THE ELECTRONIC BEAT DJ GREYBOYRemember acid jazz? In the early '90s, DJs like Gilles Peterson and acts like the Young Disciples and the Brand New Heavies brought an air of sophistication, futurism, and jazz culture to dance music. Honestly, I was more inclined to crush a Budweiser can on my head at a rock show at that time than to muse over a live sax solo played over a beat. I think my relationship with acid jazz was more along the lines of Owen Wilson's comment on Sting's music in Zoolander: "I don't listen to it... but I appreciate the fact that [people make] it!"
DJ Greyboy is an acid-jazz figure whose influence and importance in merging DJ and jazz/funk cultures speaks for itself. After winning the West Coast DMC championship in 1988, San Diego-based Greyboy (aka Andreas Stevens) began contacting Michael and Jody McFadin's record store in search of good breaks and rare grooves. The McFadins had just started a label, Ubiquity, and with the help of Greyboy, the company has since become world-renowned for helping pioneer stateside involvement in acid jazz, breaks, and jazz/funk grooves.
Greyboy hooked up with saxophonist Karl Denson and in 1993 cut the track "Unwind Your Mind," which was a significant reference point for the integration of sample-based music with live funk/jazz instrumentation. Greyboy's live band, the Greyboy Allstars, had their own success, while Greyboy released Freestylin' and Land of the Lost as a solo artist. Once the acid-jazz scene began to unravel, Greyboy focused more on music production, mainly working on hiphop beats, forming a label (P-Jays) with pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, and producing tracks for skate videos and movie soundtracks.
Greyboy is back with a new album, Mastered the Art, that allows him to represent his hiphop influences while returning to his earlier Ubiquity jazz-influenced releases. Mastered the Art is full of beats, scratches, and an astonishing array of instruments, thanks to the help of Greyboy Allstar multi-instrumentalist Elgin Park. The album unfortunately falls victim to a common problem in hiphop records, though--overproduction smoothes out its raw edges. "Uknowmylife" has a beautiful arrangement, with arpeggiating strings and horn swells, but the lack of articulation and originality in Main Flow's vocals forces the instrumentation to leave him behind. My favorite track is "Instantly," as it showcases what Greyboy and company do best: combining experimental grooves with enough jazz sensibility to make Herbie Hancock look twice. Overall, though, the conservative production tone forces the record to land somewhere between hiphop, electronic, and jazz without really defining itself.
Greyboy is on the road again, with a record collection and the experience he's accumulated over the past decade. Regardless of the flaws on the new album (and what I was doing ten years ago), expect to hear someone skilled at pushing the boundaries of samplers and instruments--someone who comes from a time when the crushed-can ring on my forehead was the biggest innovation I could offer. NICOLAE WHITE
DJ Greyboy w/Aaron Lewis, Friday Oct 11 at Nation, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, 9 pm-2 am, 21+, $10.
