The compilation [re:jazz] (re:mix) (Kriztal) is the result of a cat-and-mouse game initiated by the Ifracom label. Last year, Infracom curated material from its 10-year-deep catalog for [re:jazz], which converted electronica tunes into organic jazz. On [re:jazz] (remix) those same tunes are reincarnated once again, as electronica. It’s a high-minded gambit that doesn’t always work, such as with Jazztronik’s remix of “Cupid & Orlando,” which limps along aimlessly, and Yukihiro Fukutomi’s take on “Second Sight,” which starts off with misty piano flourishes but never evolves into anything memorable. But things fare better with the Society’s lovely “La Mouche Lumiere,” which is filled with enchanting piano, alluring French spoken word and spectral strings, and with Bugge Wesseltoft’s Spanish-tinged “Arena,” where he recasts the song as a Keith Jarrett-inspired piano-trio outing embellished with electronica swirls. No surefire hits pop out, but Les Gammas’ energetic 2-step makeover of “People Come Running,” featuring a nice flugelhorn solo from Till Bronner, as well as Frost & Wagner’s dubbed-out “Torch of Freedom” and Nicola Conte’s samba-fied “Quiet Nights” will get the masses moving.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro