Well, i am not really waiting for it, to be honest.

His past attempts at jazz (or jazzrock / fusion) have mostly been unimpressive.

The released Madhouse albums were rather decent, but i cant help thinking about them as Prince backing tracks without the vocals.

The material on NEWS and Xpectation, was mostly boring and insignificant. Simplistic jams that were going along way too long for their own good.

An on the Rainbow Children he tried to copy the likes of Weather report, and combined that with awfull lyrics.

Don't get me wrong: Prince can do great things when 'using' jazz-elements with his funk-rock hybrid (Girls and Boys, Rock hard in a funky place, Its gonna be a beautifull night, to give a few examples), but he isnt exactly a gifted 'jazz musician'.

I much rather hope he will put more effort in his songwriting and his compositions: apart from rare examples as Love, Call my name and All the midnights in the world, most of Princes songs from this decade lack a strong chorus, or a strong composition at least.
Even on the Lotusflow3r album, he seems to use his guitar-playing and some productional 'tricks' to disguise the compositions are rather mediocre.

To put it short: I rather see a new Manic Monday, Raspberry Beret, Cream or Money dont matter tonight from Prince, then some improvised quasi-jazz jam that is ultimately going nowhere.

I'd rather he team up and do a hard core rock album than jazz...

ThreadBare said:

He hinted at a New Orleans style street beat on "$", which was great. But within his slower funk grooves (which he obviously loves, like Johnny or NPG in the Funky House), he has never really looked at those sweet half-time second line grooves that bands like MMW, John Cleary, Dr John, Stanton Moore, John Scofield AND EVEN HARRY CONNICK are masters of. I'm surprised none of his drummers ever jammed on something like that, only to have Prince rip them off and use it on his next album. It's a whole other side to the evolution of jazz (and funk) that he has yet to tackle. I'd love to hear him do it though.

New New Orleans would have been a dynaminte opportunity to inflect his music with that flavour, much like Parade was all Frenchy and cool cause he absorbed the influences of his surroundings when he was filming Under the Cherry Moon. But alas, he didn't take it.

Maybe he's not interested in exploring anymore than he already has (he has been wonderfully diverse, we have to give him that), and he's comfortable now re-treading one chord funk jams, heavilly layered ballads, and solid rocky numbers.

As I said before, I hope he proves me wrong! The first track of the Rainbow Children he was seriously verging on it, I hope he pushes himself over the hump! He doesn't have to copy Miles or anyone, he will always do it his way, so lets hope he knocks it out of the ball park, and doesn't just skate on some 'love like jazz' type riff!

if its somthing like Herbie Hancocks River: The Joni Letters where he will do the music and others will sing ...i will buy it!

Bring it on!

ernestsewell said:

Nothing is racist about the rainbow children ...its just another myth about Prince and his lyrical meaning ....hype ....their is always some nutter on the org going on about this ...rubbish...

Strollin'

was great
and the madhouse records are cool!

ernestsewell said:

-----

To each his own but these albums to me are some of his strongest musically.

Hatman said:

Indeed. We're in agreement. And, HCJr's just a straight-up beast. He doesn't get his due. I was down with him at Blue Light, Red Light. But the funk turns he did on She and Star Turtle were solid, solid efforts.

purplemansionFL said:

I think he's talking about "Family Name," but I LOVE that song. I don't/can't understand what he means as far as Prince being racist, though, because in order to be a racist, you have to be in a position to control how others live and function day to day (a la, the days of slavery). Prince is not in the position to do that.

I would personally like to hear him do a Blues, just him and his lonesome with an acoustic guitar. Maybe do some Robert Johnson.

shh66 said:

insert "album" after "Blues". sorry!!!!

Hatman said:

I LOVE Harry Connick!!!! He looks dreamy and sounds even dreamier! he makes a girl warm all over.

Prince is not a 'genre' musician, he's an artist, for better or worse. He really doesn't understand jazz. Prince is a pop rocking funk and roll type of musician. He's a riff guy who has a hell of a stage persona and a clean falsetto. I would expect a 'jazz' Prince album would really amount to extended jams like a regular Prince record without vocals. And yeah that would be cool! Just not jazz.

I would like a Jazz blues album... something like what he did at the Alladin
with Strollin, You want me and Gotta broken heart again...
[Edited 5/25/09 19:28pm]

A jazz album? No thanks.

shh66 said:

I never said that, or even hinted at it. I never singled out a single song.

ThreadBare said:

It's cringe worthy at times

Prince-jazz question: That's Mike Scott playing the acoustic solo on "Fascination," right?

that'd be the least interesting move he could make

I would love that! Courtin' Time on Emancipation is fantastic. My older brother usually doesn't like Prince but he loves Courtin' Time. He loves the cheeky sound as do I.

Lotusflow3r itself is pretty much a jazz album...well here and there, its nice. I prefer it when he mixes jazz with non jazz songs though, adds a bit of variation.

Maybe we could be treated to an anticipation on the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Although, hang on: I would like to hear Prince put out a live jazz album that features covers of jazz classics or rearrangements of some of his hits. Something like Rachelle Ferrell's "First Instrument" or Al Jarreau's "Tenderness" albums, or a smokin' improvement on the Bob Belden album of jazzy Prince covers I bought years ago.



Give himself and the band some room to stretch out on familiar gems.

I thought rainbow children was pretty jazzy.

I would prefer he didn't restrict himself to a specific genre of music.

ThreadBare said:

I think Bob's CD is one of the most original and entertaining cover or tribute CDs. I think I found it in about 2000 or something, maybe 1999.

The only other one that's entertaining to me for some reason is the Classical Metropolitan Orchestra (the orange cover w/ the huge paisley on the front).

When Prince rerecorded "1999: The New Master", he actually sampled bits of the Classical Metro Orchestra's version in his new master version.

I thought I would revive my thread after Prince's jazzy SHOE number on Leno yesterday and want to know if you guys are still looking forward to a jazz/blues album from Prince...

shh66 said:

Word.

Prince ain't racist... just hella sexist!

ThreadBare said:

agree If he's gonna go Davis Coltrane on our asses, perhaps. If he's gonna drop Elixer 2.0 then