St Germain

Since the advent of acid jazz in the mid-'80s, the many electronic-jazz hybrids to come down the pipe have steadily grown more mature, closer to a balanced fusion that borrows the spontaneity and emphasis on group interaction of classic jazz while still emphasizing the groove and elastic sound of electronic music. For his second album, French producer Ludovic Navarre expanded the possibilities of his template for jazzy house by recruiting a sextet of musicians to solo over his earthy productions. The opener "Rose Rouge" is an immediate highlight, as an understated Marlena Shaw vocal sample ("I want you to get together/put your hands together one time"), trance-state piano lines, and a ride-on-the-rhythm drum program frames solos by trumpeter Pascal Ohse and baritone Claudio de Qeiroz. For "Montego Bay Spleen," Navarre pairs an angular guitar solo by Ernest Ranglin with a deep-groove dub track, complete with phased effects and echoey percussion. "Land Of..." moves from a Hammond- and horn-led soul-jazz stomp into Caribbean territory, marked by more hints of dub and the expressive Latin percussion of Carneiro. Occasionally, Navarre's programming (sampled or otherwise) grows a bit repetitious -- even for dance fans, to say nothing of the jazzbo crowd attracted by the album's Blue Note tag. Though it is just another step on the way to a perfect blend of jazz and electronic, Tourist is an excellent one. © John Bush /TiVo

Twenty years ago, Ludovic Navarre released the most important album of his career. After making a name for himself as St Germain on the F Communications label, he was recruited by the legendary Blue Note label, which was attracted by the way the Parisian manipulated and hybridised jazz and electronic production. Tourist, for which he recorded musicians one-by-one before mixing everything on his computer, would be his masterpiece and a commercial and critical success, bringing him three Victoires de la Musique in addition to 4 million copies sold, thanks in particular to the unstoppable single Rose Rouge. Based on the vocal sample “I want you to get together”, which opens Marlena Shaw's song Woman of the Ghetto, and the cymbal playing of Joe Morello, the drummer of the Dave Brubeck Quartet (on the standard Take Five), backed by a danceable kick, with intertwining brass and flutes, Rose Rouge is a jazz-house jam that opened the doors of perception to an entire generation. Naturally, when asked by St Germain to pick a favourite track from the album to remix, producers gravitated towards this piece. Atjazz, who collaborated on the 2015 album St Germain, takes up Galaxy Aart Remix, which accentuates the jazz side while adding a little hypnosis (with a synth in the background that goes up and down), while Parisian Terry Laird renders it in a Maloya style. Jovonn, forgotten pioneer of New York house, makes it an Old Skool 90s remix, a very New York sound, while Nightmares On Wax reshapes it into a techno track. But it is the God of Chicago House, Ron Trent, who wins the palm with his JazzFunkSuite Remix: lascivious percussion, a cosmic piano, an ultra-mellow groove, the result is just magical. Also worth noting is the Amapiano Remix of So Flute by Ludovic de Navarre himself, who has developed a passion for this downtempo style between deep house and R&B which is in vogue in South Africa, and the funky house remix of Sure Thing by DJ Deep that concludes a record that oozes artistic pleasure. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

Without doubt one of the most anticipated albums of 2015. A new record from St Germain! The announcement seems unlikely, as fans of Ludovic Navarre have had to wait for fifteen years to taste a sequel to the famous Tourist, which shook planet electronica as long as fifteen years ago. Obviously, nothing has really changed in the content of this album except for Real Blues, delivered in May, where single spellbinding African rhythms mingled with blues sounds and the voice of the great Lightnin’ Hopkins. Good things come to those who wait. © CM / Qobuz

Coming 15 years after he dazzled the world with his jazz-house album Tourist, Ludovic Navarre returned to his St. Germain moniker with this self-titled 2015 effort, the self-titling being a signal that the project was reborn. It is, at least partially, as rare groove jazz has been replaced by music from Mali, West Africa, along with blues and funky jazz guitars from around the world. In the case of the highlight "Real Blues," it is a Lightnin' Hopkins sample that supplies the blues, while Navarre does his usual -- and intoxicating -- light house shuffle underneath. Many of the cuts here sound like an Amadou & Mariam release that's constantly segueing into a Naked Music 12" from the house label's heyday, save the dissonant "Hanky-Panky," which suggests that St. Germain, like the equally slow-moving Kraftwerk, has grown fond of layers upon layers. The Mali bits and the rustic blues guitars mesh extremely well, but some of the smooth jazz noodling seems more hooked to the synths, and while Navarre certainly adores all these genres and handles them with respect and care, this isn't the spellbinding collision that was Tourist. Approach it as a much more relaxed, refined, and ethnobeat version of St. Germain. © David Jeffries /TiVo

This jazzy French house ensemble gets a dance floor injection from Todd Edwards on this single, originally released in 1993. © John Bush /TiVo