Search - Various Artists :: Jazz That Cooks

Exactly what I was looking for

Raleigh | Overland Park, KS United States | 12/26/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album has a hokey title, and definately has some hokey pieces in it, but when I went out looking for Jazz albums I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I liked the "swing" jazz, Basie, Ellington and Parker, but I'd heard enough of that, and I wanted some of the modern renovations of the art. I didn't like the monotanous rigid styles that our local radio station tried to pass off as "smooth jazz" which had nothing interesting in it and did next to no experimenting with innovative instrument combinations or song styles. "Jazz that cooks" provided me with that. It was most assuredly "new" stuff, that may have adapted itself from old school jazz artists, but had the sound of modernity in its songs. It was not, however, rigid at all. It was free flowing, and at the same time intense. There was no individual artist on the cd that I fell in love with, and could have particularly done without Miss Reid. Her songs were clever, but out of place in the instrumental laid back style of the rest of the tracks. The overall cd, however, provided for effective continuous listening that never bored me and occasionally got me intensely into some innovational rythems and feelings."