When does jazz become more than a set of tools and techniques, and what is the crucial element that makes it into its own unmistakable form?
Jazz musicians have pushed against the genre since at least the days of the big bands, and Miles Davis’s guitarist Pete Cosey once declared jazz “a dirty word.” Yet the teeming nocturnes of Duke Ellington and the melted grooves of On the Corner are both jazz, despite the misgivings of their creators. On his latest release, Finnish musician Vladislav Delay (born Sasu Ripatti) utilizes the basic equipment of jazz but ends up with something undeniably different.
Delay has been around since the ’90s, operating mostly in various shades of electronic (abstract glitch, collaged house, minimal…