Back in 2013, Los Angeles artist Adrian Younge started working on a project with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. That went on hold when they got the call to work on Luke Cage, but eventually they released their debut album as The Midnight Hour in 2018. They haven’t stopped there, either. Now launching a new imprint, Jazz is Dead, they’ve been quietly working with some legends to help them create some new material. Before any individual albums come out, they launch the label with a compilation simply titled Jazz is Dead 001.

If you’re a jazz fan, it won’t take much to convince you of this album after you look at the track listing. In one album, we get appearances from Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Brian Jackson, João Donato, Doug Carn, Azymuth, and Marcos Valle. The key here is that while each of these talented artists get a chance to shine and bring their own unique style to the album, you also have the consistency of The Midnight Hour backing everyone up and helping with the arrangements, so it doesn’t sound so random from track to track. The Midnight Hour likes to work in a cinematic symphonic style of jazz, so these are full arrangements with strings and horns, but never too busy or lush that the individual artistry gets lost in the mix. Personal favorites will come with preference, because there’s not a bad track on the album. For me, the soulful and intimate organ solos from Doug Carn on “Down Deep” really resonates, as does the fuzzy and funky Brazilian stylings of Azymuth on “Apocaliptico.” It’s an album that’s really firing on all cylinders and accomplishing everything it’s set out to do, providing a platform for new ears to discover all of these jazz greats, and it helps establish a new label with a consistent sound. Also, it’s just a really good album from front to back, with top notch musicianship and a lot of good songwriting and arranging.

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have really uncovered a secret formula with Jazz is Dead 001 – provide a bunch of jazz legends with a nice studio, top tier musicians, and then work with them to arrange and compose some new songs that will give their careers some new life. Who knew that would work so well?