http://www.buzznet.com/05/beats/acidjazz/index.html
I have copied it here for all of you without web access, so I hope you like
it. To all San Franciscans who missed the Ubiquity showcase at Bimbo's
365, you missed out. DJ Greyboy ripped it up, Slide 5 was really
incredible. Their vocalist is amazing, their album is out in a couple
months, it should be a must buy.
Take it easy,
Jonathan
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[Acid Jazz: But is it Jazz? By Chad Stephenson]
Acid Jazz is going through growing pains. The pains that come with
any burgeoning genre, the time where it leaves the underground to
aspire for air time among the public, the record buyers who grace
the halls of Tower Records, Wherehouse, and Virgin Megastores.
These days are defining moments for the fresh, young genre. But
just how it will be defined and by who and whether or not it
should be categorized at all is what makes acid jazz different
from past developing scenes.
Just as hip hop was drawn into marketability by Melle Mel on
Sugarhill Records back in '79 with "The Message," by laying down
the lyrical beat "hip, hop, a hip to the hippity hip hip hop, you
don't stop," consequently one night in the late '80s in an English
club following the acid-house deejay, DJ Giles Peterson began
playing rare seventies grooves and reciting poetry over it. He
coined the term "acid jazz" as a tongue-in-cheek, but it stuck.
The style of music was varied, soul and funk interspersed with
jazz cuts was the form.
Now, as advertising purports, "acid jazz" has a niche in
the buying public. Instinct records advertises itself as
"America's leading acid jazz label," the Charlie Hunter Trio is a
current big seller for the newer, hipper, and younger sounding
giant jazz label, Blue Note. And, of course, the original Acid
Jazz recording label which was founded in 1988 by Peterson (who
has since left and moved on to create a new label, Talkin' Loud)
and his partner, Eddie Pillar, who runs the British label today,
estimates their annual sales in the millions thanks to such acts
as the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Mother Earth and the James
Taylor Quartet.
Who would have guessed at the international success of the Brand
New Heavies, US3 or even the budding public potential for
Incognito, UFO, or DeeeLite's former DJ Towa Tei outside their
respective club scene? MC Solaar, of France, made his mark in the
States on Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 followed by his own album, and
club deejay, Tricky, worked with Bj=F6rk on Post. But what is acid
jazz? And, as acid jazz is beginning to course through the veins
of pop culture, will it become a trend which fades away or will it
remain as a unique form unto itself?
Roots Music
Acid jazz has its base in tried and proven musics--soul, funk, and
R&B. At its inception during the mid-eighties in England, "rare
grooves" were the club DJ's delight. Uncovering tracks from
obscure recordings (often from the late sixties or early
seventies), Peterson would spin Boogaloo Joe Jones' "What It Is"
back to back with Charles Kynard's "Reelin' With the Feelin'" to
get the crowd dancing--making them alight to the grooves set by
wah-wah guitar, congas, a Fender Rhodes or Hammond B-3 organ, funk
bass, and slapshot drum fills. It was a deejay artform, similar to
old school hiphop--a capability to spin records and get to the
soul of the crowd, the groove. It was also a departure from
traditional "purist" jazz, that was making a comeback in America
lead by the heady, technical virtuosity of Wynton Marsalis.
Instead, acid jazz appealled to the heart and soul of the listener
as a music to make you shake your bones.
As deejays realized the power their grooves held, some moved on to
build compilation albums of old tunes they spun in clubs,
rereleasing the songs from the vaults of the recording houses,
such as Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Michael and Jodi McFadin, now
owners of underground popular acid jazz re-release label Luv 'n
Haight, as well as the parent company Ubiquity Recordings, began
their move beyond the club scene this way.
As an American deejay touring Europe with his wife, Mike saw the
scene growing each year. "Every year since '89 [when] we were
going over to Europe and deejaying, meeting these guys in
Holland--a deejay from England, a deejay from Amsterdam, a deejay
from Germany--every year we'd say, 'Next year it's going to be
big.' And the following year when we'd meet it was two or three
times bigger than we thought."
They released Luv 'n Haight's Bag of Goodies in the late eighties
to much acclaim. The liner notes by Bill Shannon reveal the
newfound potential of compiling rare grooves; noting its power as
the "first essential collection of retrospective independent funk
rekindled by Luv 'n Haight hit the streets," he writes "those of
us who had spent many hours and pennies seeking out the original
copies of those tracks thought it was a great release of appeal to
a dedicated but limited bunch of vinyl junkies."
'Limited' became the operative word as the acid jazz began taking
off as a genre in the late eighties and early nineties. Mike
McFadin says the label has changed to meet new needs, but "trend"
is a word he doesn't agree with. He feels acid jazz is similar to
hip-hop in that acid jazz has roots in true musical forms and
those proven styles it relies on are what will keep it alive and
growing.
McFadin's company & Ubiquity have been built on the homegrown
philosophy of word-of-mouth being the best promoter. "Through
notoriety, we're going through a change," he says proudly. "We're
just now going from a small company to a mid-size independent
label. We're cutting loose with most of the compilations and we're
recording full length albums with groups." He sees the move toward
live music as a natural progression.
Live Evil
Group development around acid jazz as a style has come from the
musician in the listening public, many who grew up on acid jazz
rare grooves now want to create their own path into the new genre.
Such is San Diego's Greyboy Allstars, who count older jazz
musicians in their influences as much as current rap artists.
"It started with A Tribe Called Quest," says Zack Najor, drummer
for the Allstars, "when they kept saying 'jazz' over and over [on
Low End Theory]" He goes on to make references to Public Enemy
("Terminator X has the baddest drum samples") to session drummer
Steve Gadd, all in the same conversation. Bassist Chris Stillwell
cites Herbie Hancock as his main influence while saxophonist Carl
Danson mentions Grant Green as one of his. Stillwell says the
group is constantly introduced to music by DJ Greyboy, a veteran
vinyl collector.
Stranger still, the group mentions nuances to the crowd who likes
acid jazz. In San Francisco, it's the hipsters. In San Diego, the
local bars host the college crowd. And lately they've been playing
snowboarding festivals.
"They're really into our stuff," says saxophonist Karl Densen.
"We've even had our stuff played in videos," referring to both
professional promotions videos and amateur ones boarders, both of
snow and skate, make to show their skills.
Previous late eighties' and nineties' commercial releases affected
the general public, though to a limited extent. On the smooth side
was A Tribe Called Quest who featured deep groove bassist, Ron
Carter, on the track "Jazz." Carter's career moved on to help him
become a producer for funk induced pop-movie soundtracks. Miles
Davis recorded his last album, Doo Bop in 1991 with rapper/hip hop
producer Easy-Moe-Bee; Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 featured more than
ten veteran jazz artists such as Branford Marsalis, Donald Byrd,
and Courtney Pine and even began N'Dea Davenport's association
with Brand New Heavies; and, of course, Digable Planets who have
captured the fire of drummer Art Blakey's fills and Sonny Rollins'
sax while verbally connecting the dots to the past masters saying,
"wondrin' what would 'trane say? wondrin' what would my pop say?
Buggin' off the calmness in the Apple."
DJ Andrew, AKA Andrew Jervis, is the editor of On The
One, a magazine devoted to the development of jazz in
its new multifaceted aspects. He notes that, at its roots, DJs are
an integral part of the acid jazz music and that his new project,
Better Daze, which will have a four track EP out on Ubiquity in
the fall, is a collaboration with musician Paul Scriver of
Neomythic.
"The DJ is always going to be important," he says. "There's always
going to be dance clubs...where people want to hear continuous
music all night. It's them who can push a scene, play independent
label music that you're not going to hear on the radio or on TV.
But the DJs have to take risks, it's all a bit safe. Being a DJ
isn't just about matching the BPMs."
Acid jazz and rocksteady deejay, DJ Cool Chris, agrees, and cites
the influence of playlists, lists of top records deejays favor,
which can be found in scene magazines like On the One, Straight No
Chaser, StepJazz , and Soul Power. "DJ playlists tell you what's
happening, where the hot sounds are," he says. They keep the scene
fresh, show the readers where the underground is and project where
it may be going.
Up from the Underground
For those not in an urban environment, the likelihood of hearing
acid jazz in a club is, for lack of a better word, a "remote"
chance. Radio and television are the main sources for the majority
of record-buying America, and the recording business knows this
better than anyone else. John White, product manager of Instinct
Records, says that putting bands on the road has made a difference
in sales of an album. Touring for a live acid jazz band is
essential to their recording success, at least until commercial
radio stations pick up on the scene. He explains that "the scene
is going to have to change. People are going to have to know what
they are going to buy" if acid jazz is to make a commercial impact
on the buying public.
White believes the acid jazz scene will move toward radio to grow,
and he plans on that market of twenty- to thirty-year olds who
listen to adult contemporary to buy into the acid jazz record
market.
"[The group] Count Basic [had] a number one adult contemporary
hit," he says. "The reason our New Voices record is selling is
because it had radio-play. Radio-play is very important. Moonshine
[an acid jazz/dance label] has a full time radio person to promote
it [for them]."
It's duely noted, however, that America's radio music of
choice is mainly based on guitar. Guitar rock that has
stemmed from Zeppelin and Hendrix back through the British
invasion to Elvis and Bill Haley and is rooted to the bluesmen of
Mississippi is deeply rooted in the heart of the buying public.
It's what sells today--from Neil Young and Pearl Jam to Hole. It's
what acid jazz fights against. It's also what jazz, itself, in all
forms is fighting against. But as White sees it, "It's sad but
true. There's far too many people out there that if there's not a
guitar in music they just couldn't fathom listening to it, despite
the fact that it could be interesting. I think sales are going to
grow as the music becomes [more and more] live."
One Nation Under a Groove
"It can even be a track off a Liza Minelli album," says Mike
McFadin, "if it has the groove."
But what exactly is it? As it exists now, acid jazz falls under
nearly every category. As one writer put it, "it mixes samba,
bossa nova, even calypso and rumba into jazz. In a way, Tito
Puente might even be considered acid jazz." It crosses genres,
perhaps several times in one song. But the one thing--it
seems--that holds it together, that must be evoked to separate it
as a tried-and-true genre is "groove." It must make you want to
get up a groove. Can you explain that with a category?
What it offers it offers for musicians is the ability to bridge
the gap between themselves and the audience, perhaps what Miles
Davis was trying to do when Bitches' Brew redefined jazz by saying
that jazz musicians can play to an audience for appeal, to welcome
them into jazz by way of rock music. Acid jazz, in nineties style,
also offers the chance for musicians to meld with DJ's, to form a
coalition between live and recorded music the way hip hop has
attempted, though unsucessfully, in its past.
Where the boundaries lie is still open and is exactly what makes
the scene so appealing. McFadin will introduce a new label, CuBop,
in the fall featuring latin-jazz ensembles; Andrew Jervis cites
jungle (bass and rhythm influenced music) and so-called "trip hop"
(deep space grooves) as branches from the acid jazz tree that have
just sprouted and continue developing; not to mention deejays who
continue to weave a more complex tapestry with effects like
multi-layering records on turntables to create an alloy of beats
and rhythms, a virtual "groove synthesis."
The question still arises, as Adam Sutherland writes on the liner
notes for Sol--The Essential Music, a Luv 'n Haight record: "What
is jazz in the 90's?" Fortunately, he provides an answer which
encapsulates the enigma that is acid jazz.
"Today's jazz musicians are still open to the past, but now
they're just as likely to check Chaka Khan as John Coltrane.
Nineties jazz isn't post straight-ahead or retro bop," he notes,
"it mixes eras, ideas, feelings..."
what else?
"...and grooves."
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article: Chad Stephenson
photography: Peter Ellenby
markup/design: ISS & Marc Brown.
all album art and music samples courtesy of the fine record labels
mentioned in this story