Origins of AJ

Dwyer (bdwyer@grove.ufl.edu)
Thu, 23 Jul 98 00:41:59 -0500

Feeling particularly stressed out at a busy time of moving and trying to
wrap up lots of whiplashing loose ends, I put on a recent acquisition
from the used bins, "Freedom Principle: Acid Jazz & Other Illicit
Grooves." Result: Spirits uplifted, ready to tackle the mess. My question
is this: Was this the first "official" acid jazz release? In other words,
was it the first to use that term? Gilles Peterson, who co-produced this
album, isn't given credit for the term in the notes written by Paul
Bradshaw of Straight No Chaser magazine. He acknowledged Peterson as one
who "began to carve his own response to the burgeoning House scene,
exploring a dangerous collision of musics that spanned the massed
percussion of the Brazilian samba schools, Seventies free jazz, gritty
organ grooves, and splashes of Jazz-oetry. A heady brew that _someone_
christened Acid Jazz."

The CD has a 1989 Polydor copyright and I had passed it up for months
when it was priced at $9, but grabbed it at $5. If I had bothered to
listen, I would have gladly paid the $9 earlier. This is great stuff.
Happy, friendly jazzy, uptempo fun. Of course it sounds somewhat raw when
compared to more recent stuff, but still great. The inside cover has a
group photo of Simon Clarke, Phil Bent, Tim Sanders, Steve White, Alan
Barnes, Cleveland Watkiss, James Taylor, Snowboy, Simon Booth (the other
co-producer), Steve Williamson, Dave Toop, Paul Reid, Julian Joseph,
Orphy Robinson, Gilles Peterson, and Jason Rebello. There are the obvious
ones associated with AJ in this lineup but what of those others? Phil
Bent did some nice AJ-sounding stuff on his album, The Pressure, but much
of it is jazz fusion. Has he produced anything since?

Track listing:

Dave Toop (w/Robinson and Bent): Black Dahlia
Cleveland Watkiss: Spend Some Time
The Jason Rebello Trio: The Shrimp
Slow Fuse (Clarke, Lorimer, Sanders): Slow Fuse
Snowboy: Snowboy's House of Latin
The Jazz Renegades (White, Barnes, and others): Mother of the Future
Steve Williamson Band (w/Joseph): Words Within Words
James Taylor Quartet (w/Williamson, White, and others): Down by the River
Kick Horns (Sanders, Clarke, Lorimer, others): Low and Lazy, High and Crazy