Customer Reviews

Droppin Science

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4 star:		(1)
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Being a big fan of this collection, I was highly entertained by Eric's comment about "...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." Although I am one of those people this collection was made for, I love when someone skewers something pompous so accurately. Most all DJ's identify themselves with street culture (whether they're really from it or not) and have their own little code language...kinda like Trekkies (Star Trek fanatics). Sorry to hear you were ill informed about the product you were buying, and reading the package didn't help; but it gave me a big laugh. For a similarly cheap price ($3 used) a great companion volume to this album would be the 1991 album called THE LOW END THEORY by a group known as A Tribe Called Quest. Nearly all the music behind the vocals has been sampled from Jazz albums; Funky Jazz albums...but Jazz nonetheless. If you are one of those people like Eric, who doesn't understand how Jazz and Funk are related to one another, you might start by familiarizing yourself with a Jazz style called BeBop (1950's), which led to a style called Hard Bop (1960's), which led to a style known as Soul Jazz (1970's); which is the majority of what's on Droppin' Science. For those who already get it and want to explore further, I'd recommend finding a similarly titled set by a DJ name J.Rocc called "Blue Note Droppin' Science"; where he mixes together these tracks and bits of the hip hop tracks that were spawned from them into one 40 minute piece.

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.