Following the club and Verve Lounge buzz that came with Nina Simone’s ribbon-cutting Remixed & Reimagined outing last year, Columbia has again opened their vaults to Scott Schlachter. This time he chose to redistribute Billie Holiday’s career from 1933 to '44 to his stock of deejays and producers in order to recontextualize Holiday's music for the 21st century. Several names from the first installment reappear here, including Jazzeem, Nickodemus, Daniel Y, and the vapid Tony Humphries, but once again many of the remixers here miss the point and/or the opportunity to create something truly special.
Most mixes merely sample a little trumpet and a shameful bit of the chorus from each legendary Holiday original, leaving you wondering where the “Reimagined” part comes in. While GXR’s progressive house programming for “Long Gone Blues” is a cool track in and of itself, it really doesn’t have much to do with Lady Day, while Poppyseed and Tony Humphries’ amateurish, misled bastardizations are an utter disgrace to themselves and the woman of honor. (Funky, vocal house must die.) Elsewhere, Jazzeem, whose treatment of Simone’s “Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter” was a revelation last time around, gives us a seemingly self-inflated track with hip-hop fringes that sound forced, while the otherwise solid “Spreadin’ Rhythm Around” by Lady Bug Mecca makes the mistake of adding a rap verse.
It’s not all bad, though. Schlachter’s own “Summertime (Organica Remix)” does a fabulous job of seamlessly integrating the old-timey music and Billie’s singing personality into new sounds, and the Madison Park, trip-hop revision of “I’m Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away The Key)” is one of the rare tracks that provides a mood other than club breakbeat/hip-hop or funky house. The Nickodemus and Zeb tag team pays off, too, and Swingsett & Takuya's quaintly funky update of “I Hear Music” gets your hopes up right from the very beginning. However, you just can’t shake the feeling that pretty much everyone else took the easy way out. Take a fucking chance, rediscover the spirit of the original works, or just forget the whole thing next time, you guys.
1. I Hear Music (Swingsett & Takuya's Mighty Fine Remix)
2. More Than You Know (Jazzeem's Throwback Remix)
3. Spreadin' Rhythm Around (Lady Bug vs. Lady Day RR Remix)
4. Long Gone Blues (GXR Remix)
5. Trav'lin' All Alone (Nickodemus & Zeb Remix)
6. He Ain't Got Rhythm (Poppyseed Remix)
7. Summertime (Organica Remix)
8. I'm Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away The Key) (Madison Park Remix)
9. Glad To Be Unhappy (DJ Logic Remix)
10. Billie's Blues (Daniel Y Remix)
11. You're So Desirable (Sunday People Remix)
12. Pennies From Heaven (Count De Money Remix)
13. But Beautiful (Tony Humphries THP Remix)
14. All Of Me (Charles Feelgood Remix)
15. You Showed Me The Way (Billy Paul Williams Remix)