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Acid Jazz





Music Information

  name Acid Jazz
  color pink
  bgcolor black
  stylistic Origins Jazz , Soul , Funk , Disco
  cultural Origins 1980s , Southern England
  instruments Saxophone , Trumpet , Trombone , Clarinet , Piano , Guitar , Double Bass , Drums , Strings
  popularity Medium-High ( UK )
  subgenrelist list of jazz genres




Acid jazz (also known as '''club jazz''') is a and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of Jazz-funk onto Electronic Dance / Pop music. Acid Jazz is also the name of a recording label in the United Kingdom (founded by Gilles Peterson & Eddie Piller ) which issues recordings by artists in the genre.

While acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including sampling or live DJ cutting and scratching), it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. The compositions of groups such as The Brand New Heavies and Incognito often feature chord structures usually associated with Jazz music. The Heavies in particular were known in their early years for beginning their songs as catchy pop and rapidly steering them into jazz territory before "resolving" the composition and thus not losing any pop listeners but successfully "exposing" them to jazz elements in "baby steps".

The acid jazz "movement" is also seen as a "revival" of jazz-funk or Jazz Fusion or Soul Jazz by leading DJ s such as Norman Jay or Gilles Peterson or Patrick Forge , also known as " Rare Groove crate diggers".


ORIGINS

The sound and clubs that went with it arose out of Southern England's rare groove scene of the late seventies and early eighties and various other alternative groups, including the London mod scene. It is distinguished from the Northern Soul scene (then popular in the South of England with clubs such as the 100 Club in Oxford Street) but still portrayed various similarities.

The name came into common parlance with the Acid Jazz label but in reality the scene had existed in disparate forms and without a distinguishing name for some time beforehand. Journalists at the time appeared very confused by the genre and made various attempts to connect it to the London mod scene (by links with various former members of that scene, prominently Eddie Piller and the James Taylor Quartet - Taylor having formerly been Hammond Player for sixties garage band The Prisoners). Infamously, ID magazine ran an article on Acid Jazz Mods which irritated both mods and "acid jazz fans" in equal amounts.

The scene always had two halves, those who liked the original jazz and soul recordings and those who followed the new bands signed by labels like acid jazz. It is the former who still probably support their music, many of the early bands having fallen well by the wayside. Attempts to integrate the music with hip hop and jungle are now regarded by many as misguided attempts to keep the music fresh whilst leading it a long way from its starting point, attempts that were regarded with disdain by many.

An important gauge of the UK scene and the creation of the genre are to be found in the UK's Straight No Chaser magazine. Similarly, clothing labels like Duffer of St George were closely associated with the scene, although the "right outfit" was never essential.

Disc jockeys Gilles Peterson and Chris Bangs are generally credited with coining the term ''acid jazz'' at a 1987 'Talkin' Loud Sayin Something' session. At the time, this was Peterson's regular Sunday afternoon club at Dingwalls in Camden, London.

In his Radio 1 biograpahy, Peterson describes how the term Acid jazz came about. "We put on this old 7-inch by Mickey and the Soul Generation which was a rare groove record with a mad rock guitar intro and no beat. I started vary speeding it so it sounded all warped. Chris Bangs got on the microphone and said, 'If that was acid house, this is acid jazz'. That's how acid jazz started, just a joke!" BBC Radio 1 website, Gilles Peterson: Biography, (accessed 21 Mar 07)
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Baltimore's underground club scene mixed with the town's love for “live music” the made it easy for bands such as trip hop giants Lake Trout and reggae/acid jazz hybrid The Big Hurt to be able to break into the mainstream and gain regional and national exposure.


ACID JAZZ IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

In the 'Moondance'; another prominent artist from Japan was the female vocalist, Monday Michiru. From the UK, Repercussions who had a top hit, ''Promise me nothing''. Other more recent artists and groups who have produced music in this genre include Medeski, Martin, And Wood , Mother Earth , Mr. Scruff , Visit Venus , Praful , and Down To The Bone .


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