Various Artists Blue Note Revisited

• Words: Peter Nicholson
• Label: Blue Note

With producers from J Dilla to Madlib to 4hero to Herbert, this compilation could have easily been a stylistic train wreck-but somehow it works, and quite brilliantly in fact. Kyoto Jazz Massive goes for a typically broken, space jazz trip on Eddie Henderson's "Kudu," while DJ Spinna takes an appropriately laidback, cruising-with-the-top-down approach to remixing Donald Byrd. Not every new version is perfect (Herbert hijacks Michel Petrucciani into a stuttering mess) but no matter the genre, the fit between most of these dance jazz modernists and their forebears is fortuitous.