Blue Note Enters Remix Compilation Game

With all the remixes of classic Verve cuts being made these days, you knew it was only a matter of time before Blue Note gave DJs the keys to its vault to get a piece of the action, too. To be fair, Blue Note let DJ Madlib (pictured) dip into its catalog last year. The results are on Madlib’s Shades of Blue, which came out last summer. On the forthcoming Blue Note Revisited (due in stores on April 20), Madlib is just one of 13 remixers who cut up the old and turn it into something new. While Madlib reworks flutist Bobbi Humphrey’s “Young Warrior,” Berlin-based jazz-house collective Jazzanova takes on Eddie Gale’s “Song of Will” and electronic music pioneer Matthew Herbert blesses the proceedings with a twisted take on Michel Petrucciani’s version of “Caravan.” Other old-skool Blue Noters getting remixed include Wayne Shorter, Donald Byrd and Horace Silver.

Blue Note doesn’t want us to call these new pieces “remixes,” however.

“There’s an important distinction between Blue Note Revisited and the many compilations on the market that announce themselves as remix collections,” states the album’s accompanying press release. Ooooh. Color us intrigued. “To call these songs remixes does not accurately describe the painstaking work which took place as artists deconstructed, reconstructed and often times built whole new pieces of music around elements of the original songs.”

So, what should we call this new kind of musical composition? Blue Note doesn’t say. Here’s the full track list of Blue Note Revisited‘s-screw it-remixes:

(Remixer first, song second, original artist third)

La Funk Mob • “Oriental Folk Song” • Wayne Shorter

Kenny Dope • “La Malanga” • Bobby Hutcherson

Kyoto Jazz Massive • “Kudu” • Eddie Henderson

DJ Spinna • “Lansanna’s Priestess” • Donald Byrd

4 Hero • “Won’t You Open UP Your Sense” • Horace Silver

Bugz in the Attic • “Los Alamitos Latinfunklovesong” • Gene Harris

Madlib • “Young Warrior” • Bobbi Humphrey

J Dilla • “Oblighetto” • Brother Jack McDuff

DJ Cam Featuring Erik Truffaz • “The Emperor” • Donald Byrd

DJ Mehdi • “Footprints (Dub)” • Wayne Shorter

Jazzanova • “Song of Will” •Eddie Gale

Osunlade • “A Time to Remember” • Grant Green

Herbert • “Caravan” • Michel Petrucciani

While we’re on the subject, the April issue of the mighty JazzTimes has a feature article by resident DJ-culture expert John Murph that is all about the jazz remixing scene. Subscribers should have the issue by now; non-subscribers are advised to keep their knickers on, the issue hits newsstands in a week.

Originally Published March 3, 2004