Droppin' Science: Greatest Samples from the Blue Note Lab

Various Artists (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 12, 2008)
• Original Release Date: February 12, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B0011WMI1K
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,808 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Funky jazz? Jazzy funk? Neither? Both?, August 16, 2008

By	Eric C. Sedensky "late-to-jazz musician" (Madison, AL, US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

And that's three and a half stars there.

I don't know about you, but when I hear "Blue Note", I think jazz. So let me be very clear right from the start: this is NOT a jazz CD. It is mildly jazzy in spots, however, and there are a lot of songs that are straight ahead, or variations on, blues, so it is not too much of a stretch to see why this might be classified as a jazz recording. This is something of a cross between funk and jazz, with the funk winning out, I think. The reason why I went ahead and got it is because I had never heard of any of the artists, so, I thought it would be a good chance to get exposed to another side of jazz. In that respect, I succeeded. Plus, I also like a good funk blast every now and then, so I figured this would be a handy addition to my collection if it turned out to be more funk than not. But overall, this CD is nothing special. There is a lot of jazz organ work on this, some pretty cool and funky variations of familiar tunes, and at least for me, this is a CD unlike any other I have in my collection. For someone who became interested in jazz after hearing The Urban Grooves: Album II, this music is right up my alley. After listening to "Droppin'" a few times and still not really understanding what this particular collection of songs was trying to accomplish, I sought enlightenment from the liner notes. Truthfully, I would have been happy with just a bare bones explanation of the "Lab" part, or maybe something to at least explain the title. Not happening. The liner notes are written in a mish mash of Ebonics and DJ-ese so as to be less than understandable to outsiders like me. (The guy who wrote the liner notes has a question mark in his name, which pretty much says all you need to know about that.) In the end, all I can say is: this is a high quality but slightly esoteric Blue Note package. If you like funk, or like funky jazz, you will probably enjoy this recording. With new and like new copies going for a couple of bucks, it is a relatively cheap and risk free way to get some cool (not jazz) music in your collection.