Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes
As artists such as saxophonist Steve Coleman have demonstrated, mining or creating connections between bebop and hiphop can be an exhilarating exercise. But juxtaposing hiphop beats on bebop classics, with the drums nakedly on top, also can yield banal results through the marring of rhythmic schemes that were more cutting and challenging in their original form.Re-Bop: The Savoy Remixes, on which name remixers were recruited to make sonic hay with one of jazz's prized catalogs, is by and large a successful intermingling of forms. Eclipse's ruthless minimalism with Milt Jackson's vibes on the Modern Jazz Quartet's "Movin' Nicely" and DJ Spooky's wilful, episodic breakdown of Charlie Parker's "KoKo" are as entrancing as they are adrenalizing. Saint Etienne's electronics on Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" (as recorded by Herbie Mann) take the song intriguingly out of its element while DJ Smash's Middle Eastern effects on Duke Ellington's "Caravan" (as recorded by Dizzy Gillespie) take it further into its element. On the other hand, King Britt's busy, gussied-up "Speakeasy" treatment of "Lover Man," as sung by Sarah Vaughan with Dizzy Gillespie, is a disservice to the great singer and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's vocal and instrumental gamesmanship on Curtis Fuller's "Five Spot After Dark"  deprives the tune of its charm. One hopes listeners will go back and listen to these songs in their un-remixed state, as featured on the companion set,Re-Bop: The Savoy Originals. But that demographic bridge may be harder to cross than the stylistic one.--Lloyd Sachs