Remember the early 2000s (or the early aughts, as some like to call them)? Right about that time, "nu jazz" - which blended jazz, funk, soul and electronica - reached its creative peak. The heyday didn't last long. Hip-hop all but obliterated niche genres, and while I have no special feeling for hip-hop or rap one way or another (other than I'm not into most of it), it's a shame that nu jazz fell by the wayside. There was an intelligence at work with nu jazz, which often took existing jazz standards and souped them up to sometimes startling effect - the Saint Germaine electro-jazz series being a prime example - and, at its very best, created fresh, original material.
