Blast Kid "Jazz Walkin"

Blaskid is a Soul/Funk/Jazz collector and dj. He plays Funk, Soul, Latin, ... at Café Apero (Oude Markt 52, Leuven)
Every Wednesday 10pm together with Teddy Tendertouch.

Picture: Blast Kid spining live in the fm Brussel studio on the 16th of September 2007 by Eric P.

Liner notes by Blast Kid

It attracted my attention a while ago that my music listening habit is very fragmented. I love and collect a wide range of different musical genres and styles. But I almost never find myself listening to multiple genres mixed together, except maybe when I’m spinning records for a crowd, but even then I find my mixing to be pretty fragmented. Sometimes I listen to nothing but funk 45s for days, some days I’m only interested in sixties soul groups whilst a few weeks later all I want to hear are European grooves.

And so it happened that the last few weeks I’ve hardly been interested in anything but jazz. Jazz, off course, is a musical term that’s broader than Broadway so one might say that I’m contradicting myself. But even in this spectrum of styles I find myself listening to a certain well-defined sound. This sound is best described as deep, warm and pure and is musically to the point, not commercial but definitely accessible and hardly experimental – even though loads of people weren’t ready for it at the time of recording.

In an almost natural reaction, I now recorded a mix (is this term correct, actually? Maybe ‘collection’ is a better word) with the tunes I’ve been enjoying so much lately. It would be unfair not to say that I’ve been heavily inspired by fellow DJ’s and music lovers who preceded in recording jazz compilations/mix albums. The Dutch DJ Maestro, for example, is always on-point with his Blue Note Trip-compilations. They always have a great selection of tunes on them and Maestro is the master in building up a great set – something I also tried on this mix, which you’ll hopefully hear. Other than Maestro’s albums, there’s the great Blue Note Sidetrack series, on which Belgian DJ’s and musicians like Sven Van Hees, Mo & Benoelie, Alex Callier and, most recently, Tom Barman presented and/or mixed their favorite jazz recordings. Not to be forgotten is volume 5 of this series, on which Lefto & Krewcial took things a little bit further and remixed lots of original tunes, what turned out beautiful.

So I hereby present Jazz Walkin’, an over an hour long collection of personal favorites – classics and not so classics – blended together.
I started of calm, built up to the little bit more heavy stuff and ended with the dance floor oriented tracks.

Enjoy it – I currently do.

3 Sounds - Nearness of you (Blue Note)

This trio – Andrew Simpkins (b) and Bill Dowdy (d) led by Gene Harris (p) – is one you can often find featured on compilations and remix albums. I only have this track, on a 45, by this group. It’s from their album "It Just Got To Be".

Jimmy McGriff - Hit The Road Jack (Solid State)

I had the luck of buying 4 or 5 Jimmy McGriff albums at once from a guy who sold his record collection. McGriff must be, together with Jimmy Smith and Brother Jack McDuff, one of the most famous Hammond players in jazz. His cover of the Ray Charles hit has always been heavily underlined on my first versions of the play list for this mix.

Ted Heath & His Music – Fever (Phase 4 Stereo)

Okay, I might get dissed by the pure jazz fans for putting this Exotica/EZ listening track on here, but hey, I just like the tune and it nicely fits in!
It’s a cool version of Fever, by far my favorite jazz standard.

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet – New Delhi (Riverside)

I found this original mono Riverside record in my mother’s collection – together with some other excellent records, she had and still has a fine taste for music – and therefore it must be one of the first jazz records I’ve ever heard. Wasn’t too much in it at the beginning, but have been enjoying the hell out of it lately. New Delhi is a tune by Victor Feldman, who also plays vibes on this record.

Art Blakey – Along Came Betty (Blue Note)

In the liner notes of "Moanin", the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers album this cut is featured on, jazz critic Leonard Feather writes:
"Along Came Betty … was inspired not by the personality but, curiously, by the walk of the young lady for whom it was named. An attempt was made in the composition to capture “the musical effect of her grace and feminity”.
All I can add is that Betty must have been a very, very fine lady.

The Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band – Peter’s Waltz (MPS)

The CBBB was formed by American drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist/composer Francy Boland in the sixties. The two guys collected the best jazz musicians in Europe like Fats Sadi (Bongos, vibes), Dusko Gojkovic, Benny Bailey, Idrees Sulieman (Trumpets), Ake Persson (trombone), Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab (Saxophones) and many, many more. (…) Their sound was swinging, warm, and sometimes a little bit raw. Check out their most famous tune ‘Sax No End’ on YouTube.

Blue Mitchell - Sweet-Cakes (Riverside)

This is another of those records I got from my mother’s collection. Trumpeter Blue Mitchell is backed up here by a great staff: Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Sam Jones and the aforementioned Art Blakey. I just love the chorus of this tune. Brilliant.

Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island (Blue Note)

The fantastic remix of this tune (by US 3) must have started the entire jazz remixing thing. Herbie Hancock is one of the best piano players out there and did some funky experiments with electronic music later on, finally resulting in Rockit, the track that started it all for most of the hip hop DJ’s. Although Cantaloupe Island was recorded in 1964, it contains hints of Herbie’s funky future and the shape of jazz to come.

4 Hero – Won’t You Open Up Your Senses (Blue Note)

If there’s one nu-jazz or jazz remix album I’d suggest you, it’s probably the Blue Note Revisited album that appeared a few years ago. It has about all great names in hip hop and beyond production: Kenny Dope, Dj Spinna, Bugz In The Attic, Madlib, J Dilla, Dj Cam, Jazzanova, Osunlade and so on. Needless to say there’s hardly a dull track on this double album. I selected 4 Hero sampling Horace Silver’s Won’t You Open Up Your Senses because of the fantastic vibe that’s laid down by keyboard player Dego.

Esther Satterfield – Summertime (A&M;)

Time for another standard, right? Don’t know much about Mrs. Satterfield. The album this cut comes from is more of a pop album that I bought haphazardly, but her version of Summertime matches the sound of this mix perfectly.

Nina Simone – See-Line Woman (Fontana)

Classic? Yes. Sampled to death? Yes. Played out? Absolutely not. Brilliant song and my favorite track by Nina Simone (fans may front on that). The flute, the percussion, the wordless singing on some moments… love it! I dug up this record with a bunch of great soul records at a guy’s house, where I was to pick up some rock records I bought through the internet. He said there really wouldn’t be anything good in the other pile I spotted in his garage…

Ella Fitzgerald – Sunshine of Your Love (MPS)

Raw drums, catchy horn sounds and one of the best female jazz singers getting grittier than ever make this track essential. Go get it.

Unknown Artist – Un P’tit Begin (unknown)

The reason I don’t know the artist who’s singing this track is because it’s from a popcorn compilation (read: bootleg). These compilations never mentioned artist names to mislead authorities and not to pay taxes on it. It’s a beautiful song (in French) by a – at first hearing – sweet girl. But she gets pretty heavy as the track evolves. A record dealer suggested that it might be Gloria Lasso who’s singing, but I haven’t had the chance to verify it yet.

Brother Jack McDuff & David newman – Duffin’ Round (Atlantic)

Now this is a raw piece of jazzfunk. It starts off with a drum break and combines a Hammond organ and a flute (I really have a soft spot for flutes in jazz and funk) over a heavy groove. The rest of the album (Double Barreled Soul) is good as well.

The Horace Silver Quintet featuring Stanley Turrentine - Psychedelic Sally (Blue Note)

The album sleeve of ‘Serenade to a Soul Sister’ shows a picture (shot by drummer Billy Cobham jr.) of a young girl dressed in a very hip and completely yellow dress. It must be the kind of dress that Horace Silver refers to in his liner notes when he says that he invented the song title of Psychedelic Sally because he was “very fond of the Psychedelic or Mod look in clothing that the girls are wearing today. (…) it’s a gas and they look great in it.” This tune really made me wish I was on a dance floor with that girl in yellow, shouting the lyrics Mr. Silver wrote but didn’t record: “Psychedelic Sally, you’re my savin’ grace”.

Astrud Gilberto - Não Bate O Coração (Verve)

This track does it to me every time!! I’d had it for a long time on the brilliant Mojo Dance Floor Jazz compilation until I recently picked up the original album for next to nothing on a record fair. Less is more, so proves this song. It’s just a catchy piano riff with beautiful, dreamy wordless vocals over it. Splendid, really.