Freestylin'

Freestylin'

If you were digging around for an aural answer to the question "What is acid jazz?" you could probably do worse than Greyboy's <I>Freestylin'</I>, a loose-limbed and breezily funky affair that could serve just fine as a blueprint for the entire genre. Released in 1993, <I>Freestylin'</I> predates the success of the Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson (whose tenor sax is heard here on one track), but it's basically the same recipe. Featuring a mix of sampled drum loops and live musicians, <I>Freestylin'</I> rides one idea all the way through its 10 tracks, but that idea holds enough sway to keep the disc engaging and satisfyingly funkified. Greyboy layers fat hip-hop drum loops underneath Harold Todd's tenor sax and flute and Marc Antoine's guitar on "Ruffneck Jazz" and "Panacea," and then proceeds to do just that for most of the rest of the disc. The highlight, "Who's Gonna Be the Junkie?," boasts Karl Denson on sax, Derek G. on bass, and Gary Wing on drums, and cooks up a '70s blaxploitation soundtrack head of steam, foreshadowing the direction the Greyboy Allstars would later investigate so fruitfully. <I>--Ezra Gale</I>