Yeah, Steve,
I hear you on the 2 Banks of 4 album, it's got some baaadddd shit on it and it is more adventurous than Tourist which is not a knock by any manner of means, I just love Tourist but 2 Banks does go to some real interesting places.
thanx for the hedz up on the Watts Keltner thang, I spin a lot of drummy stuff and I was wondering whether this one just had IT, glad to hear that it does.
I recently got the new Future Lounge on Stereo Deluxe, number 3, it's got some good stuff on it, a thumping track from Sieg der Liebe. Anyone heard of Soda ''n Soul out there? also a Stereo Deluxe release. I am still really digging Mo' Horizons and every time I play it on the air I get calls so if you dont got it get it!
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Catanzaro
To: acid jazz
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 8:54 PM
Subject: New Purchases: St. Germain, 2 Banks of 4, Watts-Keltner
Various. The Funky Precedent. No Mayo Records, 1999. Is the best measure of a comp the number of jamz u don't have to skip past? If so, this is one of the nicest comps I've heard in a long while. Some familiar trax from some familiar folks (Cumbia de Los Muertos from Ozomatli, Jurassic 5's Concrete Schoolyard) a great live track from Cut Chemist f. Miles Tackett, and an unbelievably funky track from Styles of Beyond called Ambiguous Figures.
And, there's some nice mellowsmoothness as well; check out Building, with Blk Sonshine featuring Masuako Chipembere. Even the weaker tracks, like the trip-hop-Hootie sound of Damon Aaron, aren't annoying. Throw in the Beat Junkies, Breakestra, Divine Styler, Black Eyed Peas.... This comp captures the spirit of LA multiethnic funk very nicely.
Two Banks of Four. City Watching, Sirkus, 1999. OK, lots of talk about St. Germain on this list-serve lately, and I don't down it. But for all the incredible, jazzy solos, inventive beat juggling, and overall beautiful texture found on Tourist, it is still, imo, not up to this inventive, deeply felt release.
Why? 1 reason, and maybe it's the anal ex-music professor in me, is that of the entire 9 trax on Tourist, there's something less than 18 chords! Hey, at what I paid at Virgin Megastore, that's something approaching $1 per chord! And, St. Germain, nice as it is, veers dangerously close to Smooth Jazz a time or 2 (Sure Thing, What You Think About, and the groove about 1:00 minute in Land Of).
So, while it's overall a very strong release, City Watching strikes me as even deeper, more ambitious, without being offputting in the least. All different styles of the modern jazz (except jazzy-house, whew, another nice thing as far as I'm concerned), and all with the musical cohesion you only get with true heavyweight contenders. There's some French inflected stuff (Theme for La Tete), some nice jazz vocals (Afro Blue, a track that builds beautifully), some symphonic Eastern modal thang, (Erols Cafe), just a lot of really nice music here. Yeah, this is nice... real nice....
Charlie Watts, Jim Keltner. Charlie Watts Jim Keltner Project. Cyber Octave, 2000. OK, the hands down winner for the not-what-I-expected-from-the-cover has got to be this unbelievably funky release.
Yeah, Charlie Watts, the wanker who's been holding it down with the Rolling Stones since back when Duke Ellington was rocking spots! And Jim Keltner has played drums on thousands of albums, and neither one of these 2 guys ranks in my top 10 drummers of all time (although I always had a thing for some of those RS jamz... Emotional Rescue had some bad snare work...)
But this is something else. It kind of reminds me a bit of an even funkier version of what goes down in Broadway productions like "Bring In Da Noize, Bring In Da Funk" or "Smash." You know, everbody hitting pots and pans in these mad funky rhythms?
Each track is named after a famous drummer, and it's almost impossible to tell why a certain track is called Shelly Manne, for instance, when he never sounded anything like that! This is really, really, REALLY funky shit; it features Coldcut, Modaji, Restless Soul, even Mick and Keith pop in, the pissers! Some DJ's might cross people up if they get a hold of this before the word gets out.... (or is the word already out?)
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