A larger one is that some of this music sounds an awful lot like production music. You either love the stuff or you don't (I love it), but it's perhaps not as "jammy" as the title might have you believe. Still, it's nearly an hour of killer jazz-funk, and it's a good bet you've never heard most of it before.
Now, we all know that some of the great music of the 60s and 70s has become source material for all sorts of creative souls who spin the most wonderful remixes, and Concord let a diverse crew have at this Cosby/Jones material to see what they could do with it. That's what The New Mixes is all about.
This isn't really your standard remix album--most of those involved just borrowed bits and pieces from the jam sessions and built entirely new songs out of them. While the album suffers from a little bit too much sound-alikeism, there are some sparkling tracks here. Los Amigos Invisibles' contribution "Pelando" is the only track here which truly swings--drummer Juan Manuel Roura and bassist José Rafael Torres are the most locked-together rhythm section this side of Billy Martin and Chris Wood. Herbert creates the most freaked-out track here, the totally recombinant "(Matthew Herbert's) Technically Amateur Mix", which sounds like Bill Cosby's infamous "trifocals" routine set to music. Cornershop tries to go Air/Dmitri From Paris on "Valeurs Personelles" with reasonable results. Bedrock soaks up plenty of Bags on their track "Glimmer." Most of the rest of the tracks are good, if a bit anonymous. This was an interesting, creative project.
But in the long run, I think I like the original jam sessions better. Nothing against today's CRTL-x/CRTL-v artists, but nothing will ever substitute for the interactions of live musicians. The Jam Sessions could certainly swing harder and sound better (some of the mixes are a bit odd), but still, it's JAZZZZZZZ, y'see . . .
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