The multi-media package will give a thorough cross-section of Acid Jazz's quarter century of operation. Founded in 1987 by Eddie Piller with help from Gilles Peterson (and later Dean Rudlan), Acid Jazz explored an open-ended and hard-to-define sound at the meeting point of jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop. Over the years the label released hundreds of records by an incredibly diverse array of artists, from Dinosaur L to Gil Scott Heron to Cypress Hill. Whether the label came before or after the term "acid jazz" referred to a style of music depends on who you talk to, though Peterson is widely credited with coining the term. He tells the story this way:

"We put on this old 7-inch by Mickey and the Soul Generation which was a rare groove record with a mad rock guitar intro and no beat. I started vari-speeding it so it sounded all warped. Chris Bangs got on the microphone and said, 'If that was acid house, this is acid jazz'. That's how acid jazz started, just a joke!"

All in all the box set includes four CDs, a DVD, two books and a 7-inch with two exclusive tracks. One book features 52 pages of the label's artwork, the other tells the Acid Jazz story in Rudland's own words. All four CDs are "conceived and compiled with love" by Piller and Rudland themselves.

Tracklist
CD1: Put It All Together and What Do You Get
01. Jose Feliciano - Golden Lady (Original Album Version)
02. The Isley Brothers - Love The One You’re With (Original Album Version)
03. Gil Scott Heron - Lady Day & John Coltrane (Original Album Version)
04. Tyrone Davis -Is It Something You Got (Original 7-inch Single Version)
05. Alice Clark - Don’t You Care (Original Album Version)
06. Spanky Wilson - You (Original 7-inch Version)
07. Erma Franklin - Light My Fire (Original Album Version)
08. Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers - Right On (Original Album Version)
09. The Quik - Bert’s Apple Crumble (Original 7-inch Version)
10. Jimmy Smith - Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe Part 2 (Original Album Version)
11. Mark Murphy - Milestones (Original Album Version)
12. Googie Rene - Smokey Joe’s La La (Original 7” Version)
13. Joe Jones - Black Whip Boogaloo (Original Album Version)
14. Charles Earland - Murriley (Original Album Version)
15. Lonnie Liston-Smith - Expansions (Original Album Version)
16. Dinosaur L - Go Bang # 5 (Original Francois K 12-inch Mix)
17. Chicago - I’m A Man (Original Album Version)
18. Small Faces - I Can’t Dance With You (Original 7-inch Version)
19. Sydney Joe Qualls - I Don’t Do This (To Every Girl I Meet) (Original Album Version)

CD2: Something Happening At the Dance
01. Ballistic Brothers - Blacker (Original Album Version)
02. Diana Brown & Barry Sharpe - The Masterplan (Original 12-inch Version)
03. S.O.H.O. - Hot Music (Original 12-inch Jazz Version)
04. MC Original - Know How Young (12-inch Mix)
05. Sugar Bear - Don’t Scandalize Mine (Original 12-inch Version)
06. Nuyorican Soul - The Nervous Track (Original 12-inch Ballsy Mix)
07. A Man Called Adam - Earthly Powers (Original 7-inch Mix)
08. Jestofunk - I’m Gonna Love You (Original MC Turbo 12-inch Sax Mix)
09. The Apostles - Super Strut (Original Album Version)
10. Stonebridge - Jazzy John’s Freestyle (Original 12-inch Dub Mix)
11. Arthur Miles - Helping Hand (Original 12-inch Mix)
12. Dread Flimstone - From The Ghetto (Original 7-inch Version)
13. Espiritu - Bonita Manana (Original 12-inch Mix)
14. A Tribe Called Quest - If The Papes Come (Original 12-inch Mix)
15. Brand New Heavies - BNH (Original Album Version)
16. Galliano - Frederick Lies Still (Original 7-inch Version)

CD3: How'd We Get Us Here...?
01. Gang Starr - Jazz Thing (Original 12-inch Mix)
02. Young Disciples - Get Yourself Together (Original 12-inch Mix)
03. Brand New Heavies - Dream Come True Original 12-inch Mix
04. The James Taylor Quartet - Love Will Keep Us Together (Original Ian Green 7-inch Mix)
05. Snowboy - The New Avengers (Original 12-inch Mix)
06. A Forest Mighty - Fresh In My Mind (Black Original 12-inch Mix)
07. Pharcyde - Oh Shit (Original Album Version)
08. Chapter & Verse - Black Whip (Original 12-inch Mix)
09. King Bee - Back By Dope Demand (Original 12-inch Mix)
10. James Taylor Quarter - Theme From Starsky & Hutch (Original 12-inch Mix)
11. Incognito - Always There (Original John Morales 12-inch Edit)
12. Jamiroquai - Too Young To Die (Original Album Version)
13. Mother Earth - Apple Green (Original Album Version)
14. The Night Trains - Love Sick (Original 12-inch Mix)
15. Humble Souls - Beads Things & Flowers (Original 12-inch Mix)
16. One Creed - The Ladder (Original Album Version)
17. Primal Scream - Funky Jam (Original 12-inch Mix)

CD4: Smokers Delight
01. Paul Weller - Cosmos SX 2000 (Original 12-inch Dub Mix)
02. Mother Earth - Non Corporealness (Original Album Version)
03. Mr Scruff V Manasseh - Rassellas (Original Album Version)
04. Roots Radics meets the Scientist - Movements In Dub (Roots) (Original Album Version)
05. Dread Flimstone - Render Your Heart (Original 12-inch Mix)
06. Max Romeo - Chase The Devil (Original 7-inch Version)
07. Delroy Wilson - You Never Get Away (Original 12-inch Dub Mix)
08. Emperors New Clothes - Leaders & Believers (Original UNKLE Album Mix)
09. Snowboy - Astralisation (Original 12-inch Mix)
10. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince feat. Grover Washington Jr - The Groove (Original 12-inch Instrumental Mix)
11. Cypress Hill - I Wanna Get High (Original 12-inch Mix)
12. Jhelisa - Galactica Rush (Original 12-inch Instrumental Mix)
13. Sandals - Nothing (Original 12-inch Dub Version)

Harmless will release Acid Jazz 25th Anniversary Box Set on November 5th, 2012.

interesting box, but weller and primal scream were never acid jazz, and those tracks certainly aren't

this is a bizzare set. does nothing to clear up confusion about what exactly constitutes acid jazz. interestingly enough there was nothing by massive attack, tricky, portishead, etc. unless i missed it in my cursory glance. i'd have to come across a DEEP discount to holla at this set

awesome

datdude said:

this is a bizzare set. does nothing to clear up confusion about what exactly constitutes acid jazz. interestingly enough there was nothing by massive attack, tricky, portishead, etc. unless i missed it in my cursory glance. i'd have to come across a DEEP discount to holla at this set

What do they have to do with acid jazz?

they are the names others mentioned to ME when I inquired about the label. not so much portishead, a couple songs perhaps, but yeah, ppl were saying it was a british coined genre if u will and massive attack and tricky in particular epitomized it. not saying its correct but from the conversations i had, ppl seem to agree they "fit the bill"

datdude said:

they are the names others mentioned to ME when I inquired about the label. not so much portishead, a couple songs perhaps, but yeah, ppl were saying it was a british coined genre if u will and massive attack and tricky in particular epitomized it. not saying its correct but from the conversations i had, ppl seem to agree they "fit the bill"

massive attack was one of the first trip hop acts, they were far from acid jazz. portishead was also trip hop, and the weller track is a bit trip hop, especially the remix, you could maybe say the same for the scream, but that's more funk/rock than anything else. tricky used to be in massive attack but they fell out and he went solo. his solo stuff was a mix of trip hop and hip hop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_hop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_jazz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_Jazz_Records

acid jazz was really just what was on the acid jazz label and stuff that sounded like it. the older stuff was tagged acid jazz in retrospect, but it's realy just the founding music that inspired it, like disco inspired house, but house isn't disco and disco isn't house

so more importantly than the SOUND or what is "legimately" acid jazz vs. trip hop is the fact that Acid Jazz was an actual record LABEL, and this is a compilation of stuff that came out on THEIR label?? if that's the case, makes sense

datdude said:

so more importantly than the SOUND or what is "legimately" acid jazz vs. trip hop is the fact that Acid Jazz was an actual record LABEL, and this is a compilation of stuff that came out on THEIR label?? if that's the case, makes sense

that's the thing, many of the artists weren't on the acid jazz label, like weller and scream. in fact looking at the tracklisting again, it looks like most of them weren't. maybe someone who remixed or produced some of the stuff was tied to the label, explaining the later stuff like cypress hill and will smith, which is not what i'd call acid jazz

i could understand putting on the early stuff before acid jazz to show it's roots, in a similar way to the story of the house sound of chicago multi cd set that has disco and hi nrg stuff and other prehouse music to show how the dance genre evolved into house then acid house and commercial pop/house. perhaps this is acid jazz's way of doing that

it's a shame there are too many 7" versions, and there are some great 12" extended versions of some tracks like too young to die so it's a shame the album versions are on

datdude said:

this is a bizzare set. does nothing to clear up confusion about what exactly constitutes acid jazz. interestingly enough there was nothing by massive attack, tricky, portishead, etc. unless i missed it in my cursory glance. i'd have to come across a DEEP discount to holla at this set

Trip-hop is a direct rip-off of acid jazz, but at a much slower tempo.

With that said, I like acid jazz. I already consider as THE real spin-off of jazz fusion (READ: motherf*** smooth jazz).