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Written By: frenchy on January 17, 2009 4 Comments

General Description
Artist/Band: Jazzanova last fm logo || Discogs Icon || Profile At MySpace || Answers logo
Album Title: Of All The Things
Year: 2008

Jazzanova - Of All The Things
Beautiful Retro mix

How I Got Into This Music
Still can’t recall how I got into Jazzanova, sorry.. Must be the alcohol abuse killing the grey matter. But a new album from these guys will always get my attention.

Reviews/Album Details: Google Search for reviews of this album || Discogs Icon || Artistdirect logo || Answers logo
Videos: Youtube Logo || last fm logo
Have a listen on: last fm logo

Tracks that got my attention:
Look What You’re Doin’ To Me ft. Phonte
Just the intro.. Listen.. It’s Pure Jazzanova. Wow..
Phonte last fm logo is a new entity to me and a very interesting fresh voice. The whole production is tight, a nice South American percussion on the background with some Santana guitar riffs and great backing vocal samples. Very nice!

Let Me Show Ya ft. Paul Randolph
Another singer I hadn’t noticed before. Paul Randolph last fm logo is this great mix of classic vocal styles, triggering memories of Marvin Gaye. And on this track, we hear one of the main themes of this album: going back to Detroit, bringing back the Motown vibe.
And it’s done very, very well..
Also funny to hear a lot of samples and beats from the Belle et Fou album coming back to this record, like the background strings in the bridge.

I Can See ft. Ben Westbeech
Ben Westbeech last fm logo has a great voice. Just like the previous
track, we can hear Jazzanova setting up a Classic Soul production. When you hear the strings in the background, you realize it’s the same old stuff they’ve been using for years, BUT.. It also fits perfectly with the Motown thing. Great production value!

Lie ft. Thief
Wow.. Now they’re switching to the Beatles/Electric Light Orchestra sound, including a string quartet, lovely! And the voice of Thief’s Sasha Gottschalk is a thing of beauty!

Little Bird ft. José James
Yep, should’ve seen this one coming. José James’s been working in Europe for a while now and this collaboration is an obivous one. Perfect combo of styles!

So Far From Home ft. Phonte
Had to double check the credits coz I couldn’t believe that Phonte rapped on this track and sang on Look What You’re Doin’ To Me. Wow..
A bit of anger in the lyrics, but the whole thing works for me, especially the smart resampling of the Let Me Show Ya track.

What Do You Want ft. Jon Dukie
It’s almost too cheesy to listen to, but I do love me this track!!!

Gafier ft. Pedro Martins and Azymuth
Jazzanova’s love for Brazilian music is a wellknown fact, just have a listen at all the remixes they’ve done in the past. Brazilian Greats help out on this sweet track.

Dail A Cliche ft. Paul Randolph
Love the track, love the lyrics. Hate Morrissey.

Conclusion
Thight production as usual and an interesting broadening of their repertoire by adding Soul Retro in the mix. Just like homebrewing your crystal meth, recycling Retro is a dangerous excercise. But if it works, you get the same addictive results without the nasty side effects.
Excellent album.

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Written By: frenchy on January 2, 2009 2 Comments

(thanks to Milov for the last.fm screengrab idea! have a look at his artist list for 2008)

Tracks Most Played In 2008 (Last.fm):

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Nice to see one of my 2007 discoveries still getting airplay: Ferdinand Jozef George, a real Dutch talent; to me that means I didn’t get bored with the album after a short while.
Never expected Marsalis to top the list, but I sure as hell don’t have any complaints about that!
N*E*R*D is a bit of a mystery, cause the album wasn’t a very satisfying experience; glad to see some Roy Hargrove tracks there.
Kinda miss tracks by Alice Coltrane, but hey.. Scrobbling your music is a near-precise exercise ;)

Artists Most Played In 2008 (Last.fm):

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Yep, Meshell’s still on top, heheh.. One dodgy concert doesn’t take away my total fanboy adoration of this lady’s total body of work. And Lovely, lovely from her last album? Still WOW!!
Q-Tip’s latest release The Renaissance has been on my playlist these last two months, album still works for me. Good to see my girl Alice on the list, heheh.. Pleasantly surprised by Jose Gonzalez’ entry on this list, fine by me, not gonna play any of his stuff any time soon, tho..

2008 Discoveries

Buika (thx, MissTO)
Alice Coltrane (thx, Will)
Jose James
Keep In Time and Brasil In Time projects
Nina Simone

Just go and have a listen..

That’s it, now on to a new year of listening to great and exciting music!

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Written By: frenchy on July 15, 2008 9 Comments

Well, I attended two days of the North Sea Jazz Festival and it was quite a mixed bag of candy.
Location: Ahoy Event Halls, Rotterdam
When: 11 and 12 July 2008
Last.fm: last fm logo
Tag: northseajazzfestival

Day 2

Victor Wooten
The incredibly talented bass player, Mr. Victor Wooten, is always a joy to be entertained by. A very solid performance with a great band (including an additional bass player).

Deodato
Not my cup of tea, and that percussionist scared me a lil’ bit..

Chaka Khan
After the incredibly horrific performance I saw from her on MTV with a certain K. West, I was very, very delighted to hear the Lady strut her stuff like the true singer she is. Excellent!

José James
The up-and-coming and yet already here-to-stay vocalist José James gave another fantastic performance, getting everyone excited and grooving.

Lizz Wright
Symptomatic for this year’s festival: arrived half an hour before the set started and there already was a line of a coupla hundred people! It used to be that the smaller stages were problematic, but now even the medium sized locations were overcrowded, sheesh..

Marc Broussard
Short visit and listen, but the man does have a great voice!

George Benson
Great instrumentalist and vocalist, delivers the goods.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Another great tip from Hieronymus Fox: if Otis Redding was listening from the grave, he’d gave Sharon a thumbs up. Let’s not forget the Dap-Kings!
It really is possible to keep on playing that old Soul groove without being a blatant copycat: carrying on the Good Cause and extending the music.

Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson
Closing act: fantastic band mixing up different electronic, groove and jazz stuff!

Conclusion
This festival wasn’t that great, sad to say. The line up didn’t work for me that much. Saw and enjoyed quite a number of acts, but the overcrowded venues were more of a problem this year than before.
But closing my eyes and thinking of the incredible miss Sharon Jones just keeps putting a smile on my face.

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Written By:  on July 12, 2008 No Comment

my twitterings# – NorthSeaJazz2008: Jose James doing his nasty stuff.. A true live performer!

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Written By: frenchy on May 6, 2008 4 Comments

North Sea Jazz Logo

So, uhm..
I’ve just had a look at this year’s schedule for the North Sea Jazz Festival and.. it’s nice and complicated!

Friday, July 11:

  • My girl Jill Scott; Adele, the New Girl; Cassandra Wilson, a Voice
  • Instrumental: Herbie Hancock Quintet and Ron Carter Quartet

Saturday, July 12:

  • Victor Wooten (HellYeah!); Roy Hargrove Quintet
  • Vocalists: José James; Chaka Kahn (can the lady still do it?)
  • Paul Simon; Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson (yes, HF..)

Sunday, July 13:

Now, I’m not sure if I’ll be doing all three days again, I really want to see Mehldau, but the rest of the schedule that day seems a bit thin, we’ll see!
Another chance to see Jill from Philly is great too!

I do love me some music, boyz-n-girlz..

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