When I heared that Erikah Badu was on the top of the R&B charts with On
And On I was pretty surprised, I've heared what I believe to be much more
commercial radio AJ friendly stuff get passed over. I think that the
differences are that
a) Universal has made Baduizm a priority record which
in turn has an effect on R&B radio programmers and
b)that she's incorporated a jazzy element with the current pop R&B flav
*and* retro soul/R&B style (ie. the 'Lucky Fellow' sample in 'No Love').
Its been said before that who knows how much larger someone like Incognito
would be in the U.S. if they were categorized as R&B rather than acid
jazz.
As for it being a foot in the door for acid jazz I'd say yes and no. Yes
in that her market appeal crosses over to acid jazz like say Sade
does but won't be recognized as 'acid jazz' by the market. The crowd at
her show here a couple days back were more R&B. The Roots are
hip hop artists that are generally liked by this list and have
collaborated with jazz(y) artists but are filed under hip hop. If it draws
even a few people closer to differnt vibes, shows them what good music
*can* be and what they've been missing then mo' powa!
Emani's mention of music industry folks running from 'jazz' reminds me of
an interview I recently read with Kool Kieth: '
KK> 'Jazz never went gold. Its like those groups flopped too. Its like why
would you sample something that already flopped?'
I'd say maybe to create something interesting...'interesting' and 'art'
don't fill pockets with loot though and thats why they run.
Carlos
> Also I was curious if you think Erykah Badu is a foot in the door for
> "acid-jazz" in the mainstream, in my opinion that is a yes. Also you should
> check out the Sweetback cd, it is Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale, and Paul S.
> Denman of SADE. Another Good cd worth checking out is Mushroom Jazz mixed by
> DJ Mark Farina on OM Records.
> Take Care and Groove on.
> Peace, JR Natural.
>