Genre Jazz Rap

Jazz-Rap was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter. While the rhythms of jazz-rap came entirely from hip-hop, the samples and sonic textures were drawn mainly from cool jazz, soul-jazz, and hard bop. It was cooler and more cerebral than other styles of hip-hop, and many of its artists displayed an Afrocentric political consciousness, complementing the style's historical awareness. Given its more intellectual bent, it's not surprising that jazz-rap never really caught on as a street favorite, but then it wasn't meant to. Jazz-rap styled itself as a more positive alternative to the hardcore/gangsta movement taking over rap's mainstream at the dawn of the '90s, and concerned itself with spreading hip-hop to listeners unable to embrace or identify with the music's increasing inner-city aggression. As such, jazz-rap found its main audiences in places like college campuses, and was also embraced by a

number of critics and white alternative rock fans. Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues posse -- a loose collective of New York-based, Afrocentric rap groups -- was the most important force in jazz-rap, including groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers; Digable Planets and Gang Starr were other notable early artists. During the mid- to late '90s, as alternative rap moved into a wider-ranging eclecticism, jazz-rap was not often pursued as an exclusive end, although the Roots frequently incorporated it in their live-instrumentation hip-hop.

Related styles:

The music played by a generation raised on jazz as well as funk and hip-hop, Acid Jazz used elements of all three. Its existence as a percussion-heavy, primarily live music placed it closer to jazz and Afro-Cuban than any other dance style, but its insistence on keeping the groove allied it with funk, hip-hop, and dance music. The term itself first appeared in 1988 as both a record label and the title of a compilation series that reissued jazz-funk music from the '70s -- often called "rare groove" during a major mid-'80s resurgence. A variety of acid jazz artists emerged during the late '80s and early '90s, including either primarily live bands such as Stereo MC's, James Taylor Quartet, the Brand New Heavies, Groove Collective, Galliano, and Jamiroquai or studio projects like Palm Skin Productions, Mondo Grosso, Outside, and United Future Organization.

Brooklyn Funk Essentials is a soul/funk/acid jazz collective, featuring Groove Collective's trombonist Joshua Roseman, producer Bob "Sassy" Brockmann, DJ Jazzy Nice, and saxophonist Paul Shapiro. Surprisingly, Cool and Steady and Easy isn't at all schizophrenic in its tone -- it's a cohesive, smooth, and funky collection, standing as a testament to the talents of the musicians involved.