Moodymann – JAN

This sprawling, 11-minute epic from 2001 is one of the last truly great Kenny Dixon Jr productions, for my money. A low-down, insistent bassline and a 4/4 kick power the sparse first section along underneath an eerie tapestry of choirs, Rhodes and strings, interspersed with cool-as-fuck samples (one of which gives this blog its name) of an Electrifyin’ Mojo interview with Prince – though you never actually hear the Purple one’s answers. Seven minutes in, he flips the script and the track heads off into a loose jazz-funk groove with live bass, tambourine and gospel-inflected background vocals. It’s a brilliantly idiosyncratic production that could only have come from mind of one man.