Madlib - Shades of Blue (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [2LP]

Shades of Blue is what happens when hip-hop's most restless crate-digger is handed the keys to the Blue Note vaults, presented here as part of the label's Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series.

Released in 2003, the album invited Madlib to remix, rework and reimagine the label's catalogue however he saw fit. He did it his way, chopping classic sessions into head-nodding beats and recruiting a cast of his own alter egos, among them Yesterdays New Quintet, Sound Directions and the Joe McDuphrey Experience, to replay jazz standards with a loose, smoky feel. Recorded at his Bomb Shelter studio in Los Angeles, it bridged generations of listeners in a single stroke.

"Slim's Return" opens with a laid-back groove that sets the tone, and "Montara" drifts into dreamy, vibraphone-tinged territory. Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" gets a fresh, percussive spin, while Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" is reborn through the Yesterdays New Quintet lens, keyboards glowing and drums crisp.

It works as a love letter to the label and a gateway for beat heads who had never heard the originals.

For jazz collectors and hip-hop fans alike, this is one of the great crossover records of its era, and it sounds right at home among the classics.