- Kai Alcé, Patrice Scott and others offer up supple jazz house that explores the versatility of a rhythm section.
- The global jazz renaissance continues to evolve each year as electronic artists team up with instrumentalists to create a melting pot of house, jungle, grime and other styles. It's a kind of music suited as well for dance floors as dimly lit lounges. The Jazz Diaries, an eight year-old label born in Sydney, works with both session players and producers to combine the live, improvisational energy of jazz with deep house cuts that reference Detroit and Chicago dance music history. Its most recent offering is a remix EP of Melbourne bassist Horatio Luna's 2020 album Boom Boom, one of the label's most emblematic releases yet. It encapsulates The Jazz Diaries' most essential traits: an emphasis on warm, brightly-hued house music made with a live rhythm section, and strong Detroit ties courtesy of contributors Patrice Scott and Kai Alcé.
Boom Boom, featuring an ensemble percussion, keys, vocals and bass, nodded to Theo Parrish in how it assembled jazz, disco and broken beat into a colorful tapestry of soulful house. Reworks, on the other hand, takes a more nuanced approach by bringing out different qualities of Luna's ornate instrumentation. Each track focuses on a particular mood, with some favouring slower tempos and others notching up the intensity.
Alcé's interpretation of "Boom Boom" focuses on its jazz roots. More melody-driven than Scott's, Alcé's intertwining layers of crooning saxophone and twinkling keys creates the kind of bittersweet, happy-sad feeling that underscores the end of a memorable holiday, or leaving home for a new city. In comparison, Scott's version is smokier and grittier, recreating the feel of a cramped basement afterhours with a fat bassline, steady kick drum and thick claps that conjure up images of a crowd in sync with live performers. UK-based producer Zepherin Saint goes heavy on space-age synth funk with his remix of "Bumps," infusing what was originally a deep house cut with boogie and psychedelic influences.
House music made with a band just hits differently than pure beats. It's usually best in person, but even in headphones a rhythm section can add a rough-edged warmth to the genre's soulful undertones. In the hands of producers like Patrice Scott, Kai Alcé, Zepherin Saint and Luna himself (who offers up a housey tribute to Miles Davis on "Milestones"), the unpolished, raw texture of Boom Boom gets a gentle makeover but is never tempered.
Tracklist01. Milestones (Miles Davis Tribute)
02. Horatio Luna and Zepherin Saint - Bumps (Zepherin Saint Fling Foot Remix)
03. Horatio Luna and Patrice Scott - Boom Boom (Patrice Scott Remix)
04. Horatio Luna and Kai Alcé - Boom Boom (Kai Alcé Remix)