"The Lounge Lizards and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in a Japanese brothel," is how acclaimed U.K. DJ and record-label owner Gilles Peterson has described funky jazz sextuplet Soil & "Pimp" Sessions.
Formed around 2001 by a group of like-minded musicians looking to put the funky flavor and body-rocking swing sounds back into plain-Jane jazz, the group has managed to produced six albums in between a harried schedule of domestic and international concerts.
Their latest album — aptly named "Six" — is a culmination of their years of experience and an appreciation for their mixed musical backgrounds, with tracks featuring world-renowned turntable master DJ Kentaro and English crossover jazz artist Jamie Cullum. Although it only hit the shelves last month, fans were quick to declare the album to be Soil's most refined and tightest-sounding work yet, something the group humbly agrees with. "On this record we were able to do things we always wanted to do in the past but couldn't, both because of the limits of technology and the limits of our skills," said Soil's lead, Shacho, at an interview at their record label Victor Entertainment's Omotesando office.