Rating: NNN
The concept of a label bringing in hotshot producers to mess with the back catalogue in hopes of making old music appealing to a new generation isn’t such a bad idea. But for it to be artistically successful, the remixers should try to improve or at least bring something new to the familiar original songs. On Verve Remixed — which gathers Joe Claussell, MJ Cole, Rae & Christian, De-Phazz, UFO, Tricky, King Britt, Thievery Corporation and others to tweak vocal jazz numbers by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, etc — the lone such instance is the Masters at Work house reworking of Nina Simone’s See-Line Woman (though Kerri Chandler beat them to it two years ago). The simultaneous release of the unmixed versions of the tracks just underscores the shocking lack of creativity brought to the project.
