For someone who enjoys their jazz served with a spoonful of funky beats, it’s like DJ ZedVantz is preaching to the converted when he puts out a mix like “Turntable Jazz”. The problem with blended music is that it often falls prey to the enormous egos of all genres involved, and even more often reeks of marketing opportunism. And this, of course, ultimately subjects the listener to an abysmal state of boredom. That is not the case here though: the Toronto-based DJ proves to be a deep connoisseur of both jazz and turntablism, and of where one half should meet the other.
In a mix that exceeds the 30-minute mark, ZedVantz manages to pep up some swing jazz classics with solid but compassionate break beats. And apparently the last song was what propelled him to put this stuff together – that “Swing Set” number by Cut Chemist featured on the first Jurassic 5 album. But in the unlikely event of purist classicism being your thing, let me just add that each track here glues together so well with the next one that it constantly frames the whole thing, and gives the impression of a jam session with musicians of the past and present.
Sure you can tell one tune from the other, but this never intended to be a breathless DJ set in the first place. The mix starts off with an unreleased, gloriously sulky revision of Billie Holiday’s “You Let Me Down” by Free the Robots – only to, a few minutes later, perform a slight change in flavor to a more up-tempo incursion with Chinese Man’s “I’ve Got That Tune”. This track here is released by Chinese Man Records, a label that would return by the end of the mix with the hazy “Artichaut”.
The most contentious cut has to be “Good Lord” by Kormac, which includes snippets of dialog and some mad turns worked over a captive, passionate beat. Personally, the track blows my socks off, to say the least. And what about the Funky Fresh Few’s reworking of “First Met You”, the perfect soundtrack to a lazy afternoon of martini-drinking and trashy magazine reading? I shouldn’t get all carried away by the glossy beauty of this or I will end up highlighting each and every track. Let me just say that, if you want more bang for your buck, well, this mix is, you know, free.
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