Historical Releases: The Best of Guru's Jazzmatazz

Guru - The Best Of Guru's Jazzmatazz

Virgin/EMI is releasing The Best of Guru's Jazzmatazz, 18 tracks off three volumes plus bonus tracks, on February 12th.

Here's the tracklist:

  The Best Of Guru's Jazzmatazz (CD & Digital Album)
  1.   No Time To Play (with D.C. Lee and Ronnie Jordan)
  2.   Trust Me (with N'Dea Davenport)
  3.   Slicker Than Most (with Gary Barnacle)
  4.   Down The Backstreets (with Lonnie Liston Smith)
  5.   Sights In The City (with Courtney Pine and Carleen Anderson)
  6.   Loungin' (with Donald Byrd)
  7.   Respect The Architect (with Ramsey Lewis and Bahamadia)
  8.   Watch What You Say (with Chaka Khan and Branford Marsalis)
  9.   Lost Souls (with Jamiroquai)
  10.  Choice Of Weapons (with D.C. Lee, Gus da Vigilante and Courtney Pine)
  11.  Looking Through The Darkness (with Mica Paris)
  12.  Keep Your Worries (with Angie Stone)
  13.  Supa Love (with Kelis)
  14.  Lift Your Fist (with The Roots)
  15.  Plenty (with Erykah Badu)
  BONUS TRACKS
  16.  Choices (with N'dea Davenport & Bobbi Humphrey) -- from the Once In
       The Life soundtrack
  17.  Loungin' (Jazz Not Jazz Mix) -- remix by Smash
  18.  Respect The Architect (Buckwild Remix) -- remix by Buckwild

I titled this Historical Releases not just because this is an important part of hip hop history but because this is a good time to reassess Guru's work.  Hip hop's going through a major transition and it would be good to see Guru reinserted in mainstream conversations that typically exclude such approaches.

Comments

[Ricardo Reyes Ochoa]

Most songs seem to be from the first two installments and a few from the third, either I can't recall properly or there are no tracks from the fourth Jazzmatazz. Label issues or is it just that the tracks weren't as good?

[Clyde Smith]

My understanding is that there's nothing from the 4th.

I wouldn't be the one to break this down in terms of what should be on there. I am curious about how this looks as a best of list to true Guru fans.

[Ricardo Reyes Ochoa]

I would've included "The Traveller" and "Something in the past"