This is a great collection of remixes from the world of Big Band music, which, though not as high-brow as your Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc., is definitely part of the world of jazz. Some talented "mixologists" work over some oldies (from the 40's, give or take) and the results are anything but fuddy-duddy. If you like jazz remix collections like Verve Remixed, Re-bop: The Savoy Remixes, Jazz Remixed, and Blue Note Revisited (which are all pretty good too) you'll want to get this one. -
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Band-Remixed-Reinvented-Dig/dp/B000F1IQ3W
Whether a band played a swinging up-tempo number or a limp, sentimental ballad, all those musicians together created a texture that is difficult - if not impossible - to capture electronically. Unfortunately, here the remixers do not even try. You couldn't hear the standup bass in a Big Band, unless the bassist happened to be playing a solo. Everybody kept the beat. That's why the best of it was called swing - there was a sense of rhythm that you could feel without having it in your face. After all, this was dance music.
On many of the seventeen tracks here, we get a modern version of Disco Big Band Classics. There is no point in describing the many "enhancements", so let's just say that Tito Puente doesn't need any help when he backs up Woody Herman on "Woodchopper's Ball". Big Band is often treated here as campy pop. Certainly much of it was. But all the originals had moments of glory. Les Brown may not have ranked with Gene Krupa, but he still put out some fine music (as well as being the bandleader of choice for Bob Hope).
On this remix, everyone is put through the software mill. Horn charts are generally ignored . There are shoutouts, turntables, broken beats, and one guy even plays along to "Harlem Nocturne". The accompanying booklet is a nice touch, giving a brief summary of the careers of the original artists. The best thing about remix projects, good or bad, is that they can generate interest in other types of music, and perhaps even rediscover things in the source material. In this case, however, you would be advised to go back to the original recordings, made in the days of real dance music.
~ Dave Howell (
http://www.properlychilled.com/music/release/291 )
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7058171
