Cheap Tourist (Music) (St. Germain) Price

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Customer Reviews of Tourist

Five years were not wasted
The Tourist is, if I am not mistaken, St.Germain's first full-length CD since "Boulevard", five years ago. The long wait was well worth it. Published by the Blue Note records (which speaks by itself), the Tourist's jazz samples are lovingly reinvented and seamlessly altered and mixed with modern, 'urban' rhythm and beats and completed by Ludovic Navarre and additional participation of Pascal Ohze (trumpet), Edouard Labor (sax, flute), Alexandre Destrez (keys), Idrissa Diop (talking drum), Carneiro (percussion) and Claudio de Qeiroz (baryton) plus the sonorous guitar of the "legendary (Ernest) Ranglin, one of the great unsung guitarists in jazz and Caribbean music" (The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD). Particularly interesting is the transformation of "Harry's Philosophy" from a desolate blues miniature of John Lee Hooker (taken from the soundtrack to "Hot Spot", by M. Davis, J.L. Hooker, A. Cooper, T. Mahal and R. Rogers) to almost cheerful dance track with a "twist". Other highlights of my choice: the voice of Marlena Shaw over a loop of Dave Brubeck's Take Five ("Rose Rouge"), excellent "Land of..." with soulful introduction on organ and piano, and great funky saxophones, delicate guitar by E. Ranglin on "Montego Bay Spleen", the upbeat spider piano dance of the "Latin Note"... and there are plenty of other musical pleasures in the 60 minutes of the Tourist.

"Boulevard" was very good, but "Tourist" is better, more dense, rounded and mature. Get them both! Beautiful art work for the cover, too.

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Timeless classic...
I originally heard St Germain's "Rose Rouge" as the music in a commercial for the 2000 NFL Playoffs ("Show me Something"), and thought it was really something unique with a special sound. I then bought the CD to use "Rose Rouge" in a skit for a sales presentation. Something funny happened, once I listened to the entire disc I was immediately hooked on it. My world was introduced to this jazzy/house-mix brand of european dance funk..of course, more jazz feel than I ever expected being a huge jazz fan. After the presentation, there were folks coming up to me asking about the music I used and who was it. They also wanted to listen to the entire disc and once they did, were sold on the CD and said they were off to buy it. This is an amazing compilation of songs that boast some accomplished musicans and a wonderful sample of blues great John Lee Hooker on the moanin' "Sure Thing". The music here from tracks 1 - 9 are just captivating and refreshing to hear in this context. This is one of the few CDs I own where I do not have an absolute favorite tune however, "So Flute" is a song that will just mesmerize you with its great flute solo and deep house groove. There may not be another CD of this genre that can top this. Ludovic Navarre is a gifted DJ/artist and this is his best effort, period.

(sidenote) I orginally reviewed this album 2 years ago and entered a ridculously insipid column and rated it 4 stars. This is my update after countless listenings of this phenomenal disc. Great stuff for the musically adventurous listener.

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Sensual but pure
I have always been a lover of classic, acoustic jazz, but St. Germain has topped off my pleasure scale with the amazing fusion of classic style with electronic flair. There are no words to express the way this music seduces heart and mind. It's like a soul bridge to a transparent world that runs somehow simultaneous with our mundane, daily existence. And when you step down into that other place you wonder how you could have lived elsewhere.

The thing that strikes me the most about St. Germain is the consistent and simple grooves that are almost predictable and unmoving...but not quite. They evolve slowly, conservatively peppered with lively, brief bursts and subtle, almost ghost melodies in the distance. Motego Bay Spleen is a perfect example of this. So Flute does similar but the expressions of melody beyond the main groove are erratic and playful, leaving you always guessing what's coming next. Land of...starts out with an organ funk piece that digs into your deepest soul and slowly ebbs into a "walking" groove (for lack of a better term) and horn work that you can't help but move to. Sure Thing is the most urban-feeling song on the album with spicy (and at times, dissonant) electric guitar riffs and soulful, almost unintelligible vocals that work the human voice like an instrument. Outstanding. I haven't found a song on this CD that I don't like.

I don't know if it's possible to become bored with St. Germain, but it's entirely conceivable to become lost.