Jazzanova
In Between
JCR/Compost

It's finally here!!! I've been waiting for months to get this record on vinyl (the CD version came earlier this year with a fancy fold-out book style sleeve) and I already then decided not to listen to the record until I got my copy on good old black wax. After a long period of delays they must have given up the die-cut board book style cover for the triple LP, and just gone for a gatefold sleeve instead. Maybe they should have gone for this solution in the first place, and saved us (me) for all the waiting...

Well, over to the music. The Berlin based Jazzanova crew has made a fantastic debut album (Remixes from 2000 with some of their remixed material doesn't count!) and take the nu-jazz to a totally different level. For years they've been the leaders and trendsetters of the nu-jazz/club-jazz scene, and with this album they push the genre-definition further one-step forward. Relaying less on dancefloor aimed broken beats and more on proper songs and deep soulful jazz-tunes, this is an essential selection of music. "In Between" drops musical bomb after bomb, always coloured with the Jazzanova collective's deep-rooted jazz sensibility. Filled with 17 tracks and guest appearances including Valerie Etienne, Earl Zinger, Vikter Duplaix, Ursula Rucker, Clara Hill and Hajime Yoshizawa among others, there's no point banging of how great it is. The songs and arrangements fits perfect to their guest vocalists and combined with a high quality production the result are a joy to behold. With this record there's no doubt that Jazzanova still is the global jazz dance scenes' Formula 1, and In Between are definitely an album in pole position.

Copyright © 2002 Thomas H. Molden