Where The Fusion @?
The fusion is here. I got my hands on a copy of The Edge – David Axelrod at Capitol Records 1966-1970 last week and it’s pure old skool. Breakbeats, strings, fresh ass bass lines all make for a nice throwback to a time where jazz composers were slowly becoming jazz experimentalists. Creativity born out for the love of the music, not necessity to sell another record. Take some time alone to reset yourself, this is good for your soul music.
Blue Note drops info on Axelrod’s bio:
David Axelrod was instrumental in creating the Black Music division with Capitol Records in the mid 60s, and had a string of hit albums with artists such as soul singer Lou Rawls and jazz saxophonist “Cannonball” Adderley. But he is best known in the hip hop world for three albums he released on Capitol under his own name between 1968 – 1970. “Song of Innocence,” “Songs of Experience”, “Earth Rot” and other ancillary Axelrod productions are amongst the most sampled records in hip hop history, having been mined by producers as varied as Madlib, DJ Shadow and Dr. Dre.
He’s been sampled? Hell yes. Give it a listen on Amazon. Track two should sound very familiar. Most of the tracks are instrumentals, but they stand on their own quite well. If you listen carefully, you can really hear snippets of samples of Axelrod’s work in today’s underground hip-hop movement. More than once I went back and forth between ‘The Edge’ and Dan the Automator records to pick out vocal samples and instrumentation. To put it the best way I can, it was as if I was given a dipping sauce to taste and then asked to figure out what the ingredients were. I love that kind of stuff.
The first time I gave the CD a listen, I was on my way home from a long day at work. When I got home, I found myself reading the liner notes in an amber-lit room, huddled in a leather chair, nursing a Burbon on the rocks and a Parliament parked on my lips. It was the music that made me do it. It’s that deep.
Give it listen and keep in mind that those tracks are over 40 years old. It’s the real deal. My favorite tracks? You’ve Made Me So Very Happy, The Human Abstract and Songs of Innocence. If you can find anything more genuinely soulful and intelligently made in the last twenty years, let me know. I haven’t.
Keep it deep.
~Spec
