There’s nothing I want more at night than some good jazz. I never set aside enough time consistently to get away. Hoping this helps.
I’ve wanted to make a jazz playlist for far too long. I almost kind of did, twice. I always focused too much on the electronic/hip-hop inspired beats. They have the qualities of jazz, but were ultimately more than that. I finally took the time to find nothing but jazz or at least most of it.
To start off this list, Bill Evans– who may be my favorite artist of this year, even though he’s long gone.
I went home to Minnesota for the holidays. It was good to get back and talk with family about politics. I tried not to play out the typical democratic/republican shit show. It was good to question their beliefs, but more importantly my own. You learn a lot from seeing other views. Something to take back and reflect on.
And there’s no better music for reflecting right now than with BADBADNOTGOOD. Best taken for Late nights, long travels and going over the year, or just the day.
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The melody isn’t half bad, the wobbles work well and the girl is good for a few cuts in, but that sax is what carries this tune. My obsession with the saxiness has gone back to one of our very first posts (3 minutes in, woof) and far before that. It’s the only instrument that can consistently replace the vocals as the backbone of a piece. And in ‘Jubel,’ the sax is its stature.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/83539885" iframe="false" params="player_type=tiny&font=Arial&color=292929" height="18" /]
I was looking at my ‘tracks to post’ when I ran across Mos Def & Talib Kweli. For a second I was confused on why they were there, I haven’t heard anything new from the two in a while and didn’t think anything recently emerged. Then I saw who produced the tracks, DJ Deckstream, and realized why I need to post these up.
Deckstream is one of my favorite nu jazz producers from Japan. He’s got a shit load of good tunes to chill to, but up until recently lacked good rap support. In Deckstream Soundtrack 2.0, the producer steps up his rap game featuring some talented rhymers, including Mos Def on the original “Life is Good”. But on the two remixed versions that dropped last year, Mos Def gets some support by the other half of Black Star […]
[audio:Life-Is-Good-Remix.mp3,Life-Is-Good-Remix-2.mp3|titles=Life Is Good Remix, Life Is Good Remix Part 2]
I’ve come across a few covers songs lately, so I thought I’d contribute a favorite of mine from DJ Deckstream’s Music Castle. Deckstream is a DJ/producer from Japan who could be classified in either hip-hop or jazz depending on the song/album. In Music Castle, Deckstream covers quite a few different oldies, all with a nu jazz style. Some famous songs include Tom’s Diner, Tripping Out, Just the Two of Us and my personal favorite, Sweet Child O’ Mine.
I chose Deckstream’s remix of Sweet Child O’ Mine because of its dreamy, relaxing take on a classic by Guns N’ Roses. One thing I would’ve loved to have seen on the track, along with a few others, is the original vocals included. It would’ve been interesting to hear Axl Rose’s voice over these instrumentals, but as this album is more intented as background music that may have been why Deckstream had chosen to leave him out.
This song actually brought up an interesting question in my mind: would you consider this a cover or remix What are the differences I think of a remix as cutting up a song, rearranging it, adding or removing parts and really making it your own. Compare this to covering a song where the song is relatively kept in its original form, but the performers put a little of their own style into it. As you can tell I marked this as a cover. What do you think
[audio:SweetChildOMine.mp3|titles=Sweet Child O’ Mine](Download Link in Full Article)
Another goodie from Gota! One of my first posts was Gota’s All Alone, and now I come to you with his second, European Comfort. It may not be as good as All Alone (in my opinion), but it’s got a nice calming tune that’s perfect for an elevator… or better! I’ve gotta say, one of Gota’s best abilities is combing instrumentals in such a fluid way. He’s what really got me into this new style of jazz… well, him & DJ Okawari… and I guess you could throw Nujabes in there too.
I’m actually trying to get into more current jazz (like Gota), but it’s proving hard to find what I like (it’s always difficult getting into new genres). And I’m finding with nu jazz or acid jazz (or whatever you wanna call it) that a lot of it does remind me of elevator music, boring and repetitive (unlike Gota). So, if you have any suggestions, please oblige me. Also, tell me if you’d consider this elevator music, now that I’ve engrained it into your head…
[audio:EuropeanComfort.mp3|titles=European Comfort]
I’d say Crescent Moon is what first got me into DJ Okawari (right before Animal Forest. At the time (around a year ago), I became increasingly interested in Hip-Hop from Japan (the DJ’s not the MC’s), and came across Okawari’s second album, Diorama. Diorama is more of a Nu Jazz style with Hip-Hop influences, and doesn’t feature any MC’s (something Okawari should possibly reconsider for his next album… I vote yes!). His music (this song in particular) for some reason brings me back to the song 3030 by Del with the quote, “while I float to Neo-Tokyo with Opio”. Probably because Okawari is from Tokyo, and his music reminds me of a night out in Tokyo, but most likely because I have nothing else to talk about, so I need a filler :)
I’ve been getting a lot of Japanese hits on my site lately (mostly looking at Okawari), and if any of you know of any similar music to Okawari then please post some of it on here! I need an expert to point me in the right direction… anyone :D
One other thing, I also posted this on Animal Forest, but it’s also worth mentioning here – the cover artwork for this album is incredible! Check it out in it’s entirety here or just click the image at the top (the beautiful vector’d girl).
[audio:CrescentMoon.mp3|titles=Crescent Moon](Download Link in Full Article)
DJ Okawari is one hard fella to find. Well, most Japanese artists I’ve researched are… probably ’cause I don’t know Japanese. Anyway, here’s another Japanese DJ that blends up a mix of electronica, jazz and hip-hop… nothing special, I know, but give it a listen. It has a solid beat accompanied with a soulful sax (you know I love me some sax).
Another thing I’d like to point out is the amazing artwork for this album. But, to truely appreciate its intricacies you need to look at the full-sized version, provided here. All cover art for Okawari’s albums are done by Marumiyan.
[audio:AnimalForest.mp3|titles=Animal Forest](Download Link in Post)
DJ Deckstream is a well established producer in Japan that has worked with several well-known emcees including Moka Only, Pep Love, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. His album, “Music Castle”, is a stretch from his usual upbeat, hip-hop style to a jazzy, chilled-out set of covers. The album covers such classics as Tom’s Diner, Just the Two of Us, Sweet Child o’ Mine and a few others from genres in classic rock to rap.
[audio:WhatIam.mp3,JusttheTwoofUs.mp3,ToBeWithYou.mp3,SweetChildoMine.mp3,GetonDown.mp3,TrippingOut.mp3|titles=What I am,Just the Two of Us,To Be With You,Sweet Child o’ Mine,Get on Down,Tripping Out]
I’ve recently started to get into jazz. After searching a popular music forum, I found their “Staff Picks”, and thought I would try out their recommendations. I found Gota as a popular pick, so I gave him a listen. I enjoyed the first track quite a bit, which happened to be All Alone. What impressed me so much was the saxophone, played by Ian Kirkham, and the guitar, played by Kenji Jammer. Both played well off each other, and showed a real elegance in their style. Just give this one a listen, if you enjoy it enough then check out the rest of the album, It’s So Different Here. I decided not to review the entire album because of personal preferences, but if you like this song, you’ll most likely appreciate the rest of it.
[audio:AllAlone.mp3|titles=All Alone]