Wintertijd

St Germain Des Prés Café 8

On the same day I bought this Stephanie McKay album I mentioned earlier, I also picked up Concerto's Nu-Jazz tip for the day, St Germain Des Près Café, volume 8. It's a 2006 compilation of nu-jazz tunes which was lying there with a post-it on it saying such things as "Nu-Jazz Tip" and "11.95", so I had to take it with me. Initially I thought it was a compilation done by the French artist St Germain, but upon reading the Wiki and some other material I found out that St Germain is actually not associated with this series of compilations. Instead, the people behind Buddha Bar are.

In and of itself I that shouldn't bode well for the CD because Buddha Bar is something I've always found trite. While I can enjoy certain compilations like St Etienne's "The Trip" and Café del Mar Volumen Seis, usually I hate electronic lounge albums because I typically think it's elevator music. However, this CD is no such thing. The focus here is less on electronica and more on Jazz, albeit with touches of Fusion here and there. Nu-Jazz in other words. The compilation is very good. For those that are not acquainted with Swedish Nu-Jazz luminaries Koop, Britain's blackest sounding white girl Alice Russell and Norwegian Jazz-Funk duo Kinny & Horne, it is a great compilation to buy as it features songs of all three, and good ones at that. So judging by what I knew on the disc, the compiler had good taste.

The track I'm going to offer here is by Ashley Slater and it's the first track in the set. When I first heard the song I immediately recognized him as the frontman for Freak Power, a band that had a smash hit in 1995 with the song "Tune on, Tune in, Cop out". I've always loved that band. Their self-titled album from the same year features a great cover of Sly Stone's "Running Away" and the voice of the singer really does it for me. So imagine my surprise when I slide this 2006 Nu-Jazz compilation into the player and hear his voice. Now I never knew Freak Power's frontman was called Ashley Slater. And I never knew he also plays trombone. Hell, I didn't even know his partner in crime for Freak Power was Fatboy Slim. It's amazing, the things you can find out by simply buying a record.

Anyway, please enjoy Cellophane by Ashley Slater. I know I did.

Posted by Chris at November 14, 2008 10:41 PM