"Boulevard" was very good, but "Tourist" is better, more dense, rounded and mature. Get them both! Beautiful art work for the cover, too.

61 of 66 found the following review helpful:


Damn this is good  Oct 09, 2000 By Peter R. Fischer
With so many "global lounge" and trippy dub discs coming out recently, it is tough to decide what to get and it is rare that an album is so clearly as superior to the rest of its genre as is St. Germain's tourist.

Borrwing a page from Moby's Play and expanding on it, this disc is a combination of looped dub-like drums and bass sounds, vocal samples and live studio musicians. The combination is astounding. Deep seductive drum loops and bass tracks lay the foundation while the live insturmentation (horns, flute, keyboards, and percussion) are layered over the top. Finally, jazz, blues, and latin vocal fragments float through the songs like swirls of puffy clouds floating through an otherwise perfect blue sky.

This CD is a delicious combination of sounds. If any of the jazz cats from Miles Davis to Ben Webster could hear this, they would recognize that same smokey, groovy goodness that makes their own records perpetual favorites. In fact, if Davis was the birth of cool, this is certainly a rebirthing or an upate for the new millenium.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up.

29 of 29 found the following review helpful:


Perfect blend of house and jazz  Mar 28, 2001 By Enrique Torres "Rico"
The first song I heard from this CD was "Sure Thing" and it knocked me out, bluesy guitar intro sounding like Jimi rising, setting a George Bensonesque groove that thumped me into knowing I had to have this. St. Germain(Ludovic Navarre) is conceptually brilliant, the fusion of jazz and house, the further development of acid jazz, electronica and jazz dance music, new groove standards, never pretentious, always challenging yet fun, this is music based in tradition with an electronic twist. The French producer, writer and conductor known as St.Germain has created an instant classic. The opening track sets the tempo, borrowing from Marlena Shaws performance at Montreux her "I want you to get together.... put your hand together" create a perfect backdrop for the jazzy interplay of the six musicians he assembled for this masterful fusion. This is one of those rare CD's that will be played over and over, sounds better with familarity and gets plenty of use of the replay button on your player. Although it is jazz, it is just as much electronica. The mixture of latin beats, dub, house, electronica, blues and jazz are given equal treatment, never dominating but creating a synthesis that is satisfying, a musical collage that takes one back and looking forward at the same time. This is an excellent CD, nearly flawless in its production and well worth the money. One song,(samples from John Lee Hooker and Miles Davis) "Sure Thing", made me buy it, you will find out as I did that all the songs are superb, a must for jazz or house music fans.

23 of 24 found the following review helpful:


Mostly Jazz  Apr 12, 2001 By J. Duncan
a great new CD that is predominantly a jazz work with some interesting funk, electronic and blues influences tossed in. the best tracks on the CD tend to be the ones with the least amount of jazz influence such as #1 Rouse Rouge and #6 Sure Thing. but since all of the tracks are good it's worth looking at each individually:

#1. ROSE ROUGE - a famous jazz hook from Brubeck's "Mr. New York" is the setting for a bluesy, soulful, repititive vocal line of "I want you to get together"; #2. MONTEGO BAY SPLEEN - a lumbering jazz piece with outstanding jazz guitar work throughout. makes me really appreciate the guitar again; #3. SO FLUTE- a funky flute intro, uptempo throughout. unfortunately the piece doesnt really develop after the nice intro. #4. LAND OF - the most traditional jazz piece on the album. no electronic influence at all. some gorgeous piano work throughout. shades of the 70's band "The Jazz Crusaders" throughout, particularly with the out front horn section.; #5. LATIN NOTE - a busy samba piece, this time the featured instrument is vibraphone; #6. SURE THING -- great piece, maybe best on the album. there's a funky texas-rock guitar piece enhanced with a phaser and accompanied by blues vocal with a similar effect applied. it's a seamless combination of a downtempo R&B piece with electronic enhancements prominently featured and it's awesome. #7. PONT DES ARTS - uptempo lounge piece, consistent beat throughout, probably the most danceable track on the album; #8. LA GOUTTE D'OR - wooden flute featured here. develops into rhythmic multi-textured drum piece with congas and other traditional percussion instruments. #9. WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT - prominent bass line and bluesy vocal accents close out the album with another jazz laden piece.

21 of 23 found the following review helpful:


Enjoyable, but hardly a great leap forward  Sep 28, 2001 By Michael St John
The music St. Germain created here actually sounds remarkably like a '96 CD called THE NEW GROOVE: THE BLUE NOTE REMIX PROJECT, VOL. 1, on which various hip-hop/club artists remixed classic Blue Note cuts. If you like TOURIST, you should definitely get that CD as well. This record is good, but I think it might appeal more to fans of club music who like some jazz, rather than the other way around. I say that because there isn't much rhythmic complexity within each track, the kind you'll hear from a great jazz drummer (although St. Germain does alter the beat from track to track, I'll give him that). Generally he sets up a simple, steady club beat with each cut, and then the musicians create some jazzy solos on top. If you're used to the more complex rhythms of jazz, you may get bored with these beats.

I think Amon Tobin mines a similar vein much more creatively; his atmospheres are more evocative, his forms more flexible, his music more suprising. I like this St. Germain CD for what it is, an update on '70s jazz-fusion, like a HEADHUNTERS for this decade; but with all the critical bouqets tossed its way, I just expected something really groundbreaking. In my opinion, THE NEW GROOVE was a groundbreaking record; this is just retracing some of the tracks that album left behind.

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