Guru's Jazzmatazz series

For those who haven't experienced this unique collab series Guru (R.I.P.) started as a project in 1993. His original goal was to take the popular Jazz music sample one step further and record a "live" jazz record fuzed with his lyrical genius. Here's a quote:

quote:

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Back around ’93—when I first came up with the Jazzmatazz concept—I was noticing how a lot of cats were digging in the crates and sampling jazz breaks to make hip hop records. But while I thought that was cool, I wanted to take it to the next level and actually create a new genre by getting the actual dudes we were sampling into the studio to jam over hip hop beats with some of the top vocalists of the time. You know, the whole thing was experimental, but I knew it was an idea that would spawn some historic music.

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Even his first album released in 93 was so far ahead of its time that it sounds like stuff that gets released today. Guru is truly a Hip Hop legend to me for his contributions and how it forever changed the genre. If you've never experienced his phenomenal project I highly recommend following some of these links and discover what I consider a collection of some of the most amazing Hip Hop fusion albums ever produced.

1993



Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1

1995:



Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 2: The New Reality

2000:



Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 3: Streetsoul

2007:



Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4: The Hip Hop Jazz Messenger

There's also a Best Of Album released by Virgin with Guru's permission in 08

Some things about these albums every instrument you hear is a live musician he hand picked and brought into the studio and there was no mastering or mixing not on beats, vocals, just a whole very natural sound. After Vol.1 it garnered so much respect as a project Premier (who he left the copywrites to posthumously) still gets requests for samples and following Guru's wishes denies because every bit was musicians just jamming a lot of the music wasn't even written just him reciting the lyrics and the Jazz artists playing . Such an amazing catalogue of music. I didn't link particular songs because each album deserves a full listen to experience it as a whole.

Go research these and Enjoy!!