Bill Burr

The remix collection that complements Original Jam Sessions 1969 has a handful of stunners, with the rest of the tracks being groovy enough, if only because of Bill Cosby and Quincy Jones' original recordings. Herbert mucks everything up on his track, making Quincy's band sound both death metal and amusement-park carousel. Cornershop relate the wacka-wacka guitar to the sitar in their mix, while Bedrock and Said Mrad both take the deep and creeping noir route with great results. Mix Master Mike and Cosby's rap on "Hikky-Burr" sound like a match made in funk heaven, but the turntable master doesn't do much more than scratch over the original track. Everything else is more pleasing than memorable, with few of the remixers willing to really mess with master Quincy's groove…

The groove is loose and deep on these studio sessions recorded as backing music for the original Bill Cosby Show sitcom in 1969. Despite the title, Bill Cosby appears on only one track here, the vocal version of "Hikky-Burr," where he improvised his entire part. Quincy Jones directed these sessions with bassist Ray Brown acting as bandleader on all but one cut (the Cosby selection). Other players came from a revolving cast that included Joe Sample on Fender Rhodes; pianists Les McCann, Clare Fischer, and Monty Alexander; drummers Paul Humphries and John Guerin; bassist Carol Kaye; guitarist Arthur Adams; vibists Milt Jackson and Victor Feldman; saxophonists Eddie Harris, Ernie Watts, and Tom Scott; and assorted others.