Mr Boombastic Album
Carmina Piette
The album spawned five singles: "In the Summertime", a remake of the Mungo Jerry hit, "Boombastic", which peaked at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, at 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 1 on the U.S. R&B chart, "Why You Treat Me So Bad", the double A-side "Something Different" / "The Train Is Coming", and "Day Oh", which was released as a Japanese only single. "Boombastic" was used as the theme for a 1995 Levi's ad, which was directed by Michael Mort and Deiniol Morris. It was also used in the 2006 and 2007 films, respectively, Barnyard and Mr. Bean's Holiday. A remake of "In the Summertime" was re-released for the 1996 film Flipper.
The album was certified platinum in United States and gold in United Kingdom. It peaked at number 34 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top Reggae Albums chart in the US, and reached number 37 on the UK Albums Chart.[13][14][15]
Pianist Robert Glasper, who would know, says \u201Cjazz is the mother of hip hop.\u201D The dominant family trait is an essential swing that reached increasingly abstract expressions, from bebop and free jazz to \u201Cchopped and screwed\u201D tracks. Both grew as against-the-grain, underground expressions that shifted the direction of pop music. The relationship was a bit fraught in hip-hop\u2019s adolescence as crate-digging producers looking for something more melodic than funky drum breaks sampled freely from jazz records \u2014 emphasis on \u201Cfree.\u201D By the early \u201890s, an established mechanism for clearing samples became a line of business for artists, labels, and publishers, and jazz and hip-hop publicly embraced each other. A Tribe Called Quest dropped The Low End Theory, which broke out on the strength of \u201CJazz (We\u2019ve Got)\u201D with its beat derived from Jimmy McGriff\u2019s version of \u201CGreen Dolphin Street\u201D by producer Pete Rock. Digable Planets\u2019 \u201CRebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),\u201D built from a sample of \u201CStretching\u201D by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, was a crossover hit.
In shades of the Birdland scene of the 1950s, where Manhattan\u2019s 52nd Street was the center of the jazz universe, this was initially all going down in New York. Pete Rock\u2019s production on his track with C.L. Smooth \u201CThey Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)\u201D and Nas\u2019s \u201CThe World Is Yours,\u201D from the all-time-great Illmatic album, exemplifies how dusty grooves and jazz samples became part of New York hip-hop\u2019s essential grit. Along the way, Blue Note Records flung open its vaults for London\u2019s urbane, clubby Us3, who turned a sample of Herbie Hancock\u2019s \u201CCantaloupe Island\u201D into the US Top 40 US hit \u201CCantaloop (Flip Fantasia)\u201D and made the Hand On the Torch album the label\u2019s first to reach Platinum status in the U.S.. In Toronto, duo Dream Warriors had their own thing in mind.
King Lou (Louis Robinson) and Capital Q (Frank Allert) formed Dream Warriors in 1988. Both counted as veterans of Toronto\u2019s nascent hip-hop scene, and they released \u201CMy Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style\u201D to radio independently before being signed to Island Records\u2019 4th & B\u2019way imprint. The sound of their debut And Now the Legacy Begins is often more playful compared to what was happening 350 miles south, which isn\u2019t to say that it\u2019s slight. Like with De La Soul, their hip-hop reflected different streets. Toronto has been called the most multicultural city in the world. On the album\u2019s \u201CLudi,\u201D a song about playing a game, King Lou gives an extended shoutout to the composition of his neighborhood:
The sample at the center of \u201CMy Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style\u201D is from Quincy Jones\u2019s \u201CSoul Bossa Nova.\u201D The 1962 song from Jones\u2019s Big Band Bossa Nova featured Lalo Schifirin on piano and Rashaan Roland Kirk on flute. Schifirin went on to write \u201CTheme from: Mission Impossible\u201D and score films like Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt and Enter The Dragon. Kirk was a multi-instrumentalist \u2014 often at the same time. Blind since age two, Kirk began touring with bands at 14; he would play two saxophones, if not more, simultaneously, harmonizing with himself. (The breadth and incendiary power of Kirk\u2019s solo work makes for an invigorating, wild ride, with his own takes on swing, blues and free jazz as well as composers from Tchaikovsky and Dvorak to Burt Bacharach.) An accounting of Quincy Jones\u2019s own credits and influence, of course, would of course stretch from The Bronx past Toronto.
You probably know \u201CSoul Bossa Nova\u201D from the Austin Powers series. Given the title of \u201CMy Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style,\u201D it\u2019s a sure bet that King Lou and Capital Q heard it the same way Mike Myers did, as the theme to Canada\u2019s longest running TV game show, Definition. On the show, contestants have to solve hangman-style puzzles with puns for clues; there\u2019s something so fitting in reworking its theme as the basis for exuberant wordplay.
You could dance to \u201CSoul Bossa Nova\u201D in a party dress or slim-cut suit, cocktail in hand, and never break a sweat, which was likely the idea. Dream Warriors turn it into a sugar rush. After a stately recitation of the song title, \u201CMy Definition\u201D begins with five quick horn blasts that recall nothing so much as the opening to the original late-\u201960s Spider-Man cartoon theme. It hardly relents from there. Kirk\u2019s flute is the main hook, dipping out just to leave space for the rhymes, which given the song\u2019s tempo, are delivered at a surprisingly conversational pace. It\u2019s so smart and fun; the effect is giddying.
The song was a hit in Canada, where the album went gold, and won the 1992 Juno award for Rap Recording of the Year. \u201CMy Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style\u201D was also a top-20 UK hit and did well across Europe, but the only US charts it dented were college radio\u2019s. Jazz and hip-hop has come a long way since Nice & Smooth proclaimed \u201CDizzy Gillespie played the sax!\u201D on \u201CFunky for You.\u201D Collaborations combining rappers and hip-hop production with serious players (like Donald Byrd and Roy Ayers on GURU\u2019s Jazzmatazz Vo1. 1) with flourished in the \u201890s, even if too often it felt like dancing where it was unclear who should lead. It has been the next generation who has made jazz + hip-hop sound like they grew from the same organic soil: The Roots, Kamasi Washington with Kendrick Lamar, and especially Robert Glasper \u2014 that\u2019s the definition.
The folks over at pastpri.me.com asked me to inaugurate a new feature comparing a less popular song by a revered artist and a popular song by less revered artist. What\u2019s more listenable initially? What\u2019s more listenable over time? Will my love of metaphor be used for evil and not good? The first piece compares The Spin Doctors \u201CTwo Princes\u201D vs. The Band\u2019s \u201890s comeback, \u201CRemedy.\u201D
Happy birthday to David G, whom I haven\u2019t seen in years but who was an early advocate for this project and suggested it to a friend whom I\u2019ve since e-met. Connecting through music is what it\u2019s all about. I hope it was a good one, buddy.
The iconic reggae artist, known for chart-topping tracks like \"It Wasn't Me\" and \"Angel,\" is releasing the new project to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his diamond-selling album, \"Hot Shot,\" which he describes as \"a monumental album in dancehall.\"
\"It was really the album that really brought dancehall to the mainstream and brought numbers to the game,\" Shaggy said in an interview with \"Good Morning America.\" \"It also was the album that opened the door for the likes of Sean Paul and many of the artists to come afterwards in dancehall, and this is a celebration of the journey.\"
\"I still wanted to keep the authenticity of the original recordings because they were still recurring on radio, but I also wanted to give that new sonic feeling that's happening now,\" Shaggy said about remixing his famous tunes. \"I incorporated trap, I incorporated a little bit of reggaeton, I incorporated these new sounds and feels that's happening right now and just kind of give it the mix ... the more digital type of mix that really works with these kids walking around with AirPods these days.\"
\"This album is an album of joy, of smiles, of sunshine, and especially in these COVID times, you listen to this and feel like hey, I want to escape onto some other island somewhere and hopefully you'll feel like you want to be in an island -- and maybe after COVID you can visit the island,\" he said with a laugh.
\"I make songs to put smiles on people's faces, I make songs to make people be happy. That is my purpose,\" he said. \"I think that every fan that I touch, I mean, if I could make their life a little bit different or a little better day-to-day with this music, whether they're singing to it, dancing to it, using it to get their mind off whatever anxiety is hitting them, I've done my job.\"
\"The biggest thing I took from '44/876' was not just winning a Grammy and having a very successful tour and selling platinum with this album; it was really, I gained a brother I didn't know I needed, and I gained a mentor I didn't know I needed,\" Shaggy said regarding his tight bond with the English musician.
\"Last night he called me and was jamming through the whole album, him and Trudie, they're in Italy and he's playing it in the courtyard with a couple of friends, really just rocking to it, so I was really, really pleased about that,\" Shaggy said.
Another track that might seem familiar on \"Hot Shot 2020\"? A new remix of Shaggy's wildly successful hit \"Banana,\" which he released in 2019 with artist Conkarah. The song has been streamed more than 250 million times worldwide and more than 26.7 million TikTok videos have been made for the #bananadrop challenge, which features the track.
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