Domi & JD Beck is a jazz duo that consists of a 21-year-old French keyboardist (Domi) and a Texan drummer two years older. They found each other about four years ago and are now very cleverly marketed as a new wonder duo in jazz.
Their debut album Not Tight is the first to appear on Apeshit, the label of soul phenomenon Anderson .Paak. He also sings along, and in addition to bassist/singer Thundercat, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and rappers Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes, he is a guest on this album that expressly beckons the open-minded pop, soul and hip-hop enthusiast.
Yet the duo mainly makes jazz, and that of the busy, nervous and villainous kind of fusion. Domi’s blowing fast chord sequences are virtuoso, just like Beck’s splashing, hectic drum parts.
They play the kind of jazz rock that someone like Thundercat fits in perfectly. His singing does Bowling also rise above the rest. Also strong is Hancock’s keyboard contribution on moon, in a duel with Domi. But he should have left that vocoder untouched.
The duo let too much happen on this album debut, so that their own talents kind of disappear under the weight of big musical egos around them. Those rappers, for example, do not provide any added value and seem to have been used mainly as a lure for the pop audience.
Domi & JD Beck
Not Tight
Jazz
★★★ renvers
Apeshit/Blue Note
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