J Boys [Import]

Jamaica Boys, ?????????? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 21, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Victo
• ASIN: B00001ZT7M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,253 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Move It

2. Shake It Up

3. You've Got A Friend

4. Serious

5. Pick Up The Phone

6. Hold On (I'm On My Way)

7. Somebody Like You

8. Jungle Comes Alive

9. That's Deep

10. Shake It Up (Mix)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lenny White,Marcus Miller And Bernard Wright Continue Their Comeback With Dinky Bingham, October 5, 2011

By 

Andre S. Grindle "Andre' Grindle" (Brewer Maine) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: J Boys (Audio CD)

Because the music seemed to secretly saturate the audio and visual airwaves of the late 80's and early 90's,I suppose I found the style of new jack swing to be completely annoying at one point. Often times,still do. But that era also contained some excellent music that often got buried in the generic sea that the genre would eventually create. Now on first sight,this would SEEM like something generic at first. Trio of guys with an album title with a mildly hip-hop friendly name? But wait-it's not what you think! Two of these guys just happen to be Lenny White and Marcus Miller. Both of them were big people in the jazz funk world. At the time of this albums release in 1990 Marcus was not only one of the top bassists but also producer/composers of the era. A general all around guy somewhat in the manner of Quincy Jones in some ways. His vast resume of course is easily found through your web browser these days and needs no mention. Lenny had been somewhat inactive for awhile so this represented a comeback. But Lenny had been out of the loop for a time. And Marcus was on the cusp of a musical change of venue to a degree. What could these two do together? What could they contribute to music at the start of the 90's? The results may surprise you as they did me.

Same as with disco,contemporary R&B and even some funk new jack swing music was very easy to do in a lampooning,cartoonish style. But it was also very hard to do with the stomping,grooving sound Teddy Riley had when he introduced into the mainstream at the end of the 80's. Because of Marcus's crack musicianship and production. "Move It" and "Shake It Up!" find Marcus and Lenny showing how to make what I call NEW JACK FUNK! It's got that shuffling groove,but it's slowed right down,the electric bass is popping away and Lenny White's live drumming...makes all the difference. On "Serious" it's a downright go-go party,right up there with what Chuck Brown and EU did in the previous decade! The latter two of those songs have the added advantage of the songwriting of Bernard Wright,another "Jamaica Boy" who,while not officially a member of this band at this point made his contributions felt. Their version of Carole King's "You've Got A Friend" actually does better than one might suspect,with a very jazzy re-harmonizing the original that benefits Marcus's well oiled production style more than nicely. "Pick Up The Phone" also picks up on the New Jack balladry extremely well while "Hold On (I'm On My Way" and "Somebody Like You" have more of that late 80's funk-jazz type flavor.

On "The Jungle Comes Alive" it's heavy scratch/funk all the way,with key samples from The Wizard of Oz to create it's own unique narrative. The album ends with the flat out hard funk of "That's Deep",a vital message song regarding some of the circumstances in urban black neighborhoods that...well in a lot of ways addresses the environment in which this album came to be. The early 90's were not that much different from the early 80's economically in the way there was a recession in progress. And as the music world was in the middle of a "media sandwich" so to speak,between vinyl-to-cassette tape-to-CD if you will,some music was bound to be overlooked as it got caught in that transition. The CD revolution was in full bloom at this point. All the same you can see on the back this is still an analog recording in the end. Digital instruments are involved,but the recording is basically analog. This also represents a musical transition of it's own quite well;the temporary absorption of funk into the danceable new jack swing variant. At the same time,because it's in the hands of such capable musicians (Marcus Miller's name,as earlier stated,speaks for itself) the sound holds up a lot more powerfully than a lot of similar music from this era. And the two Jamaica Boys albums,including their self titled debut several years earlier are triumphs as a result.