‘The whole jazz thang’ continues to pick up mainstream momentum, particularly within the electronic music scene off the back of the success of a series of chillout CDs through the early 2000s. The combination of old school sound, sampling and precise mixing is a match made in heaven. And it’s outfits such as Waldeck, with their latest offering Ballroom Stories, that provide credibility to the modern take on the genre, through their evoking of some awesome musical elements through the joys modern technology.

One such element is the sublime vocals of Joy Malcolm (who really knows how to turn us on and make our day). It’s been said more than once she has a voice just made for jazz, and that was 60 years ago when smoking was cool instead of banned and elicit booze was the drink of choice.

It all begins with Make My Day, a track familiar to many as it was picked up by Mercedes for a recent advertising campaign. Snare, clarinet, the smoky overtones on the vocals and some cool sounds really bring it together. The second track Jerry Weintraub is a little thin without the vocals, but track three Memories has a great bounce, simple layering and a bit of French lyrics mixed in. Love it! It’s the first song on the disk that features Zeebee.

The first real change in direction came with Addicted which didn’t strike me as jazzy, but with an underlying rhythm that you would find in a Gorillaz CD (OK music purists, stop freaking out… it’s all relative!) and again with Brian Amos delivering the vocals for So Black and Blue. On the other hand Death of a Piano Salesman is distinctly electronic and sampled, delivering good variation – maybe a little more stretching of the boundaries would have worked on this disk.

My fave track would be bei mir boist du schon for its fusion, a little funk and quirkiness. Lots of sax, a little dirty production, a bit of sway, but you don’t wanna get up and dance.

The overall tone of the album sits somewhere around engaging; its not ‘happy’, but its not down – it just is. You can imagine hearing it at an out of town music festival, fitting right in a Sunday session. It’s this combination that makes this CD a bit of a challenge, taking more than one listen to decide whether or not it makes the high rotation list. It doesn’t burst with variation, but its still an interesting mix.

Recommended? In amongst a lot of quality Jazz out there, it doesn’t stand out… But maybe just one more listen…