Elevation - Jazz: Soulful, Swinging, Hot & Sweet

Elevation offers 70 minutes of jazz & jazz-influenced music, starting out mild & thoughtful but rising to a greater energy level over the course of the session, all with the purpose of taking you to a higher plane. The wind beneath your wings on this upward journey comes courtesy of Nostalgia 77, Liz Story, Joshua Redman, Digby Jones, Nils Petter Molvaer, the Jack DeJohnette/Matt Garrison/Ravi Coltrane Trio and more.

A personal note about that Digby Jones track, which I first heard on 2001's Café del Mar Vol. 8 shortly after it was released, and which I think has held up remarkably well for a 'cocktail lounge' piece. Until that moment, most of the electronica I'd been consuming as part of my musical explorations was House, but because I'd gotten here via the 'world music' path, I was looking for something a little less 4/4, which I found in downtempo; Pina Colada was the door into a world that became my favorite place to be.