Verve Remixed
The manipulation of classic jazz tracks has been part of DJ club culture  since the '80s, as artists have continually scratched, looped, and sampled beats  and phrases.Verve Remixedhas been in the planning stages for years,  with in-house producers inviting an international cast of remix artists to  select songs from the label's vaults. The results are often tremendously  successful, as the remix artists have picked up and expanded upon elements  already present in the original. The funky Latin beat ofWillie Bobo's "Spanish  Grease" gets new life fromRichard Dorfmeister,  along with a prominent new bass line. Similarly, King Britt pumps up the Indian  elements ofTony Scott's  "Hare Krishna."dZihan and Kamien's  trance remix (with tabla drums) ofBillie Holiday's "Don't  Explain" is among the most arresting tracks, creating psychodrama between  Holiday's original vocal and the new environment.Nina Simone's voice  seems tailor-made for this approach, as if it has always cried out for the  layered rhythmic emphasis.Masters at Work's take  on her "See-Line Woman" is electric in its intensity--cool flute sonorities and  metallic percussion embrace and catapult the original vocal into a new presence.--Stuart Broomer