Billie Holiday: Remixed & Reimagined

Remix collections generally either treat the source material as a jumping-off point for wild, barely relevant improvisations, or they present the songs more or less as they've always been, with maybe a new beat and some synthesizer accents. The Billie Holiday remix project Remixed & Reimagined splits the difference. Swingsett & Takuya's album-opening version of "I Hear Music" sets the tone, sounding like an entirely new pop-jazz workout, with Holiday's vocals merely floating through, almost like a sample. The majority of R&R's tracks pull Holiday's recordings apart and interject them into reasonably effective chill-out music, like a distant transmission causing interference. Nothing here sounds as natural or as heartfelt as Holiday's best work, though it's all—conceptually at least—"cool."