After all the great shit that Premier, Pete Rock and the D.I.T.C. Crew did with marrying jazz to hip-hop in the early 90s, it's a wonder anything was left over for anyone else to do. Taking the expansive Blue Note Records back catalog and rendering it for a new set of listeners is an amazingly tall task, and Madlib stepped up and does it better than anybody (actually, I bet Dilla could've done it too, maybe better).
So here's Shades of Blue, with Madlib invading Blue Note and taking all the best stuff from the collection; samples of pianists Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, vibraphonists Bobby Hutcherson and Milt Jackson, trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Wayne Shorter as well as faeturing some original compositions and cover versions of some old favorites from Madlib's own jazz group Yesterday's New Quintet.
Listen to this one today!
