz" or "jazz: America's classical music" drive me bonkers because it's that fucked up marketing concept of "jazz for people who don't like jazz." Which makes it most probably not jazz. The music can survive being lots of things -- blatantly commercial, pretty much unsellable, conservative, radical, lyrical, discordant -- but when it starts apologizing for itself that's the kiss of death. If the guys playing it aren't trying to convince you ("You don't think you like our music? Well, listen to this!") why bother? (I'm loath to be really didactic about it, though, because sometimes contempt for the material injects life into something that otherwise would be really lame. That element of surprise is part of the mystery of art. "That shouldn't have worked, but it did; and that should have worked, but it didn't. WTF?") Anyway, it's time for me to leave. So I'll just recommend this, Mr. Hec, Haunted Heart by Charlie Haden's Quartet West. Not remixes, not new backing tracks, but Charlie picking some of his favorites for "duets" in which the Quartet West plays an intro, maybe short, maybe expansive, that ends up blending seamlessly into the original recordings. My favorites are "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" sung by Jeri Southern, and "Deep Song" by Billie Holiday, a tune I haven't seen anywhere else, but which I think ranks with her very best. ETA: I thought about breaking this into paragraphs, but I didn't want to disappoint Misha.

So I'll just recommend this, Mr. Hec, Haunted Heart by Charlie Haden's Quartet West.

I've got that! That was a cool project.

The thing with the Verve remixes is that they smooth out the playing-with-rhythm which is an inextricable part of bop and after jazz. It's all dance beats of one kind or another. That works fine on something like "Summertime" which can survive any number of interpretations. Less defensible is the way they chopped up Carmen McRae's vocals on "How Long Has This Been Going On" - essentially undoing her timing. Tricky remaking "Strange Fruit" sounds interesting on paper - but it doesn't work as well in actual execution.

But Nina Simone's "See-Line Woman" works pretty well as a groove number.

As creative sampling, it's not nearly as interesting as something like Tipsy or Paul's Boutique or a Bomb Squad production. It definitely trends towards the loungey/chill/ambient side of the spectrum.

Damn, that's a good band name: The Wrath of Pat Metheny!

Would also make a good Yo La Tengo song title.

ETA: I thought about breaking this into paragraphs, but I didn't want to disappoint Misha

Aw, Joe! You're too good to me.

You around this weekend, btw?