Jazzmatazz, Volume 1: An Experimental Fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz, is the debut solo studio album by American hip hop recording artist Guru. It was released on May 18, 1993, by Chrysalis Records. The recording sessions took place at D&D Studios, in New York. The album was produced by Guru, who also served as executive producer with Duff Marlowe and Patrick Moxey.
Acid jazz is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul, and hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1980s with the rare groove movement and spread to the United States, Western Europe, Latin America and Japan. Acts included The Brand New Heavies, Incognito, James Taylor Quartet, Us3, and Jamiroquai from the UK, and Guru, Buckshot LeFonque and Digable Planets from the U.S. The rise of electronic club music in the middle to late 1990s led to a decline in interest, and in the twenty-first century, acid jazz became indistinct as a genre. Many acts that might have been defined as acid jazz are seen as jazz-funk, or nu jazz.
Kenneth David Kirkland was an American pianist and keyboardist.
Buckshot LeFonque was a musical group project led by Branford Marsalis. The name Buckshot La Funke was a pseudonym used by jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley for contractual reasons on the album Here Comes Louis Smith (1958). After playing with Sting, Miles Davis and other artists, Marsalis founded this band to create a new sound by merging classic jazz with rock, pop, R&B and hip-hop influences.
M2 is a 2001 album by Jazz fusion musician Marcus Miller, and the winner of the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Sings the Blues is an album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone. This was Simone's first album for RCA Victor after previously recording for Colpix Records and Philips Records. The album was also reissued in 2006 with bonus tracks, and reissued in 1991 by RCA/Novus as a 17-track compilation under the title The Blues.
The Dana Owens Album is the fifth studio album by American hip hop artist Queen Latifah. The album was released on September 28, 2004 through A&M Records. The album marks a departure from her previous hip-hop releases, and is composed of jazz, soul, and R&B covers of songs by artists such as Al Green, Bill Withers, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, among others. The album reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and No. 11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Joseph Dominick Calderazzo is a jazz pianist and brother of musician Gene Calderazzo. He played extensively in bands led by Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis, and has also led his own bands.
Harbor Lights was the fourth album by Bruce Hornsby and was released by RCA Records in 1993. It was the first album credited solely to Hornsby, without his previous backing band, the Range.
Breezin' is the fifteenth studio album by jazz/soul guitarist and vocalist George Benson. It is his debut on Warner Bros. Records. It not only was a chart-topper in the Jazz category but also went to #1 on the pop and R&B charts. It was certified triple platinum, making it one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time.
Bringing Back the Funk is a studio album by Brian Culbertson released in 2008 on GRP Records. The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart.
Tales From The Acoustic Planet is an album by American banjoist Béla Fleck. It is a jazzy album with roots in bluegrass, where Fleck is joined by bluegrass stars, as well as his jazz friends and Flecktones members. This is also his first solo album since 1988's Places.
Prelude is the eighth studio album by Brazilian keyboardist Eumir Deodato, released in 1973. With the signature track "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)", Prelude also features one of the most heavily sampled drum breaks in the early hip hop cannon. The opening bars of September 13 features a legendary break beat used in many classic hip hop songs. The album can be categorised as classical-jazz fusion, thought by some as elevator music with a twist. Prelude would become the most successful recording for Deodato and CTI Records.
Joe Cool's Blues is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his father Ellis Marsalis that was released in 1995. The album reached a peak position of No. 3 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.
I Heard You Twice the First Time is a jazz album by Branford Marsalis that explores different aspects of the blues, featuring guest appearances from B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Russell Malone, Wynton Marsalis and Linda Hopkins. It peaked at number 1 on the Top Jazz Albums chart. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group.
Bloomington is a 1993 live jazz album by saxophonist Branford Marsalis, featuring Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums and Robert Hurst on bass. It was recorded at a concert in Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana on September 23, 1991, while the trio was on tour. The concert occurred one month before the release of Marsalis's album The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, featuring the same lineup, and three of Bloomington's six tracks are taken from that album. Bloomington peaked at number 9 on the Top Jazz Albums chart.
Music Evolution is the second album of Branford Marsalis's jazz/hip-hop/rock group Buckshot LeFonque. Featuring guest appearances from David Sanborn, Guru and Laurence Fishburne, the album peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. The album is notable in Branford's discography for marking his first collaboration with pianist Joey Calderazzo and bassist Eric Revis, both of whom would go on to record in his quartet in the 2000s and 2010s.
Requiem is a jazz album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet, featuring Branford Marsalis, Eric Revis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Kenny Kirkland. The recording, Kirkland's last before his death in November 1998, was dedicated to his memory. Recorded August 17–20 and December 9–10, 1998 in the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, the album reached Number 8 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart.
Amarcord Nino Rota is an album by various artists, recorded as a tribute to composer Nino Rota.
Music From "Mo' Better Blues" is a collaborative album by Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence Blanchard. It was released in 1990 through Columbia/CBS Records as a soundtrack to Spike Lee's 1990 film Mo' Better Blues. Recording sessions took place at RCA Studios and Sound On Sound in New York. Production was handled by Bill Lee, Delfeayo Marsalis, Raymond Jones and DJ Premier, with Spike Lee serving as executive producer. It features contributions from film stars Cynda Williams, Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes, and American hip hop duo Gang Starr.
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