IMPULSIVE! REVOLUTIONARY JAZZ REWORKED - VARIOUS ARTISTS (LP)

Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked Various Artists on Vinyl LP! 

Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked, is a collection of reworked songs from the esteemed catalog of Impulse! Records. Mining a generation of experimental, visionary DJs/producers, Impulsive! re-imagines legendary jazz tracks from composers like Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie,  Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef and more. The music of Impulse! was a crucial component to the development of jazz music in the '60s and '70s, allowing its artists a home to work out their most creative ideas, and that spirit was the inspiration and basis for this excellent project!

"A Helluva-Town" George Russell / SA-RA "Go" Remix

George Russell is a composer whose work embodied the prodigious and profound nature of Impulse music. The original song featured Bill Evans and Max Roach, two of the many New York jazz heavyweights with whom Russell frequently worked. "A Helluva Town" was a collaborative effort with Jon Hendricks, whose scat poetry guides the track, and the song provides a romanticized rumination on the rhythm of urban life in the world's greatest city. SA-RA are trio of beat-makers whose work for Common, Pharoahe Monch and others are earning them high critical praise, with some referring to their smeared, soulful beats as a modern-day version of Funkadelic. Here, they run with the fast-tempo that echoes life in New York both then and now extolling everyone to just "Go!"

"II B.S." Charles Mingus / RZA's Mingus Bounce Mix

Iconic bassist and composer Charles Mingus' output on Impulse Records remains his most alive, his most soulful and his most contemplative. "II B.S." not only showcased Mingus' lyrical bass-playing (especially its momentous intro), but also the rebellious, fiery nature that colored Mingus' life. The RZA is the production mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan, the Staten Island collective that turned hip-hop on its head with their gritty, grimey street-reared albums over the last decade. RZA, who has become a masterful composer in his own right (check his score for Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog," or Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies), turns Mingus' original inside out, playing with the windblown horn stabs and chopping up the song's rhythms into a playful jazz-bounce.

"El Toro" Chico Hamilton / Mark De Clive Lowe remix

Chico Hamilton broke onto the jazz scene during the 1930's as a teenager in Los Angeles, playing in bands with the likes of Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon and Illinois Jacquet. Making a name for himself as a straight-ahead drummer associated with "West Coast Jazz", he became hooked on bop after hearing Art Blakey in the '40s. "El Toro" was originally released on Hamilton's 1962 Impulse! album, Passin' Thru, featuring Gabor Szabo and Charles Lloyd. West London-based Mark de Clive Lowe got his start in music playing classical and jazz piano and listening to hip hop and soul. His unique blend of jazz, ethnic music and urban beats has made him a major force in the nu-jazz movement as a musician and producer. De Clive Lowe's profound understanding of the jazz form and his immense talent as a producer make him a natural fit for Impulsive!

"Mizrab" Gabor Szabo / Prefuse 73 remix

Gabor Szabo's free-wheeling, self-taught guitar style, personified the limitless creative palette that jazz had appropriated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This composition, from the 1972 album of the same name, was one of his most astounding. The gorgeous, original "Mizrab," has become a favorite of many jazz-heads through the years, so it is no surprise that Prefuse 73 aka Scott Heren, chose to remix it for his contribution to Impulsive. Prefuse 73, who splits his time between Atlanta and Barcelona, has a wonderfully experimental sensibility when composing music, using electronics, samples and new ideas in sound compression to create formed, melodic mosaics. Here, he replicates Szabo's passionate guitar playing with his own fractured electronic melodies and the result is pure elegance.

"Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac" Dizzy Gillespie / Gerardo Frisina remix

Of the many styles in jazz Dizzy Gillespie championed, it is his pioneering of the Afro-Cuban sound in jazz that remains among the most celebrated. This song is from an album of the same name recorded in 1967, an irreverent collection of songs that found Gillespie singing alongside his assembled Afro-Cuban band. It's a natural choice for producer and DJ Gerardo Frisina, who found the root of his musical voice in the seductive sound of Latin and Brazilian jazz. Frisina chops up the shuffling rhythms and bluesy melodies of the original, gives it a pulsating, hip-shaking voodoo beat and then lets it swing. It's sure to be a dance-floor staple.

"Spanish Rice" Chico O' Farrill and Clark Terry / DJ Dolores remix

Chico O' Farrill and Clark Terry's collaboration was another milestone in the development of Afro-Cuban jazz, matching O' Farrill's visceral arrangements with Terry's soulful trumpet-playing. Like the Gillespie track, the original "Spanish Rice," was more playful than profound the fun component of jazz. DJ Dolores has been rocking the world stage since the early 1990s. Part of a talented generation of DJs from Brazil, Dolores aka Helder Aragao, has said that electronic music to him is just a means to an end. He proves it with his remix of "Spanish Rice," where the Afro-Cuban rhythms, the friendly banter between musicians and, of course, the happy, dancing sentiment of the original are all kept intact.

"Attica Blues" Archie Shepp / Chief Xcel (of Blackalicious) remix

Released in 1972, Archie Shepp's "Attica Blues" is a seminal song in the canon of black socio-political jazz, Shepp's response to the infamous Attica prison rebellion in 1971. The big-band drive of the song, with its soulful, reach-to-the-heavens vocals and bombastic horns expressed through jazz what few thought possible, and it influenced many of his contemporaries as well as a younger generation of would-be musicians. One of those was Chief Xcel, whose remake of this song, includes the heavyweight beats he makes as one-half of seminal rap group, Blackalicious. Riffing on the original, Chief Xcel pays respectful tribute to this soulful lament.

"Astral Traveling" Pharaoh Sanders / Boozoo Bajou remix

Pharoah Sanders's "Astral Traveling," from the 1970 LP, Thembi, is the kind of experimental composition that exemplified Sanders legacy as such a unique figure in jazz music. He was a fiery figure, intense and demanding, who challenged the boundaries of improvised music (and still does). Just a handful of years after John Coltrane's death, Sanders and his band would create rich, adventurous tapestries out of traditional and electronic instruments. German DJ/production duo Boozoo Bajou are clearly inspired by the same aesthetic and they've been incorporating a modern twist on that style since their inception in 1998, part of a movement of European "nu-jazz" innovators. On their reworking of "Astral Traveling," they pay proper tribute, maintaining the lush pace of the original and bathing in its transcendental beauty.

"Bamboo Flute Blues" Yusef Lateef / Kid Koala remix

Yusef Lateef is a jazz titan, and a master of melding the physical, emotional and spiritual into his music. Lateef was also a great proponent of exploring and fusing musical cultures, and he often played using unique instruments of the Eastern world. It's a style that would create a pioneering fusion sound in jazz displayed on the original "Bamboo Flute Blues." Over the last eight years, Kid Koala has become known as a turntablist titan. His dexterity using records and turntables is something to behold: he will fluctuate a record's pitch, volume, speed to create actual new notes out of echoes, scratches and sounds. The innovative technique can be heard here on this remix, where Koala turns Lateef's eastern blues into a ghostly tune befitting the spirit of the composer's work.

"Stolen Moments" Oliver Nelson / Telefon Tel-Aviv remix

Oliver Nelson was a notable saxophone player whose career extended past recorded music into mentor, songwriter and television and film score producer. It was his skill as a jazz composer and arranger, though, that gives his legacy the most weight, especially the jazz classic, "Stolen Moments." A magical quality surrounds the proud, soulful radiance of the original and Chicago outfit Telefon Tel-Aviv had the monumental task of remixing it. They do so with deft imagination. It's only about halfway through the fractured, dream-like haze of their beat-less remix that you hear the familiar brassy bridge of the original and the tension is ecstatic.

"At Night" Ravi Coltrane with Julie Patton / Poem by John Coltrane

"At Night" is the one track from Impulsive! that does not follow the guidelines of all the tracks before it. Ravi Coltrane, the distinguished musician and son of John Coltrane, composed and produced a new song based on a poem written by his father. Here, he creates a new composition around a reading of the work by poet and artist, Julie Patton, that is part emotional remembrance, part modern-day jazz celebration. It's a mix that personifies the entirety of Impulsive! and a fitting end to a great collection of songs.

Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked Track Listing

1. George Russell • A Helluva-Town • SA-RA “GO” Remix
2. Charles Mingus • II B.S. • RZA’s Mingus Bounce Mix
3. Chico Hamilton • El Toro • Marc De Clive-Lowe Remix
4. Gabor Szabo • Mizrab • Prefuse 73 Remix
5. Dizzy Gillespie • Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac • Gerardo Frisina Remix
6. Clark Terry and Chico O’Farrill • Spanish Rice • DJ Dolores Remix
7. Archie Shepp • Attica Blues • Chief Xcel (of Blackalicious Remix)
8. Pharoah Sanders • Astral Traveling • Boozoo Bajou Remix
9. Yusef Lateef • Bamboo Flute Blues • Kid Koala Remix
10. Oliver Nelson • Stolen Moments • Telefon Tel-Aviv Remix
11. John Coltrane • At Night • A poem featuring music by Ravi Coltrane & Julie Patton