Some people call it acid jazz but of all the musical genres, that one is just horribly named. It implies some sort of free-range hippie explorations of sound and what Nicola Conte does is anything but unstructured. It's tight. So tight, your head and feet start gyrating within seconds of his music hitting your ear canal. The guy does a great job of mixing together swinging bossa nova beats with cool seductive horns, strings and vocals for a lounge veneer.In usual DJ fashion, he blasted out of the gate with his opus, Jet Sounds, in 2000. Since then, he's done a smattering of remixes and one album of fresh material. That leaves a lot of free time. So, I'm guessing he also spends a plenty of hours playing clubs and smoking clove cigarettes. Isn't that what Italian DJs do?
Nicola Conte | Forma 2000 | Buy
Nicola Conte & Rosalia de Souza | Bossa | Buy
Isabelle Antena | Omerta Bossa (Nicola Conte remix) | Buy
Here's the video for his very Koop-like "Kind of Sunshine". It really kicks in at the 0:40 mark.
So that's acid jazz. I agree that it doesn't really fit in this case. I'd actually like to hear a song that would make me say "wow, acid jazz".
ReplyDeleteSignori Conte also has a hand in Schema records, and a studio (Fez) in Bari, Italy. I think he occupies a lot of his time with production for groups that don't get much attention outside of Italy Schema has released a ton of 'break & bossa' stuff.
ReplyDeleteFor your previous commenter, "Acid Jazz" is probably better tipified by many late 90's acts, (morcheeba, unkle, brand new heavies, etc) than does nicola conte.
Thanks for the tip-in. I'll have to check out Schema Records.
ReplyDelete