wordplay by orangepeelmoses.com
images by Bernard Grant

Nobody listens to jazz.  Sure, the Bird was the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas in his heyday, but that was nearly 69 years ago, give or take.  These days, when the average Joe Schmo thinks of jazz, Wynton Marsalis, or, even worse, Kenny G. comes to mind.  Jazz hasn’t been cool since US3 facilitated Blue Note’s comeback or Mark Farina dubbed his acid jazz and down tempo dabblings Mushroom Jazz.  That certainly hasn’t stopped Denver’s Future Jazz Project from using the genre handle in its group alias, though.  Fortunately, the band’s members have never limited themselves or their performances to jazz in its purest sense, its historic tense, rather.  As superbly gifted musicians with a broad range of tastes, they’re able to play almost anything under the sun.  During Halloweek, for example, they rocked the music of Def Jam Recordings: The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Slick Rick, etc.  Talk about versatility.  Ambitious is somewhat of an understatement.  That’s how they roll, though.  Fans were vigorously clapping along, hooting and hollering, shaking their groove thangs and wiggling their heineys in the front row.  FJP is obviously doing something right. 

Do yourself a favor, forget all about cash, car and ho-obsessed hip hop artists who coast to the top of the charts on the backs of other people’s music.  Any idiot can chicken scratch bad elementary school poetry over someone else’s uber-legendary melody.  See Diddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You.”  Future Jazz Project doesn’t need to pirate samples from legitimate composers, they’re too busy creating sample-worthy tracks of their own...from scratch no less.  They’re certainly not completely alone in that realm–both Atmosphere and The Roots do it, among others–but comparable contemporaries are definitely few and far between.  Of course, they aren’t quite as widely known as the aforementioned acts (though, in their defense, they were named “Best Jazz/Swing” act by the Westword two years in a row).  True by Design, the sophomore follow-up to their debut disc Check One, is guaranteed to make some headway in the recognition department, though.  “Stress,” Design’s first single, is a funky, catchy R&B number that is sure to receive its fair share of airplay on both local and college radio stations.  Selena Albright, one of FJP’s two primary pairs of pipes, is responsible for most of the vocals on “Stress,” minus MC Big House’s interlude rap in the middle. 
    Experience the future of jazz today.  
                             
CD Release December 1st @ Herman’s Hideaway

FutureJazzProject.com