Another 90s Hype Thread - Acid Jazz + Gilles Peterson

luka

Well-known member
true. the foundations. and way better listening, even though i have to admit i like a bunch of acid jazz including jamiroquai lol

Can you remember any other of his favourites? There were particular jazz vocalists, abbey Lincoln for instance, but what song? And Oliver nelson, but again, which song?
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
listen to real jazz like roscoe mitchell mate.

jazz is my main thing, third, old bean. it's where my heart lays. very much into the heavy stuff but i can definitely listen to the chaff from time to time. i grew up playing drums along to mr quai so there's some nostalgia in there too. funnily enough he gets a lot of respect in the states from serious jazz n funk fans. same with a bunch of other shit that belongs in this thread like incognito.

i have to say, sometimes i think growing up totally detached from what was cool, not having a peer group who knew the trends, beefs and ins n outs of all the shenanigans of the nuums and hiphops etc was actually a blessing. i can listen to a lot of shit that by dissensus standards is considered sacrilegious. and i dig that you guys know all the shit and the histories, details, nerdy stuff. but it's kinda funny to see what gets hated on sometimes.

anyway back on with the acidjath

 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Can you remember any other of his favourites? There were particular jazz vocalists, abbey Lincoln for instance, but what song? And Oliver nelson, but again, which song?

you already hit on his top fave with mark murphy, can't remember the others off the top, but i may have blocked em out. 95% of the time i can really do without vox in jazz tho tbh.

just did a quick google and found this


not bad

letta mbulu's classic what is wrong with groovin is a nice one.
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Apparently the foundational record of the Acid Jazz scene, it's decent:

A lot of the Giles Peterson/digger side of it is basically good records played by the worst people in the worst contexts.
 

luka

Well-known member
Yes context is key because you can, depending on context, foreground this or that element in any given piece of music.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Apparently the foundational record of the Acid Jazz scene, it's decent:

Nice. There are comments from the original band members on the YouTube page. Always cool to see people with rare music like this show up. Have seen it with the band Smoke and a few other jazzy things over the years.

bassbeyondreason what is it you dislike about GP and the rest that you dislike so much?
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Deeply suspicious of the elevation of "organic" "real music", in the context of e.g. rave culture (which was the original context of Acid Jazz). I mean it's smug and irritating and often vaguely racist/classist, but mainly it just leads to dead-end conservatism, and ignores both the weird outliers of the past and the innovations of the present.

Been thinking of starting a thread on "hardcore eclecticism" vs "tasteful eclecticism", trying to pinpoint what differentiates say Larry Levan or Hieroglyphic Being or DJ Marcelle from, say, Mr Scruff, but I can't think of much beyond the general idea of "vibe".
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
Also might be an age thing (I'm 31), repulsed by the student stoner music of my immediate forbears (which incidentally seems to have come back round again via Bonobo and "chill lo-fi hip hop" youtube algorithms.)
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
pattycakes said:
bassbeyondreason what is it you dislike about GP and the rest that you dislike so much?

it's whiteboy cultural fetishism taken to its logical extreme isn't it. i like a lot of rare groove and stuff considered smooth or tepid but I also try to check out what's going on in gqom or chicago drill. it's the closed mind value set, like black people are making this music to appeal to the existentialism of white people, and if they talk about bitches and bling they've somehow betrayed these people and their university dissertations. don't get me wrong gangsta rap can get tiring but so can love songs, it's only just because we've conditioned ourselves that love songs carry a traditional cultural cachet that we put them on a pedastol.
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
for me it isn't even the elegance or privilege of these people, i can certainly appreciate the need to occasionally go to a night with an elegant vibey crowd, its their value set and their smug condescension towards anyone a bit ruffneck that pisses me off.

and of course most of the records the gilles peterson types fetishise are just in londons black music dna anyway, most people in hardcore-jungle know that stuff, otherwise they wouldn't be sampling it. gilles himself though is alright I've heard, i'm more thinking about the crowds he attracts.

it's like Norman Jay, I really rate him as a selector, he's turned me onto some good stuff but i wouldn't be caught dead at a good times night really, well, maybe when I'm 50. and yeah i know norman jay is black - like i said i rate the fella and he has a perfect sunday evening radio voice. he can play at my gabba bash all the phillie soul he wants I'm all down for that.

But I think people like Peterson and Norman Jay are much more grounded in eclecticism than their fans for which eclecticism is a very specific 70s value set. I mean Gilles likes Lil Wayne for christ's sake i heard!
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
yeah, galliano is just stinking shit. there is 100 years of amazing jazz to discover and you try and tell us that that shit was better than 93 darkside (not u patty obviously)

1931 and it pisses all over galliano


 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
I was gonna say, gilles is always on the lookout for good new shit. He's championing people from countries that would never get a look in otherwise. Cuba etc. His record label and festival are all about that shit. There was an interview between him n snowboy on his podcast a few years ago where they were talking about playing the electric ballroom in Camden in the 80s. They had a jazz room of course and gilles was talking about how it all got a bit too serious at one point. Like really heavy vibes, people (mostly white males) freaking out to serious jazz and he felt like it got a bit too up itself. I think he has a very healthy attitude to it all, even though he clearly loves that stuff. I think he likes having girls and everyone else dancing and feeling welcome and basically just having a good time all round. I wouldn't mind being around for those nights he was talking about tho tbh lol. I mean, he's not quite got the edge he had back in the day due to age, but man, if benji b is the next best thing we've got then give me gilles' finesse, knowledge, touch and sensibility any day of the week. The guy is a net positive for the scene and I'm eternally in debt to him for putting me on to so much incredible shit over the years. Those Monday sessions at bar rumba are part of my dna. The way he could flow from style to style effortlessly. And in piccadilly circus so you had a mix of regulars and tourists. Everyone well into it. I was a regular from when I arrived in london until the very last one. Heard he loves a bit o nose candy. He's a geezer tho innit!
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
I was gonna say, gilles is always on the lookout for good new shit. He's championing people from countries that would never get a look in otherwise. Cuba etc. His record label and festival are all about that shit. There was an interview between him n snowboy on his podcast a few years ago where they were talking about playing the electric ballroom in Camden in the 80s. They had a jazz room of course and gilles was talking about how it all got a bit too serious at one point. Like really heavy vibes, people (mostly white males) freaking out to serious jazz and he felt like it got a bit too up itself. I think he has a very healthy attitude to it all, even though he clearly loves that stuff. I think he likes having girls and everyone else dancing and feeling welcome and basically just having a good time all round. I wouldn't mind being around for those nights he was talking about tho tbh lol. I mean, he's not quite got the edge he had back in the day due to age, but man, if benji b is the next best thing we've got then give me gilles' finesse, knowledge, touch and sensibility any day of the week. The guy is a net positive for the scene and I'm eternally in debt to him for putting me on to so much incredible shit over the years. Those Monday sessions at bar rumba are part of my dna. The way he could flow from style to style effortlessly. And in piccadilly circus so you had a mix of regulars and tourists. Everyone well into it. I was a regular from when I arrived in london until the very last one. Heard he loves a bit o nose candy. He's a geezer tho innit!

oh from what ive heard granted im not a real listener to him gilles is miles miles better than benji b. benji b shows are always so booooring.

gilles peterson is repping all that kunshasa stuff isn't he? dj khalab and that. can't knock it!
 

luka

Well-known member
With the possible exception of doom metal, does any good music come from white people smoking weed?

Danny Weed? His mates were black and he grew up in east London though so not a pure example. Generally probably they should be banned. They smoke a spliff and think they're having spiritual vibes lol
 
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