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Koop
Waltz for Koop
My god, what happened to jazz? Somehow when no one was looking, Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck were replaced by Kenny G and John Tesh. That nappy foot tapping, hyperkinetic, walking bass, paradiddle drumming, beats got shoved aside for "Smooth Jazz". We don't claim to be big jazz aficionados, but Julie and Alex got us Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (1921-1956) and a whole lot of Nat "King" Cole, Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band, Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon to name a few. One listen to that after tuning into your local smooth jazz station leaves you scratching your head saying what the fuck happened to jazz? Contrary to the actions by the millions of somnambulacs shelling out cash for the crap that Aerosmith's and the Rolling Stones' management and marketing dept are shovelling, music has to grow and evolve to retain the energy that made it exciting in the first place. Only something went wrong with jazz. Bad commercial radio hijacked the illustrious genre and repurposed it into easy listening elevator music. Where the hell did real jazz go? After hearing Koop, it's all clear - the torch has been passed over to a number of young European DJ's, producers, and electronics whizes. Koop is two dudes (yeah, okay, a duo of composers / arrangers / producers) from Stockholm, Sweden that are mixing up jazz like the 80's never happened. Don't get us wrong here. Electronica with jazz undertones has been around for a while here (read: 90's acid jazz), and hat's off to Kruder & Dorfmeister, Nuspirit Helsinki, Jazzanova, Rainer Truby, St. Germain, and others who are doing a fantastic job of making some chill electronica with jazz undertones. But, when you ask yourself what ever happed to good old fashion jazz, just know that there's two dudes from Sweden that are redefining it as we speak. And the bonus? We can now firmly recommend a good strong coffee, a Croque Monsieur from Boulangerie de Cole and Koop's Summer Sun as the perfect start to a lazy Sunday morning.
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