It seems like the term "acid jazz" has much less to do with specific
stylistic or generic characteristics (specific tempo, certain melodic
gestures or inflections, a defining groove) than it has to do with a
specific attitude towards music making -- or, more accurately, towards
presenting music. In his INCredible Sounds Of... mix CD, Gilles Peterson
has 4hero's Nuyorican Soul remix back
to back with two boogaloo funky jazz tracks from the 60s, which are in
turn immediately followed by a Tribe Called Quest tune based on a Lou
Donaldson sample; certainly none of these artists never saw themselves as
"acid jazz" musicians, but the presentation of these things together
brings out certain qualities they have in common: they all have a certain
ebuliant warmth to their sound, they're all tracks in which groove is
always as important as -- yet not at the expense of -- melodic lyricism,
and so on. In fact, the sheer diversity of even these four tracks -- drum
and bass, 60s soul jazz, jazz-rap -- even gives a kind of coherence,
because Peterson celebrates ecclecticism and diversity in jazz, thus
separating acid-jazz from the kind of fusty purist mentality that would
denounce any music that had come within fifty yards of an electric bass,
let alone a sampler. So acid-jazz, the way I see it, is not so much about
defining a sub-section of jazz, or of dance music, as it is about opening
up the whole scope of what we mean when we say "jazz" or "dance music."
I'll shut up now.
Dale
On Sat, 27 May 2000, Jason Martin wrote:
>
> im not really in to "acid jazz" per se (acid jazz in the strictest
> sense of the word) but Grover Washington Jr's Mr Magic would
> probably be a great defining record. IMO anyway...
>
> jason
> > I've always been curious as to what different people consider to be
> > different styles of music. How does one define the boundries of a particular
> > genre? When is the line crossed? So here's one for ya... What exactly ( in
> > your opinion, of course ) is acid jazz? Now, I'm sure that this has been
> > brought up before and talked to death, but hell, I don't remember. The
> > logical answer would be to tell me to piss off because this is kind of
> > pointless babble anyways, but ther must be something within the sound of acid
> > jazz that separates it clearly from say, trip hop or traditional jazz. Is it
> > in the instrumentation? Man vs. machine? Tempo maybe? I know what I believe
> > to be acid jazz, but what do you think? Discuss...
>
>
>
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