DOMi & JD Beck: Not Tight [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note pressing is 180g vinyl with a printed insert, made in Germany. Not Tight earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, went to No. 1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and the duo were nominated for Best New Artist.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Printed insert
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Domi Louna was enrolled at a French conservatoire at five, and JD Beck was gigging around Dallas with members of Erykah Badu's band at about ten. They met at the 2018 NAMM Show, met again a month later at Badu's birthday party, and started posting videos of themselves playing music most people need a diagram to follow.

Not Tight came out on Blue Note and Anderson .Paak's Apesh*t label, recorded almost entirely at their own headquarters. The tracks are short and dizzyingly quick, Domi's keys darting around Beck's machine-precise drumming, and the guests line up to join in. Thundercat joins them on "Bowling" and the title track, Mac DeMarco drifts through "Two Shrimps," Herbie Hancock plays on "Moon," .Paak turns up on "Take A Chance," Kurt Rosenwinkel adds guitar to "Whoa," and "Pilot" brings Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and .Paak together. "Smile" was the first single and remains a lovely way in, and "Space Mountain" lives up to its theme-park name.

It's jazz with a video-game grin, virtuosic without ever feeling like homework. We'd describe the drumming further, but our staff drummer has gone for a lie down.

Also at Kops: more DOMi & JD Beck on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note / Apesh*t (cat# B003590801), the 2022 album.