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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Blue Note Revisited
• Label: Blue Note
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-07-23

Blue Note is a respectable jazz label. They've definitely had some quality releases in the past including some of the most influential jazz albums ever to be released but as of late it seems like the Capitol affiliate seems to be copying the other jazz powerhouse, Verve. Diana Krall was leading the pack so Blue Note looked for something along that lines and hit it big with Norah Jones. Verve had a not too original idea of taking old jazz classics and reworking them to come up with the Verve Remix series. Not to be outdone, I would like to announce Blue Note Revisited, the BN equivalent of what Verve is doing. The nice thing with being an imitator is that you learn from the other's mistakes. That is pretty much the case on Blue Note Revisited. It's as good a play, if not better, as the Verve Remixed project. Start throwing some groovy 2000 beats onto the likes of Eddie Henderson (Kyoto Jazz Massive), Bobby Hutcherson (an awesome mix by Kenny Dope), Wayne Shorter, Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Bobbi Humphrey, Horace Silver, and a bunch of other Blue Note classic artists and you have funk central. You have to remember that most of the artists reworking these songs have the utmost respect for them, as these are their influence for being musicians themselves. With that being said, you would be hard pressed for a bad cut on the CD. The 4Hero version of Horace Silver's "Won't you open up your senses" is ever so gentle that you have a hard time knowing it's been remixed. Some of the tracks are a little more obvious like Malib's work on Bobbi Humphrey's "Young Warrior" where Madlib lets it rip. Remember that Blue Note has always been more a musicians label rather than a mainstream label but that's a good thing. There is a reason musicians jump at the chance to work with these archives.

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