ALBUM OF THE MONTH - JAZZMATAZZ - GURU (1993)

Jazzmatazz is a fusion of hiphop and live jazz by Guru, one half of the hiphop duo Gang Starr. He’d noticed that hiphop artists were sampling jazz breaks to make their tracks, and wanted to take it further by bringing the jazz legends whose music had been sampled into the studio. Combining a live jazz band performance with hiphop production and rapping, he spawned the hippiest, hoppiest, jazziest experimental music.

Released in 1993 on Chrysalis Records, Jazzmatazz features an impressive lineup of jazz musicians: Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Branford Marsalis, Ronny Jordan, Courtney Pine, Gary Barnacle, Simon Law, and Zachary Breaux. It also features vocals from singers Carleen Anderson, N’Dea Davenport, D. C. Lee, and French rapper MC Solaar.

The combination works so well, there’s a lot to love here. The jazz gives the whole thing a mellow, relaxed, organic feel, while the hip hop beats inject energy and structure. Like on Trust Me, with its quick stepping beat and N’Dea Davenport’s smooth R&B vocals. Or Lounging, where the rap grooves over the flow of the jazz. Then there’s the lush keys on Take A Look (At Yourself). It all comes together insuch a vibey album.

One of the standout tracks is Le Bien, Le Mal, Guru’s collaboration with French rapper MC Solaar, which marked an important milestone in hip hop history as one of the first collaborations between a well known American rapper and a French rapper. The beat and hook here remind me a bit of Black Sheep’s The Choice is Yours. There’s some controversy surrounding how MC Solaar handled Guru’s health and eventual death from cancer, but the track remains a significant cultural moment. Interestingly, there’s a small street in Montpelier, France, named after Guru in honor of his impact on the culture.

Guru’s opening monologue in Introduction reminded of an interview with Yussef Dayes where he mentioned how artists such as Miles Davis and Nina Simone referred to jazz as “black classical music” (the name of Dayes’ album). It feels like a similar idea runs throughout Jazzmatazz as Guru celebrates both jazz and hiphop as cornerstones of black culture. Like on Lounging, where he pays tribute to turntablism and early hip hop techniques.

The album was a commercial success, charting at no.94 on the Billboard 200 and no.15 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the US. It was particularly successful in Europe, where jazz was more popular than in North America. Guru would go on to release three more volumes of Jazzmatazz - the second one features Jay Kay from Jamiroquai, while the third one, Guru’s Jazzmatazz: Streetsoul, a blend of soul and R&B featuring artists such as Erykah Badu, Herbie Hancock and Isaac Hayes, outperformed the first two in the charts. They’re all great, but the first one is the strongest in my opinion.

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Gang Starr

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