Blogcritics: Comments on Bird Is Reborn: Rappers, rockers to remix Charlie Parker's hits

Comment by James

Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:27:49 EDT

I have listened to both the Madlib and Us3 projects. I think I liked the Madlib project more than the Us3. I definitely love the Verve Remixed project but have not heard the Verve Remixed 2 project yet. All that being said, these type projects can be either feast or famine. I will definitely give it a listen.

Comment by David

Sat, 6 Sep 2003 13:09:14 EDT

I doubt if it would be anything I'd want to hear, but it doesn't offend me or anything. I generally dislike hiphop, and tend to think jazz/hip-hop (and jazz/funk for that matter) is a bad idea, but I saw Russell Gunn's band perform a couple of times recently, and they totally rocked. Every member was a virtuoso, and that definitely included the turntable guy.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Fri, 5 Sep 2003 00:23:46 EDT

you never know....it could be good. i mean, the stuff that US3 put out was kinda fun. i'm a pretty big jazz fan but find it very funny when the purists go ballistic about things like this. in my exotica mailing list they went absolutely nuts about that billie holiday remix.

Comment by Tom Johnson

Thu, 4 Sep 2003 18:19:21 EDT

I think it sounds awful, too, and I'm no jazz purist. I like the idea of someone coming in and messing with conventions, but this smacks of hype. Madlib did something similar with free access to Blue Note's vaults and it's getting great reviews (I've only heard 30-second clips and can't decide how I feel) but there's been little hype about it, from what I've seen. This Bird remix project sounds like it's specifically aiming to raise hackles, because Bird is sacred among jazz fiends and anyone messing with Bird is looking for trouble. What bothers me most is that this doesn't sound respectful of the memory of Bird. But there's really no telling until this hits the stores in October. I'll be anxiously awaiting hearing this - if not buying it if it turns out to do something good.

Comment by Rodney Welch

Thu, 4 Sep 2003 16:48:15 EDT

Call me a purist. This sounds like a really shitty idea.

Comment by BJ

Thu, 4 Sep 2003 16:43:44 EDT

If this raises hackles among the "jazz purist" crowd, that would be highly ironic. (Perhaps not as ironic as Kazaa complaining about Google's infringement on its copyright, but still pretty ironic.) Parker, after all, made his mark tearing apart and reconstructing jazz standards ... and a lot of jazzheads hated him for it. This remix project sounds like the sort of idea that could really work ... or could be just terrible. (Like when I heard that Wilco and Bragg were going to do W. Guthrie lyrics ... who knew it would be good?)