js 9 Lazy 9 wasn’t the first group to mix jazz, hip-hop and RnB samples into a new style of instrumental jazz, but their debut EP, “Paradise Blown” in 1992, was widely influential with its rich tapestry of layered sounds and its development of a new modern sound in jazz. Their follow up album in 1994, “Electric Lazyland”, followed a similar formula in which various looped rhythms and melodic snippets would be layered to create the sound of a modern jazzy ensemble. By the time the late 90s rolled around, this technique of building tracks by piling loops on top of each other had become an over played cliché, but in 94, “Electric Lazyland” was still fresh, and it has also held up well over time and still sounds much better than a lot of the cookie cutter acid jazz and trip-hop that followed in its wake.

The fine art of building tracks with looped samples was first introduced to the world of hip-hop in the late 80s on De La Soul’s creative debut “Three Feet High and Rising”, and this sound dominated rap and hip-hop until music laws caught up with the new technology involved and the original artists had to be paid for their sampled material. For a few years the world of rap dropped sampling like a hot potato and switched to live musicians. Meanwhile, a new culture of underground DJs who worked outside of popular rap circles began to develop and since they were out of the eye of the mainstream music industry, they were able to continue working with samples and loops, especially since now there was much more effort to disguise those samples. It is from this scene that 9 Lazy 9 emerged and set new standards for what was expected in the creation of “sampled jazz’ tracks.

A lot of 90s music built on samples has not aged well, many of the loops sound repetitive and simple by today’s standards, but as mentioned before, “Electric Lazyland” is creative enough that it has aged nicely. What we have on here are songs built with snippets of bop melodies from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Theolonius Monk, layered on top of complex funky hip-hop tracks with plenty of extra percussion and rhythmic hooks. On “Monk’s Dream”, pianist Giulliana Pella lends his skills in re-creating Monk’s classic tune, but now with a hard driving break beat. “Skarakesh” takes snippets of Dizzy’s “Night in Tunisia” and mixes it with traditional music from North Africa layered on top of a stuttering syncopated beat box. Ironically, the full melody from “Night in Tunisia” does not appear on “Skarakesh”, but does become part of a later track, “B Hip and Shop”.

It was fun re-visiting this old album. Although in the hands of imitators, these sort of tracks built on loops became very tired over the years, in the hands of originators like 9 Lazy 9, this music still sound like jazz from the future.