Is David Axelrod still cool? In the rarefied world of crate-diggers, sample-dealers, funk professors and obscurity fetishists, the mention of this veteran jazz arranger and composer's name must raise something of a snort by now. Surely, his credibility stock started falling when his tunes were used by vulgarians like Dr Dre and Lauryn Hill, plummeted further when his long-out-of-print work began reappearing on CD, and reached an all-time low when he had the audacity to make a comeback last year with, horror of horrors, new material?
Perhaps. But for the doggedly unfashionable masses who, weirdly, can't be arsed to fork out a hundred quid for original vinyl, the appearance of 'Anthology II' is another grand pleasure. The modus operandi remains the same as on the first volume: to select highlights from the Ax's career as a breathtakingly sophisticated arranger, producer and solo artist. But in truth, the names on the labels whether it be jazz titans like Cannonball Adderley, soul singers like Lou Rawls, stray actors like David McCallum or that of Axelrod himself are largely irrelevant. It's the instantly identifiable music that's the attraction: oceanic orchestral arrangements; militantly funky rhythm sections; acid-spattered guitar breaks that joust with the strings and horns which surround them.
EMI's extensive reissue programme in the couple of years since 'Anthology' was released has dulled the impact of some of this material, so that there's plenty here that the diligent will already own on their copies of 'Songs Of Innocence', 'Songs Of Experience', 'Earthrot' and the largely unlistenable 'Requiem'. But without getting too trainspotterish, the highlights come from less well-excavated corners of Axelrod's career. A version of 'Good Day Sunshine' fronted by Ray Brown somehow swings between luminous Gospel pop and extraordinarily exotic pageantry, while Don Randi's pipe-led 'Theme From Che' catches the essential brilliance of Axelrod; namely, the knack of being stately and loose simultaneously.
Another fine compilation, then, and another nail in the coffin of Axelrod's subterranean credibility. Still, just when you think it's all over, there'll be another tune on the radio that follows Dre's example on 'The Next Episode' and samples 'The Edge'. And it all becomes clear again: there are plenty of new lives left in these old tunes yet.
