This is the second in Aaron Luis Levinson 'Experiment' project, and, following King Brit's superb 'Philadelphia Experiment', he's moved onto Detroit to invite techno legend and jazz buff Carl Craig to help him curate the proceedings.
It's an inspired choice in every way.
Craig and Levinson set to work gathering together jazz legends such as Bennie Maupin, horn player with Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi and Headhunters projects, pianist Geri Allen, violinist Regina Carter and trumpet player Marcus Belgrave.
To this masterclass they then add bass players Al Turner and Jaribu Shahid, Rhodes player Jeremy Ellis, keyboard player and Moodyman/ Parliament collaborator Amp Fiddler and jazz drummer/ hip hop producer Karriem Riggins (whose production credits include The Roots and Common).
After a five-day jam Craig and Riggins took control of the tapes to produce the finished album.
It would of course have been possible for this all-star line-up to have disintegrated into a self-indulgent mess. Instead Craig and Riggins have crafted a beautiful example of contemporary jazz-dance that blends hip hop, funk, house and techno in a creative and mostly successful way.
Opening with a cover version of trumpet player Marcus Belgrave's own 'Space Odyssey' (a lost jazz funk classic), we are immediately given a taste of the quality of horn playing that lies in store.
Allen Barnes' flute on 'Midnight at The Twenty Grand' is a treat, as is Jaribu Shahid's slack upright bass. This is followed by the first example of Ron Otis' drumming on Donald Byrd and Larry Mizell's classic 'Think Twice', over which Craig creates a jazz house cross-over that blends into the funk of Al Turner's solid bass on 'Revelation'.
'Baby Needs New Shoes' introduces Latin syncopated hip hop, over which Bennie Maupin sax and Perry Hughes' creamy guitar unite for the refrain and surrounding improvisations.
'There Is A God' drops the rhythm track entirely for the blue-grass gospel of Regina Carter's violin accompanied by Geri Allen's piano, while 'Church' takes its lead from Issac Hayes' funk before Craig makes his first of three stand-alone links between jazz and techno with his 'Enterlude' solo production.
Maupin returns with the much under-used bass clarinet and the break beat funk of 'Vernors', which leads to the strangest contribution, Amp Fiddler's solo version of Stevie Wonder's 'Too High'.
'The Way We Make Music' rests on a staggering Detroit jazz hip hop beat and features the sharp flow of female Detroit MC Invincible - backed by The Athletic Mic League.
Finally Geri Allen and Marcus Belgrave show-off on piano and trumpet respectively, followed by Craig and Riggins sneaking in an unmarked beat track. And quite right at that.
by Ben Osborne