W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

I have to admit that I did not wake up this morning thinking, “Gee, you know what I need? I need a funky, groovy samba/jazz version of Notoroius B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa””. But low and behold, little did I know, yes indeed I did.

There has been a bit of a resurgence in the jazz idiom over the last couple of years, especially in the London scene. This is largely due to hip hop fans discovering and digging deeper into the myriad of jazz samples layered into hip hop and rap tunes over the course of the last 35 years. With this new album, Cream, named after the Wu Tang song which is included in this collection, Kasa Overall has taken this phenomena and turned it around 180 degrees. The Washington State drummer and producer has assembled a wonderfully crafted album of jazz instrumentals of hip hop songs from all periods of the genre.

The one exception to the use of hip hop songs is the LP opener, an interpretation of Miles Davis’s “Freedom Jazz Dance”, but from there we get re-imaginings of the aforementioned Notorious B.I.G., Wu Tang, Dr.Dre/Snoop, Tribe Called Quest, Digible Planets, Outkast and Juvenile.

All in all, this is a engaging and imaginative work which ought to capture the ears (and hearts) of both jazz heads as well as fans of hip hop.

For those in the New York area, Kassa will be playing at the Jazz Gallery this weekend and for those not in NY, he and his band have a full slate of shows coming up.