O.H. Krill

This is a nice example of how to blend jazz and sampling. O.H. Krill is a project of instrumentalist and producer Max Brennan. They've grabbed a bit of mid-'70s Herbie Hancock and a good deal of Mongo Santamaria and produced The Krill Papers, a smooth listening yet experimental disc in its own way. Each composition effectively blends sampled parts with live playing. The live musicians are frequently indistinguishable from the samples, or rather the instrumentalists to add variation to the programming. There are no fiery solos to speak of, but this music isn't really about fire. The Krill Papers has all the vocabulary of "dance floor" jazz - active ride cymbals, spacy Rhodes - yet creates convincing grooves in odd time signatures featuring engrossing rhythms. This CD's fundamentally Latin polyrhythmic force is its best feature. The songwriting contains some nice harmonies and song structures to further distinguish it from one-groove jazz pretenders. This is definitely loungin' music, but will have staying power in your collection.