Tourist

St. Germain

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B00004SU5J
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (136 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,194 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Techno-House
  #42 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > House

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Smooth, downtempo grace flows through the veins of St. Germain, a.k.a. noted French composer-producer Ludovic Navarre. His record is a sensual flow of jazzy textures, Latin rhythms, and bass-ridden beats, hovering on the verge of techno, jazz, or experimental headphone music without tipping its hand too far in any direction. The result is irresistible: class with an edge. --Matthew Cooke

Product Description
EMI UK pressing. 2000 release from French DJ/producer, mixing jazz, blues, funk and soul. Includes the single 'Rose Rouge'. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five years were not wasted, June 1, 2000

By	ptitchitza (Leiden, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

The Tourist is, if I am not mistaken, St.Germain's first full-length CD since "Boulevard", five years ago. The long wait was well worth it. Published by the Blue Note records (which speaks by itself), the Tourist's jazz samples are lovingly reinvented and seamlessly altered and mixed with modern, 'urban' rhythm and beats and completed by Ludovic Navarre and additional participation of Pascal Ohze (trumpet), Edouard Labor (sax, flute), Alexandre Destrez (keys), Idrissa Diop (talking drum), Carneiro (percussion) and Claudio de Qeiroz (baryton) plus the sonorous guitar of the "legendary (Ernest) Ranglin, one of the great unsung guitarists in jazz and Caribbean music" (The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD). Particularly interesting is the transformation of "Harry's Philosophy" from a desolate blues miniature of John Lee Hooker (taken from the soundtrack to "Hot Spot", by M. Davis, J.L. Hooker, A. Cooper, T. Mahal and R. Rogers) to almost cheerful dance track with a "twist". Other highlights of my choice: the voice of Marlena Shaw over a loop of Dave Brubeck's Take Five ("Rose Rouge"), excellent "Land of..." with soulful introduction on organ and piano, and great funky saxophones, delicate guitar by E. Ranglin on "Montego Bay Spleen", the upbeat spider piano dance of the "Latin Note"... and there are plenty of other musical pleasures in the 60 minutes of the Tourist.

"Boulevard" was very good, but "Tourist" is better, more dense, rounded and mature. Get them both! Beautiful art work for the cover, too.

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Damn this is good, October 9, 2000

By	Peter R. Fischer (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

With so many "global lounge" and trippy dub discs coming out recently, it is tough to decide what to get and it is rare that an album is so clearly as superior to the rest of its genre as is St. Germain's tourist.

Borrwing a page from Moby's Play and expanding on it, this disc is a combination of looped dub-like drums and bass sounds, vocal samples and live studio musicians. The combination is astounding. Deep seductive drum loops and bass tracks lay the foundation while the live insturmentation (horns, flute, keyboards, and percussion) are layered over the top. Finally, jazz, blues, and latin vocal fragments float through the songs like swirls of puffy clouds floating through an otherwise perfect blue sky.

This CD is a delicious combination of sounds. If any of the jazz cats from Miles Davis to Ben Webster could hear this, they would recognize that same smokey, groovy goodness that makes their own records perpetual favorites. In fact, if Davis was the birth of cool, this is certainly a rebirthing or an upate for the new millenium.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect blend of house and jazz, March 28, 2001

By	Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The first song I heard from this CD was "Sure Thing" and it knocked me out, bluesy guitar intro sounding like Jimi rising, setting a George Bensonesque groove that thumped me into knowing I had to have this. St. Germain(Ludovic Navarre) is conceptually brilliant, the fusion of jazz and house, the further development of acid jazz, electronica and jazz dance music, new groove standards, never pretentious, always challenging yet fun, this is music based in tradition with an electronic twist. The French producer, writer and conductor known as St.Germain has created an instant classic. The opening track sets the tempo, borrowing from Marlena Shaws performance at Montreux her "I want you to get together.... put your hand together" create a perfect backdrop for the jazzy interplay of the six musicians he assembled for this masterful fusion. This is one of those rare CD's that will be played over and over, sounds better with familarity and gets plenty of use of the replay button on your player. Although it is jazz, it is just as much electronica. The mixture of latin beats, dub, house, electronica, blues and jazz are given equal treatment, never dominating but creating a synthesis that is satisfying, a musical collage that takes one back and looking forward at the same time. This is an excellent CD, nearly flawless in its production and well worth the money. One song,(samples from John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis) "Sure Thing", made me buy it, you will find out as I did that all the songs are superb, a must for jazz or house music fans.