Scorp’s Favorite Albums of the 2000’s – Part 5
Jazzanova- Of All the Things (2008)
“the world is changing/getting smaller everyday/easy to get someplace/but hard to get away…”
You may know the German production team Jazzanova or you might not. But you should.
Jazzanova is a 6 man team based in Berlin. Some of the guys are musicians, some are programmers, some are DJs, one is a master recording engineer. I’ll let one of the guys explain in detail.
“Stefan and Roskow are more or less responsible for programming our tracks. They work also on their own projects or for others, but they mostly work on Jazzanova projects. And there’s Axel who does all the mix-downs. He records all the artists for Sonar Kollektiv. Claas, Alex and me are concentrate on our work for Sonar Kollektiv, our record label. Claas takes care of all the contract things and all that. There are always teams of two who work on a Jazzanova track, so it’s one of the programmers or engineers and one of us, one of the DJs. This team works on a track from the beginning to the end. And once it is done, they come to the other members of Jazzanova and all of us listen to it and we join with ideas and criticism and all that. But more or less a Jazzanova tune is done by two, one of the DJs and one of the guys who are on the computer and programming. Axel is responsible for the sound. He has a perfect ear, so he is for good for all sounds…”
-Jurgen von Knoblauch of Jazzanova
People sat up and took notice when they released their debut album In Between in 2002. Besides that, they have done a slew of remix work. Heads have deemed In Between a classic. For my money, this album is the far and away winner.
While In Between is mostly built on sonic collages and makes extensive use of sampling, OATT is almost exclusively organic. Amy Winehouse’s breakthrough album Back To Black (produced by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi) sent hordes of producers to the lab to record dusty drums and acoustic basses to try to replicate the 60’s feel of Back To Black. Most of them failed. While they got the sounds right, they failed to write any interesting material. Perhaps the most egregious example of this was ex-Tony Toni Tone frontman Raphael Saadiq’s terrible album The Way I See It. Ray painstakingly re-created the sound of Hitsville but instead of writing some great songs, he chose to simply re-arrange already existing 60’s songs and hoped no one would notice. Ray’s album was a prime example of what I called “musical theatre on wax”. There are tons of bands out there who dress up in 60’s/70’s gear, rip off old records, and think theyre doing something ground-breaking. They aint.
On this album, Jazzanova touches on the sound of the mid-60’s without falling into the fetishization trap. They avoid this by writing absolutely stellar and original songs and producing them like new records instead of old ones. That is how you keep real music going w/out being retro.
Luckily, they venture out of the 60’s on roughly half of the album. Unlike the last album, each cut features a vocal. The choices are inspired.
With most albums by beat driven artists, even the fans don’t pay much attention to what is being said and what messages are being communicated by the artist. Folks tend to focus on the production and not much else. As long as the vocal is in the right key, its all good.
The overlying theme of this album is self-reckoning. Each cuts details this in different scenarios. Mediations on heartbreak, maturity, love, racism and isolation set the tone. Expressed though a selection of mostly male vocalists, the lyrics are haunting and deeply personal-making this a moody album. Each vocalist contributes their own lyrics making kudos due all around. I have been spending quality time with this album for the last few days, and certain songs are resonating very deeply with me.
Jazzanova musician Stefan Leisering matches these emotional poems with outstandingly sensitive musical compositions that support the intent of the lyrics without outshining them with garish production tricks. He gives each song the music it needs to flourish. His music is deeply soulful and elegant.
Fat Freddy’s Drop lead singer Dallas Tamaira aka Joe Dukie turns in a deep piece on self-reflection entitled What Do You Want? British vocalist Ben Westbeech accurately illustrates the sorrow of foreseeing the end of a romance on the melancholy second single I Can See.
Indie Renaissance man Phonte gets both sides of his talent showcased on two cuts. On the album opener Look What You’re Doing To Me, Phonte sings about the deeper side of loving someone. On So Far From Home, Tay’s rhymes let us into the other side of traveling the world with your music. Most rappers present worldwide touring as a non stop party. Tay talks about the loneliness and the subtle racism that some Europeans exhibit toward Black people when we’ve been taught to believe its all good for Black musicians in Europe. Its a very ballsy move on Tay’s part to use his guest spot on a Europeans group’s album to talk about this.
So Far From Home is clever musically because of the sample used. Jazzanova samples their own song, Let Me Show Ya, for the basis of So Far From Home. Not only is Let Me Show Ya their own song, but its also a song from this same album. Nice.
The clever musical references dont stop there. Jazzanova recruits sensual soul master and native Detroiter Leon Ware to remake his own 1981 underground seduction classic Rockin’ You Eternally. To further tip the hat, they have fellow Detroit crooner Dwele to provide backing vocals. Even better, its almost identical to the original musically. Somehow, it still seems like a fresh take on the song.
The Germans continue their musical world tour by having 70’s Brazilian disco/funk/jazz trio Azymuth team up with fellow Brazilian vocalist Pedro Martins for one of the album’s shining moments. The result is a gorgeous, slinky slice of Brazilian jazz entitled Gafiera.
One of my favorite female vocalists, Bembe Segue, steps out of her comfort zone to contribute the only female vocal on the album. Singing over a straight ahead jazz arrangement, her song Morning Scapes lends some air to the heaviness elsewhere on the album.
Detroit is well represented on the album as Motor City bassist/vocalist Paul Randolph lends his soulful vocals and lyrics to 3 songs. Besides the aforementioned first single Let Me Show Ya and Lucky Girl, he takes the lead on the album’s masterstroke. The closing cut is a jazzy reading of Morrissey’s scathing Dial A Cliche. Randolph’s vocal on top of the subdued arrangement lend the song a new poignancy. The most famous line of the song “Grow up, be a man, and shut your mealy mouth” packs an emotional wallop.
To summarize, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard recently. It may even be my Album of the Year for 2009. If you don’t have this album, get it right damn now. It is a work of genius.
