![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamomI wrote the following review of a local jazz CD that will be published in this summer's Jazz Festival Guide. That will be fun -- with an expected circulation of 4,000 for that issue, a lot of people might read my writing.
The space constraints of 140 words prevented me from going into much detail on the record. And for whatever reason, I thought the backstory of the recording was pretty much as interesting as the music itself.
The space constraints of 140 words prevented me from going into much detail on the record. And for whatever reason, I thought the backstory of the recording was pretty much as interesting as the music itself.
This album was conceived by CBC producers Glenn Meisner and Karl Falkenham in September, 2006. Its impetus was to produce the underlying bed tracks for a record by local hip-hop artist, Sean Ryan.
Hip-hop is usually created by mixing samples of vintage funk and R&B recordings with rapping or other tracks laid over top. Using live musicians to make dedicated hip-hop tracks such as was done here could be considered unusual, to say the least.
The album was recorded in two sessions: one with Doug Riley on solo piano; and one with saxophonist Mitchell, bassist Gatti, drummer Burton and guest keyboardist Dunn. Not all of the tracks are completely faithful to the hip-hop genre, but several tracks yield some serious grooves. On the whole, the album certainly spawns some curiosity about what the hip-hop version -- called "new tonic" -- might sound like.
