Various Artists The Kings of Jazz: Gilles Peterson and Jazzanova

• Words: Justin Hopper
• Label: Rapster-BBE
• XLR8R Rating: /10

BBC DJ Gilles Peterson and Berlin nu-jazz radicals Jazzanova need no introduction as worldly tastemakers. Each selected a disc each for this installment of BBE‘s Kings Of series; the result is a 140-minute biography of future jazz. Check Roy Haynes' "Quiet Fire," a simmering, impressionistic, percussive wash; the mallet-painted skyscapes of Two Banks of Four's "Two Miles Before Dawn;" or the insistent hi-hat behind Art Blakey's "Anthenagin," a precursor to today‘s dancefloor jazz. Jazzanova perhaps concentrates too little on the broken beats they're known for, but as a tribute, lesson, or late-night soundtrack, Kings of Jazz is hard to find fault with.