IDM Mailing Archive

I'd have to agree that acid jazz isn't really jazz. i've heard my share of acid jazz, mo' wax and ninjatune releases. I love the stuuf and buy everything i can get, but i also think its a misnomer to call it jazz. most of it is really just hip hop with someone playing a a live instrament over it which hardly qualifies as jazz. There is really very little free improvisation and IMO most of the horn playing is second rate. I think it becomes important to remember that when someone says they don't think there is much jazz in acid jazz it doesn't mean they are trying to disparage the sound. I love acid jazz and trip hop and have been buying stuff from coldcut since they started releasing stuff in the US and now the ninjatune and ntone stuff. I just think that if you sit down and listen to say the "Royalties Overdue" comp on Mo' Wax, which is 'jazzy' for sure, and then compare it to some straight up jazz you'd be at a loss to say their in the same class. Neither is better in any absolute sense. It just that if you program a symphonic peice on some synths and let it run are you now a classical musician? -- Mark Bowen mb@gettins.bche.uic.edu "The universe," said [the devil], "is a Ph.D thesis that God was unable to successfully defend." -James Morrow