Are Trends Eclectic: Vol. 2

Aim
To see how many genres will fit on to one CD, without compromising aural pleasure (the sequel).

Method
Pink Martini – Let’s never stop falling in love
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Can’t we be friends?
Benny Goodman – It’s tight like that
Rosemary Clooney – Sway
Manu DiBango – Lily
Fontella Bass – Rescue Me
Marilyn Barbarin & The Soul Finders – Reborn
Johnnie Morisette – I’m hungry
The Dave Pike Set – Mathar
Lucy Pearl – Don’t mess with my man
Barry White – It’s ecstasy when you lay down next to me
Ghostface Killah – Cherchez la Ghost
Louis Rankin – The Typewriter
Max Romeo & The Upsetters – Chase the Devil
Muddy Waters – I’m your Hoochie Coochie Man
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Crosstown Traffic
Cast – Desert Drought
Mantronix – Got to have your love
Tim Deluxe – It just won’t do
Boogie Down Productions vs. Mark Pritchard – Necessary
Goldfrapp – Crystalline Green
The Greenhornes & Holly Golightly – There is an end
The Andrews Sisters – Rum & Coca-Cola
Quincy Jones – Desafinado
The Double Six of Paris – French Rat Race

Discussion
It is said that one shouldn’t blow one’s own trumpet but, frankly, if you’re proud of your handiwork and can coldly & objectively assess it as being dope, then I say blow it. After all, who else is going to do it? Those pezzanovante in Washington? Fat chance. Which leads me to my first confession: I really like this CD. I wouldn’t call it a ‘chef-d’oeuvre’ because, despite loving the term, it just sounds pretentious. And it’s not my Sergeant Pepper either, as I’ve made better compilations. However, it comfortably meets the criteria laid down by the ‘Are Trends Eclectic?’ mission statement and is a blatantly good listen. Whether it works is down to the individual listener but to the ears of this individual, it does.

Commencing with a classical piece to further increase diversity is a nice ploy but creates the problem of finding something to follow it (see Eclectic 3). This was cleverly avoided (while still retaining a slight classical flavour) by kicking off with the swirling strings of Pink Martini – a track which might best be described as ‘Cuban orchestral’. Or perhaps ‘latin lounge symphonica’.

Trad jazz, cool jazz, latin jazz, modal jazz, fusion, bebop – an aficionado could probably eek out an entire ‘eclectic’ CD from the many guises of jazz. Whilst I am not an expert, I am reasonably well acquainted with the genre (I know, for example, that Miles Davis is better than Kenny G) and felt that the swing of the ‘King of Swing’ Benny Goodman was sufficiently older and different-er from the plain frickin’ jazz jazz of Ella & Louis to warrant inclusion. And, as we all know, jazz (8th use in this paragraph) has its roots in Africa and Latin America, which was a tenuous enough link for me to follow-up with some latin flavour (courtesy of George Clooney’s aunt) and some Manu DiBango before settling in to a soul/funk groove.

The middle third of this CD crams in more genres than a genre factory. Disco cuddles up with hip-hop, reggae, blues, rock & indie and they all seem to get along fairly well although, admittedly, this is not as seamless as the preceding section. But if you’ve listened this far, tuning out now would be, at best, disloyal and, at worst, an act of aggression.

At this point, I was facing a difficult leap to old school dance followed three tracks later by an even more difficult leap from drum & bass to mellow electronica. Luckily, an elegant solution presented itself, which was almost beautiful in its simplicity: make the pauses between tracks fractionally longer. Genius! This cheap trick would never fool the panel of the Mercury Music Prize or stand up to the scrutiny of an industrial tribunal, but might just go unnoticed by the more inebriated guests at a dinner party, rendered immobile by too much stilton and six generous glasses of port.

It all ends rather nicely, with a 60s pastiche, a slice of easy listening, a small portion of calypso and a morsel of…er…vocalese. For those who don’t know, vocalese is “a style or genre of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation”. So there.

Conclusion
A couple of provocative (i.e. awkward) segues aside, this CD hangs together well. It is truly eclectic and, as an added bonus, contains tracks from every decade since the 30s. Plus all of the tracks are damn good and it smells nice.