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Divas and Deejays: Remixing the Jazz Standards

This week marks the release of the Verve//Remixed project, an exceptional Electronic compilation featuring a dozen of the best and brightest deejays from around the world. It's sure to bring joy to the hearts (and feet) of Electronic/Dance fans far and wide, as well as send chills down the collective spine of the post-Stalinist Jazz Police.

Verve A&R director Jason Olaine, the record's co-producer, put the wheels in motion to marry these two divergent genres on the world's largest Jazz label. The set features an impressive assortment of deejays who lent their keen ears and stellar mixing abilities to alter some of Jazz's most prominent vocal standards, including Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Sarah Vaughan's "Summertime." Top-flight deejays like Richard Dorfmeister (half of Austria's sizzling remix team, Kruder + Dorfmeister), Britain's MJ Cole and Tricky, and Washington D.C.'s Thievery Corporation are among the twelve who participated in this extraordinary musical summit. According to Olaine, such a remix project had been on the boards for a few years.

Verve//Remixed Co-Producer and A&R staff person Jason Olaine.

"When I got to Verve in June of 1999," recalled Jason, "a remixed-type record had been discussed by our European affiliates and Verve New York, but nothing ever materialized from an A&R standpoint. Then my co-producer, Dahlia Ambach Caplin — who is also a director of international marketing for Verve out of Belgium — pitched me on the idea.

“From an A&R perspective, I took a crash course with this kind of music. I was looking for new ways to bring people into Jazz, as opposed to continue releasing straight ahead records, one after another.”

After sifting through the various sub-genres of Electronica — Dance, Techno, Garage, Drum 'n' Bass, Ambient, Chill, Down Tempo, Trance, etc. — Olaine had to decipher which styles made the most sense from a Jazz perspective. Then it was time for a trip into the Verve vaults to mine the best catalog titles capable of standing up to such a rigorous studio transformation process.

Who picked the clips? Which deejays were in the know when it came to remixing Jazz gems?

“Each scenario played itself out differently,” said Jason. "For instance, when we approached Masters At Work, Louie Vega told us he knew exactly which track he wanted to use, Nina Simone's 'See-Line Woman.' That was easy.

“We pulled the song off a CD. Since most of these pieces were recorded before 1956, there were no multi-tracks or separate parts for the remixers work from. Often it came down to dumping the song into Pro Tools and trying to isolate the vocals, or maybe grabbing a vocal hook or a string part. That's what UFO did with Sarah Vaughan's 'Summertime.' They pulled it straight off a CD, then mixed it down to two tracks with the strings and vocal on one channel and the rest of the rhythm section on the other. Then they worked the rest of the song around that.”

Such is the disadvantage of using older source clips; but on the plus side, many Jazz records from that era were recorded under very pure standards.

While listening to the energetic, radical conversions on Verve//Remixed, one can't help but wonder how difficult a project like this must be to administer and oversee. Ask anybody who has ever supervised an Electronic compilation and they'll agree: Commissioning twelve different, in-demand, jet setting deejays to arrange their schedules and make deadline is very much akin to herding cats.  

"It certainly was a challenge to get all of the remixes delivered in a timely fashion," admitted Jason. "In fact, the first deejay who signed on to do the project was the last person to deliver. It also took some deejays a while to figure out which track they wanted to do and when they'd have the time to get it done.

"MJ Cole was already blowing up in the London scene when we approached him, so he had no real incentive, money-wise, to do this. But we totally hit it off when I met with him. He wasn't that familiar with Jazz so he accepted a lot of direction. I narrowed it down to three songs by Carmen McRae. He chose 'How Long Has This Been Going On?' as the one he could best work with.

"When we first approached Richard Dorfmeister, he wouldn't commit right away because he and Peter Kruder were still working on their own record at the time. Then he happened to be traveling and ended up in Spain. While hanging out in a Spanish club, he heard the original version of Willie Bobo's 'Spanish Grease' worked into another deejay's set. That was a lucky break because afterwards he called and said he wanted to remix that same tune for us."

Quite often, with Electronica remixes, vocalists are the weakest link on the musical food chain. Producers/deejays generally have to settle for watered-down Donna Summer sound-alikes. But with Verve//Remixed, the deejays worked with vocal performances by the finest, classic singers, be they Billie, Sarah, Dinah, Nina, Shirley or Ella.

"When Rae & Christian remixed Dinah Washington," said Jason, "they were freaking out over what an amazing voice she had and her exquisite sense of tempo and intonation. It's too bad they can't work with singers like that right now."

In light of this exciting fusion of Jazz and Electronica, why not include Jazz instrumentalists as well as singers?

"We believed that vocalists would grab people's ears better than instrumental tracks. But for the next Remixed record I wouldlike to use instrumentals. Maybe Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader, Jimmy Smith or even Clifford Brown."

While Verve//Remixed will be filed under Electronica and Dance in the stores, the label has accompanied the release with Verve//Unmixed, a CD comprised of the original source tunes, complete with similar companion artwork and an aggressively low price tag of $4.99.

"Now that the record is finally out, what I would really love to see happen," said Jason, "is for one or two of these songs to cross over into regular Jazz radio programming. In my opinion, I think it would give a station a much hipper flavor."

Meanwhile, Jason hasn't totally abandoned his traditional Jazz inclinations. After co-producing the latest releases by John Scofield and Galactic's Stanton Moore, he's still dedicated to straight ahead projects like those by saxophonist Chris Potter and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Still, the most logical course for a Jazz A&R person these days is to investigate music beyond the regular straight ahead Jazz projects.

"I'm a straight ahead Jazz lover," admitted Jason. "There's no two ways about that. But at the same time, my ears are open to other things. The market is dictating to us that we need to find new ways to sell records that might reach a different audience. Personally, I want Jill Scott fans to buy Nina Simone records."

With Verve//Remixed already doing brisk business on online music sites like Amazon and CD Now, Olaine is already hard at work on his next important Verve project.

"Right now I'm working with Roy Hargrove. Roy is the producer and my role is as co-producer and A&R Director. He's doing something that falls into a Neo-Soul category. But it comes from Roy's Jazz perspective. He's called a number of his past collaborators, pop singers who have called him to do horn arrangements and play on their records. So far we have D'Angelo, Erykah Badu and Q-Tip on some of the tracks. Pino Palladino and Meshell Ndegeocello are playing bass too. Although the record doesn't have a title, I know Roy is going to preview some of this music at the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. He's been talking about doing a record like this for almost five years."