Guru - Jazzmatazz Volume 1 LP (180g)

A full-length album featuring a mix of hip-hop production and live instrumentation from a previous generation’s jazz icons must have felt like an odd endeavor. Guru went into Jazzmatazz, Volume 1 as an artist with something to prove. The album is skillful and smart, clean when it needs to be and gritty when that's more effective, helping to legitimize the hip-hop and jazz fusion to those who doubted it, and making for an altogether important release.

Tracklist:
Introduction 1:20
Loungin' 4:38
When You're Near 4:02
Transit Ride 3:58
No Time To Play 4:54
Down The Backstreets 4:47
Respectful Dedications 0:54
Take A Look (At Yourself) 3:59
Trust Me 4:27
Slicker Than Most 2:36
Le Bien, Le Mal 3:21
Sights In The City 5:10

25 years later, that Jazzmatazz isn’t nearly as outlandish an idea as its creators might have thought at the time. That seems to matter less than the fact it still bumps, and slotted between the two Gang Starr classics that bookend it, it captures one of the all-time greatest MCs at a creative peak.