Verve Remixed: All That Jazz.

Verve Remixed is in store now.

    Dahlia Ambach-Caplin has just returned from Europe where she's been working with Natalie Cole. She's in her Brooklyn apartment talking about the kind of project you dream of having a hand in, the various artists compilation Verve Remixed.

    As International Marketing Director for the famous Verve Music Group, Dahlia co-produced the album with A&R Manager, Jason Olaine. And all their dreams came true. They must have been having sweet dreams. Verve Remixed takes classic tracks by renowned jazz vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone and puts them into a 21st Century setting thanks to some of the finest mixers in the business.

    Some shake but don't stir; others use the wrist and rod. The end result is a subtly bewitching blend of jazz grace and modern beat serendipity. Richard Dorfmeister reimagines Willie Bobo's Latin masterpiece, Spanish Grease, Tricky's rendering of Billie Holiday's signature song, Strange Fruit, is breathtaking, Masters At Work redefine Nina Simone's See-Line Woman, Thievery Corporation do their usual marvelous job with a sublime take on Astrud Gilberto's Who Needs Forever? and Rae & Christian's remix of Dinah Washington's Is You Or Is You Ain't My Baby is tremendous fun. Elsewhere MJ Cole, Joe Clausell, Mark de Clive-Lowe, De-Phazz and King Britt all add their notions of what these mighty jazz classics should sound like now aware that realistically it would be impossible to better the original.

    "We did a few wish lists," Dahlia says. "We did one to start with and it was large." She chuckles. "Slowly but surely it took its own shape. Once you reach 12 you've got your number. We were really happy with everybody we chose. From our original wish list we got eight. On our original list we had Kruder & Dorfmeister but we heard through the label they couldn't do it (the pair are currently taking a break from working with one another) but once I spoke to Richard directly he said they couldn't do it as K&D so I said 'Why don't you do it yourself because we would luuuuuv to have you on board."

    One of the difficulties with such a compilation was the actual original tracks themselves, Dahlia says. They were all recorded in mono, two-track, three-tracks tops before 1967. In fact, the parts just didn't exist so most of the remixers were given a CD to work from.

    '"Many of them hadn't done that before because they usually get parts," she says. "So it took some creativity."

    Thievery Corporation are no strangers to Verve material having previously been tapped by the label to select their favourite songs from the label's vaults. The result was Sounds From the Verve Hi-Fi, a compilation that introduced a new generation of listeners to the Obscure classics that have been the 18th Street Loungers favourites for years.

    "They know our catalogue so well those two," Dahlia says. "Thievery are a stable of that kind of music now. But Verve Revisited is much more than just a US lounge album and deliberately delivers a broad palette of European and US remixers.”

    "We wanted an international sound because if you look at the electronic music scene it's global - from Germany and Austria to the States and Czechoslovakia, there are composers, producers, DJs and mixers everywhere. This all came about because of discussions with people all over the world."

    Choosing from the line-up in the US must have been difficult although Masters At Work you assume picked themselves. "Oh yes," Dahlia says. "It was remix? Masters At Work! They were really supportive and even after the release they supported the record. Little Louie (Vega) told us that they'd always been big fans of Nina Simone so they were honoured to do it. Their version is hypnotic but it also works on the dance floor. I have heard King Britt spin it out and it works so well. I appreciate the fact that he also took a chance here."

    That must have been important - that remixers invested something new in the track because they were never going to better the original. New dimensions.

    "Definitely," Dahlia replies. "Each version needed to be like another interpretation of the song just like when the great jazz singers did interpretations of the standards they did it their own way. It wasn't about reinventing the song: the song is perfect as it is. It's about giving it another twist. A modern twist. What's so great is being able to expose these great songs, songs that have a set place in the history of music, to another audience.”