COLLECTION

STOLEN MOMENTS: RED HOT & COOL

 Disc one:
  1/  Time Is Moving On                          (Byrd,Elam,Harris)            2.58
        Donald Byrd with Guru and Ronny Jordan
  2/  Un Ange En Danger                          (Carter,MC Solaar)            3.49
        MC Solaar with Ron Carter
  3/  Positive                                   (Franti,Hunter)               4.29
        Michael Franti/Spearhead
  4/  Nocturnal Sunshine                         (NdegeOcello)                 6.04
        Me’Shell NdegeOcello featuring Herbie Hancock
  5/  Flyin’ High In the Brooklyn Sky            (DP,Bowie,Sample,Watson,Maron)6.33
        Digable Planets with Lester Bowie and Wah Wah Watson
  6/  Stolen Moments                             (Nelson)                      5.23
        United Future Organization - U.F.O.
  7/  The Rubbers Song                           (The Pharcyde)                4.08
        The Pharcyde
  8/  Proceed II                                 (Trotter,Thompson,B-S,Hub,RA) 5.52
        The Roots with Roy Ayers
  9/  Trouble Don’t Last Always                  (Anderson,Maunick,H-T,Harvey) 6.38
        Incognito and Carleen Anderson with Ramsey Lewis
  10/ Rent Strike (D.J. Smash Remix)             (Roseman,Maron,Shur,Siraisi)  5.27
        Groove Collective with Bernie Worrell
  11/ The Scream                                 (Simpson,Wilkinson)           6.01
        Us3
  12/ This Is Madness                            (Hassan)                      6.01
        Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole with Pharoah Sanders
  13/ Apprehension                               (AH,RD,OS,DV,HG,CY,JS,DC)     4.39
        Don Cherry w/ the Watts Prophets & voices from Stolen Moments: Red Hot+Cool

 Disc two:
  1/  A Love Supreme                             (Coltrane)                    18.08
        Brandford Marsalis
  2/  A Love Supreme                             (Coltrane)                    7.02
        Alice Coltrane
  3/  The Creator Has a Master Plan              (Sanders)                     5.07
        Pharoah Sanders

          1994 - GRP (USA), GRP97942 (2CD)

REVIEWS :

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool is undoubtedly the most successful incarnation of the Red Hot albums whose proceeds go toward research in fighting the AIDS virus. Unlike fellow albums in this series, which generally reinterpret the work of several classic songwriters (Gershwin, Porter, Jobim, etc.), Red Hot & Cool is a collection of new material which aims musically to directly confront the AIDS epidemic, particularly how it affects the African-American community. With direct issue-oriented lyrics, apt liner notes with commentary by Professor Cornell West, and an assembly of musicians whose work has always bent toward political awareness, this musical explosion is an abridged lexicon of the evolutions in black music during the post-bop era. If forced to categorize this sprawling album, of course, the virtual catch-all "acid jazz" would apply, but this album goes far deeper -- it's a history piece. Jazz masters like Ron Carter, Pharoah Sanders, and Donald Byrd join forces with jazz's new regime, Joshua Redman, Ronny Jordan, etc. The evolution of rap is traversed as the Pharcyde, Guru, Michael Franti, MC Solaar and others trade tracks with the politics of hip-hop progenitors the Last Poets. Unfortunately, the bonus CD that accompanies the album proper takes away from its power. It includes tired reworkings of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," by Alice Coltrane and Branford Marsalis, and a botched sampling of tracks from Pharoah Sanders' breakthrough album, Karma. The best advice is to throw out this sidecar upon purchase of the two-disc set.

Joshua David Shanker (courtesy of the All Music Guide, via the Get Music website)

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To this date, the Red Hot Organization has sold over 2 million albums, raising over 5 million dollars to fight the AIDS epidemic. Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool is the group's latest release and contains 14 songs from some thirty highly regarded artists from the fields of jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop. Responding to the need for increasing awareness among people of color, a segment of the population especially hard hit by the disease, the album's choice of musical styles is particularly appropriate. These art forms emanate from the same cultures to which the benefit album attends, while simultaneously transcending nationality, gender, and generations.

At first glance, Stolen Moments appears to be another hip-hop/jazz mix like those offered by Guru, with his landmark Jazzmatazz Vol.I, or by Blue Note superstars, Us3. However, the majority of selections emphasize jazz music's intellectual compositions, going beyond mere backing instrumentation to weave a sensuous blanket of hopeful and energetic themes -precisely the stuff required to fight a disease like HIV. Such is Stolen Moments philosophy; the rapped lyrics telegraph hands-on messages of shared responsibility and the powers of positive thinking to raise awareness in a beleaguered community.

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool more than showcases the talent within the vast circle of artists that compose its roster: Guru, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Digable Planets, Us3, Branford Marsalis, and more. From the Pharcyde crew's intelligent humor on "The Rubbers Song" to the magnificently delivered rage/soul in "This is Madness" (The Last Poets with Pharoah Sanders), the album is conceptually right and ideologically sound. Artistically and philosophically, this is the standard for others to follow.

Scott Williams (courtesy of Consumable Online website)