Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1, one of a growing number of jazz/hip-hop hybrid projects, finds trumpeter
Russell Gunn enlisting the talents of turntablist
DJ Apollo. The most prevalent sound, however, is that of a solid jazz group that includes the likes of tenor saxophonist
Gregory Tardy and pianist/keyboardist
James Hurt. Amid substantial blowing over hard-hitting, upbeat funk grooves and a smattering of swing, one hears samples from
Jeru the Damaja,
Kurtis Blow, and
Run DMC, as well as a brief voiceover from
KRS-One (and another from
Wynton Marsalis -- just one overt example of the diversity of
Gunn's influences). "The Blackwidow Blues," written by
Branford Marsalis, is based on a classic
Boogie Down Productions loop. Borrowing a common hip-hop conceit,
Gunn begins the album on a faux-pedagogical note, greeting listeners (in a distorted voice) as his students at "Groid University" and making tongue-in-cheek reference to his Ph.D. in "extreme groidness." The term "groid" is left unexplained, even though it seems to loom large in
Gunn's vision -- it's the name of his publishing company, for instance.
DJ Apollo's presence winds up being somewhat peripheral, although he's given the floor on "DJ Apollo Interlude," 22 seconds of fierce cutting and scratching. But when
Gunn ends this snippet with a canned group exclamation -- "Wow!" -- it diminishes the moment with a palpable self-consciousness. Unfortunately, that's not the album's only self-conscious moment. Yet there are a handful of strong tracks, including "Folkz," a cover of
Woody Shaw's "Woody 1: On the New Ark," and the closing "Mr. Hurt," the latter a dizzying reinvention of
Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love." The saccharine R&B ballad "Doll," on the other hand, is a dud. As is often the case in the realm of new ideas,
Gunn makes confident strides but stumbles along the way. Both he and the jazz/hip-hop genre are still finding their legs. ~ David R. Adler