Disco de St. Germain: “Tourist [Canada Bonus Tracks]”

The first song I heard from this CD was "Sure Thing" and it knocked me out, bluesy guitar intro sounding like Jimi rising, setting a George Bensonesque groove that thumped me into knowing I had to have this. St. Germain(Ludovic Navarre) is conceptually brilliant, the fusion of jazz and house, the further development of acid jazz, electronica and jazz dance music, new groove standards, never pretentious, always challenging yet fun, this is music based in tradition with an electronic twist. The French producer, writer and conductor known as St.Germain has created an instant classic. The opening track sets the tempo, borrowing from Marlena Shaws performance at Montreux her "I want you to get together.... put your hand together" create a perfect backdrop for the jazzy interplay of the six musicians he assembled for this masterful fusion. This is one of those rare CD's that will be played over and over, sounds better with familarity and gets plenty of use of the replay button on your player. Although it is jazz, it is just as much electronica. The mixture of latin beats, dub, house, electronica, blues and jazz are given equal treatment, never dominating but creating a synthesis that is satisfying, a musical collage that takes one back and looking forward at the same time. This is an excellent CD, nearly flawless in its production and well worth the money. One song,(samples from John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis) "Sure Thing", made me buy it, you will find out as I did that all the songs are superb, a must for jazz or house music fans.

a great new CD that is predominantly a jazz work with some interesting funk, electronic and blues influences tossed in. the best tracks on the CD tend to be the ones with the least amount of jazz influence such as #1 Rouse Rouge and #6 Sure Thing. but since all of the tracks are good it's worth looking at each individually:

#1. ROSE ROUGE - a famous jazz hook from Brubeck's "Mr. New York" is the setting for a bluesy, soulful, repititive vocal line of "I want you to get together"; #2. MONTEGO BAY SPLEEN - a lumbering jazz piece with outstanding jazz guitar work throughout. makes me really appreciate the guitar again; #3. SO FLUTE- a funky flute intro, uptempo throughout. unfortunately the piece doesnt really develop after the nice intro. #4. LAND OF - the most traditional jazz piece on the album. no electronic influence at all. some gorgeous piano work throughout. shades of the 70's band "The Jazz Crusaders" throughout, particularly with the out front horn section.; #5. LATIN NOTE - a busy samba piece, this time the featured instrument is vibraphone; #6. SURE THING -- great piece, maybe best on the album. there's a funky texas-rock guitar piece enhanced with a phaser and accompanied by blues vocal with a similar effect applied. it's a seamless combination of a downtempo R&B piece with electronic enhancements prominently featured and it's awesome. #7. PONT DES ARTS - uptempo lounge piece, consistent beat throughout, probably the most danceable track on the album; #8. LA GOUTTE D'OR - wooden flute featured here. develops into rhythmic multi-textured drum piece with congas and other traditional percussion instruments. #9. WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT - prominent bass line and bluesy vocal accents close out the album with another jazz laden piece.

This 60 minute long cd is absolute a favourite of mine. The genre is what is called Nu Jazz/Nu House. The characteristics of the different tracks are cool, lounging, jazzy and soft House orientated beats. All the tracks vary a lot, so it is quite impossible to predict the next track on the cd. The first track "Rouse Rouge" is a semi fast jazz track with nice vocaling that seem a bit addictive, some would say a little mad. Track no. 2 "Montego Bay Spleen" is a slow dub track that sounds a lot like Massive Attack, only with jazzy guitarplaying. Tack no. 3 "So Flute" is a real cool track which is a bit more House inspired with real nice flute as the dominant instrument. Track no. 4 "Land of..." is a Blues/Jazz inspired track, also real comforting. Track no. 5 "Latin Note" is a Jazz track with a comforting Housebeat and some nice congas drums. Track no. 6 "Sure Thing" is a real smooth lounging track. Track no. 7 "Pont Des Arts" is more of a chilling Housetrack with some real nice and cool piano playing. Track no. 8 "La Goutte D'Or" is a dub track with real nice flute playing. Track no. 9 "What you think about" is more of a Soul Jazzy track. Confused? Well, you have got any reason to be! I really love this cd since I am a big fan of lounge, House, Nu Jazz and what all the different genres contain of experimenting with new sounds and effects. If you are a fan of the genres as described or you just want a varied cd in your collection to chill out to, then this is an absolutely must buy. I promise you will not regret!

Out there in musicland's vaults there's some great albums just waiting to be found... and here's one! A shuffling, bustling fusion of acid-jazz & blues based on clever sampling and superbly tight playing that demands attention first time through and, like all great records, just gets better & better with repeat listening. Along with Suba's latin:hip-hop "Sao Paulo Confessions", Ernest Ranglin's afro:jazz "Modern Answers to Old Problems" and Kenny Burrell's classic jazz on "Midnight Blue" - all discovered this year - Saint Germain's "Tourist" grabs repeated space on my CD player and will on yours. And... if you've got the extra cash and your dancing shoes on buy the import version for it's second CD containing three excellent club re-mixes - in particular the extended version of "Sure Thing" with it's quite marvellous John Lee Hooker sampled vocals. Wonderful stuff and proof positive that however much you think you know there's more!

I'm not particularly literate on the subject of house jazz, acid jazz, or any other jazz but when I asked a trusted soul to recommend some music that was able to meet a variety of demands, he came up with "Tourist". The demands: The cd must be able to be played straight through, with no skipping around. The cd must be able to be played continuously for multiple days on end. The cd must be able to be used interchangeably both as background music capable of inspiring extreme but lucid fits of working creativity AND as foreground music capable of inspiring relaxation, excitement, calmness, sleep and/or dancing, depending on one's mood. Finally, the CD must be smart, sassy, serious, silly and sexy at the same time. "Tourist" meets these demands. Very satisfying.