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To many children of the Millennial generation the musical art form known as Jazz is more alien than a typewriter or pay phone. The genre that once was thee sound of youthful rebellion and could be heard blasting from many Cotton Club-like speak easy’s coast to coast back in the 1920′s and 30′s has sadly dimmed a bit in the 21st century…As time marched forward the improvisational art birthed timeless masters of their craft…men named Coltrane, Blakey, Monk, Morton, Roach, Mingus, Davis and so forth. These giants of the musical world left lasting imprints in the recording and performance world’s and helped shape future genre’s of black music that would come, including, you guessed it, Hip-Hop.
The appreciation for jazz music within Hip-Hop beamed most mightily during the 1990′s when many a production whiz plucked everything from horn stabs, drum sections and flute solo’s for the construction of head nodding beats. Those practices no doubt rubbed off on John Robinson and Great Britain’s Lewis Parker…Two men born world’s apart, composed by their love of two of the most expressive musical genre’s ever.
Combining for a collaboration album titled International Summers is the Queens bred Native New Yorker John Robinson; a double threat talent also known as Lil’ Sci (of Scienz Of Life) who’s well known in the big apple’s subterranean world as a prime jazzman of sorts and Lewis Parker; a British vinyl hound producer and sometimes emcee who’s likely got as many aliases as he does crazy beats. Together these two extremely potent identifiers of jazzy goodness went in and formulated a simply unforgettable work of music that any lover of either jazz or Hip-Hop should cherish.
I can’t lie, after you play this 13 track album the main cognizance you’ll have of it is the jaw-droppingly lush, boom-bap jazz treats that JR and Parker crafted. There is little doubt that thus far, International Summers is one of the finest produced albums of 2010, maybe of the past few years. Their main tool utilized for the awe-striking sound contained? A true golden ager’s favorite; the SP-1200 sampling drum machine. Another aspect that gives the album’s arrangements it’s truly more intimate feel is that most of, if not all of the tracks feature instrumental jam out sessions at their conclusions…they’re so rich I fear you’ll have an urge (as I did) to just wanna loop those sections up themselves.
As overflowing as the high brow production chops were, many times the lyricism truly did step up and meet halfway. In his trademark breathy Knowth Lundan accent Parker frequently abated us through his thoughtful and serene delivery in his verses and nicely timed upright choruses. I most enjoyed his work on “Dues Paid”, a more somber approaching track that is laced with rolling keys and finds Parker conveying an entrancing poetic demeanor. Playing the harder line to Parker’s oft-more introspective advances is Robinson, who’ill definitely do some gloating here and there, but never in an overtly cheap manner. Robinson’s more braggadocio and carefree disposition is welcomed and works him out of fuzzy spots like “Warrior Princess” when the subject matter doesn’t quite line up with the mood of the music.
Bottom line, there is no “bad” music on International Summers whatsoever. The title track is warm and feels embracingly familiar to Hip-Hop’s golden era and it is one of the few title track’s in recent memory that somehow really manages to encapsulate the project as a whole. The most enthralling moments definitely came when Parker and Robinson dove deep into the jazz vibes that seem to be ingrained in them and just OD’d on the old New York steez…see “Harlem River Drive” if your losing me.
International Summers is stunningly reminiscent to all that was good about jazz and Hip-Hop once upon a time. Boasting tons of replayability through it’s director’s A-1 production and adequate emceeing, it should become a reliable favorite to any head that is desperately seeking a return to Hip-Hop’s glorious jazz-rap past.
$18.75 out of $20.00
-BIG D O
September 16th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
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