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The JeepJazz
Project LP was conceived and recorded during the summer and fall of 1995.
I had just completed the Bass Is Base record and set up Sound Doctor, my
own studio, inside Sound On Sound on 45th Street in Manhattan. For several
years I had kicked around the idea of doing some instrumental hiphop. In
the 60's and 70's, there always seemed to be a couple of good instrumentals
on the radio. My creative juices were flowing and I had some time to invest.
My inspiration was Booker T. and the MG's meets hiphop.
About the
same time I got word that Lady Kier from De-Lite was doing a solo record
and looking for trip-hop ala Portishead and Tricky. "Mad Sax", "Brothers
and Sisters" and "That's Fat" were actually started for her project. Eventually
she changed her mind and wanted Jungle tracks, so I kept working and they
became the beginning of the JeepJazz Project LP.
Most of these
were written with my good friend, De Harris, a talented musician and producer
in his own right. I met De while I was a writer at Warner-Chappell Music
here in New York. He is British, also a guitarist and we're very simpatico
musically. We would get together and start a track from scratch.
Sometimes
we would begin with a beat and build on that. Other times a manipulated
sample would inspire us.
The drums
were sequenced and quantized and certain sounds were placed and looped.
When we wanted live feeling elements, we locked the sequencer to the 16-track
and recorded guitars and keyboards. I've got an old Wurlitzer and a Rhodes
and they don't have MIDI plugs! I played them live but we sampled and looped
them sometimes as well. Being able to jam with the track and then go back
and pick out little pieces to sample and manipulate is how I like to work.
Combining the live energy with the looped vibe was what I was after. I kept
the raw live tracks and in the mix used bits of looped playing and them
together. This creates a loose, live feel over the top of the crusty, dusted
hiphop drums.
An interesting
trick I learned from De, was manipulating the filters in the S-950 to get
really bizarre pad-like background sounds. You start with some bright string
or vocal loop and filter it down under EDIT PROGRAM on page 6. Then you go
to EDIT PROGRAM on page 9, the VCF, and fool with the ADSR and amount settings
until you hear what you like. It's a cool way to get something different
percolating in the background!
I didn't have
the S-3000 at that time. It's way clean and I primarily use it for flying
vocals around. It is great once you do have a really funked up noise though,
because unlike the S-950, it's individual outputs are polyphonic and can
play chords. All the MIDI stuff was running virtual when I did this LP and
it would've come in handy for that. My clavinet is so old, it makes all
this mechanical noise when I play it. So I load a sample of it into the
S-3000 and I'm back in business and MIDI-able.
Likewise, the Roland Jupiter
6 is only MIDI on channel 1, and not multi- timbral, so it's another candidate
for this S-3000 approach.
During the
recording of the JeepJazz Project LP, my goal was to create a sound that had
the power and edge of hiphop on the bottom with a bit more organization and
musicality on top. These tracks are atmospheric and groove oriented ala 90's
hiphop and musically related to the sounds of 70's soul. Initially I thought
about using rappers or vocalists but decided against it because it made things
too obvious. I wanted to leave room for the listener to "fill in the blanks". I had a blast
making this record. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening.
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