Shades of Blue

Madlib - Shades of Blue

Shades of Blue
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CD Details

Artist: Madlib
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-06-24
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Soundtracks:
  1. Introduction
  2. Slim's Return
  3. Distant Land (Hip Hop Drum Mix)
  4. Mystic Bounce
  5. Stormy
  6. Blue Note Interlude
  7. Please Set Me At Ease
  8. Funky Blue Note
  9. Alfred Lion Interlude
  10. Steppin' Into Tomorrow
  11. Andrew Hill Break
  12. Montara
  13. Song For My Father
  14. Footprints - Yesterdays New Quintet
  15. Peace/Dolphin Dance
  16. Outro

Music reviews of Shades of Blue

Music Review: if you already know madlib, then you already know it's good.
Rating: 5 Stars

Everyone familiar with Madlib's work will probably be approaching this album with Yesterday's New Quintet on their minds. And that's natural, as it's the only other widely distributed jazz-takes-the-center-stage long player that Madlib's put out, i.e. it's the one that most of the people are most familiar with. The jazz influence is obvious in a lot of his work, but on these records jazz is the dominant theme.

As compared to YNQ, the hip-hop element seems more apparent here, which may make it more accessible to anyone that YNQ didn't quite click with, should such people exist. Still, Madlib's solo efforts have always struck me as being more for the heads---musician's musician type stuff, and though a lot of people have given him the time and attention he deserves, I still feel Madlib might take getting used to for some folks. On this record About half of the songs are "remixes" of old blue note recordings while the other half are "remakes," performed by Madlib, his alter egos, and various other personnel. Still the jazz/beats thing, but now there's cuts and rhymes coming into it (not too heavily, but they're there).

Though it makes for a more obvious wedding between hip-hop and jazz, the great thing for me is that Madlib's music doesn't turn into some silly hybrid. This isn't an electronic musician doing his best to approximate a certain sound that he has come to associate with the idea of "jazz," and it's not just a saxophone loop and a beat, either. the fact that he understands and feels this music comes through---the music develops and changes, flows in and out of itself and maintains this for the length. It doesn't get pretentious. He's paying respect to a label, a sound that he loves and has grown with, and though it comes across as pretty personal to me, it's also a good way to get someone on a jazz vibe who might not have gone that route ordinarily---this is still music for everybody.
If you like madlib, you'll still like him. If you don't know his stuff and don't have a strong feel for jazz but are still interested this is maybe a better intro than YNQ, though it's hard for me to say that with conviction as I like it all. Give it a chance, at least, if you don't like it now you will eventually, so long as you trust me and give it the effort it deserves.

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Description of Shades of Blue

Shades of Blue opens with the declaration that "We are now having a little cooking session for Blue Note right here on the scene..." Madlib was afforded the opportunity to mine the crates of Blue Note. On Shades of Blue, Madlib delivers remixes and brand spanking new interpretations of Blue Note classics. Whether funking out Ronnie Foster's original "Mystic Brew" and transforming it into the "Mystic Bounce," or giving Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" a go with Yesterday's New Quintet, rest assured that Madlib's innovative sonic vocabulary will fill the ears. Other artists receiving a Madlib reimagination include Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Bobby Hutcherson, Horace Silver, The Three Sounds and many more.
The hip-hop producer extraordinaire tackles Blue Note's soul-jazz catalog on his latest project, given free reign to rummage around the fabled label's vaults. On one level, the project makes perfect sense given Madlib's Yesterday's New Quintet work--he clearly has an ear for the Blue Note jazz aesthetic. The remixes and reinventions here are mostly pleasant and even surprising at times--get down with "Mystic Bounce," a flip on Ronnie Foster's "Mystic Brew." Yet, some of these tracks seem a little too casual and undercooked, making Shades of Blue feel a bit too much like just another Madlib side project. In fact, Blue Note had already done a better job with this very same concept on their largely forgotten 1996 New Groove compilation, where artists such as Large Professor and the Roots took their stabs at the label's catalog. --Oliver Wang

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