j.dee | Smoove On The Move

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While Urban Jazz music hasn’t been a forefront of mainstream jazz music from the last few years, there’s cats still in the game willing & able to bring out the best of the genre without question. And one of those figures is NuGroove recording artist, saxophonist j.dee Bolden as he tackles another set of jazzy grooves for the making of “Smoove On The Move”, the followup to his recent “Tippin’ On The Edge Of Funk”. His bio speaks largely about how his Brother Teddy B. highly recommended j.dee to take that big chance to rise & shine on his own in this world of smooth & contemporary jazz music. While his taste is definitely more for the urban flowing crowd, this new offering also promises some settled moments of romance, & down to earth mellow rooted compositions.

Track Listing:
~ It’s On & Crackin’
~ Boom Ba Boom Boom Boom
~ Coast Rollin’
~ Let’s Walk
~ Smoove On The Move
~ I’m Bout Ta Bust A Move On Ya!
~ Too Hip Fa Seafood (Where’s Da Yawdbird?)
~ Is This Cool Or What?
~ Don’t You Worry Bout A Thang
~ Get Gone (interlude)
~ Zoom Zoom
~ Ask Myself
~ Yawdbird Instrumental

Keep in mind…with Urban Jazz, the bass often thumps, the groove is often related to hip-hop & funk music & the lyrical content stretches the bar to more slang content. Such as names of the song selections j.dee chose to name.

“It’s On & Crackin'” starts off the album with a deep mid-tempo composition intended to kick things off. And it goes on in “Boom Ba Boom Boom Boom”. j.dee’s special guest Claude Woods Jr. lends a helping hand on the lead vocals. The smooth, laid back touch comes into play with “Coast Rollin'”, just as appropriate as it sounds.

Some tracks that got me interested, to say the least, were “Let’s Walk”, a dance floor move, featuring a special rap from Big Hoss, “Is This Cool Or What?”  which lends a hand to that hard bop driven smooth jazz template, & a little taste of the Latin jazz side in “Don’t You Worry Bout A Thang” – which in some ways reminded me of Grover Washington’ earlier songs. I like the way “Get Gone” orchestrates j.dee background vocal arrangements as well, even for just a small interlude.

Thus with all of this said, there are some plus & minuses, some strengths & some weaknesses. For the positive, I digged the urban appeal, the more broadening, edgy tracks this offering had put together. But for the set back, not enough of it. However, the CD contains a great mixture of different sounds as it relates to music formats. It incorporates a little piece of rap music, a little bit of blues, of latin, etc. Which will make up for the overall spark j.dee intended to leave on the listener. And this will possibly grow on us over a period of time.

Terrill Hanna
The Urban Music Scene

Available now at NuGroove!