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- TAV // Essential Listening -

Few albums have combined jazz and hip-hop as audaciously as acclaimed multi-hyphenate Madlib’s radical invasion of jazz’s most illustrious label - Blue Note. Here, the DJ-producer-rapper-multi-instrumentalist’s SP-1200 comes across not so much as a drum machine or sequencer, but more as a time machine, able to create temporal anomalies where the past does not just inform the present, the two are able to communicate and inspire each other.

This visionary album that resulted from Madlib’s invasion of Blue Note’s hallowed vaults in 2003 features vivid reimaginations and reinterpretations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Bobby Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter, Ronnie Foster, and more. - The Analog Vault

"Madlib received a rare opportunity with unfettered access to the storied Blue Note archives and permission to use them as he wished for a remix/interpretation album released on Blue Note itself. The result, Shades of Blue, is really more of a Yesterdays New Quintet album, but Madlib's name is far more recognizable then his alter ego and faux-supergroup, YNQ. So, Shades of Blue features Madlib interpreting and remixing Blue Note classics such as Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" and Gene Harris' "The Look of Slim" (remixed here as "Slim's Return").

Overall, a good time is had by all, as he doesn't just sample the tracks as much as fit them into his own sound. That's why the record would be better compared to the Yesterdays New Quintet debut, Angles Without Edges, where Madlib takes on the personas of numerous instrumentalists (going so far as to credit them individually in the liner notes) and make laid-back break-heavy jams that serve great as background party stuff -- and that's really where Shades of Blue works the best. Intent listening doesn't really give much up, but for smooth subconscious grooves, it's perfect." - Sam Samuelson, AllMusic