John Bush (All Music Guide)

Since the advent of acid jazz in the mid-'80s, the many electronic-jazz hybrids to come down the pipe have steadily grown more mature, closer to a balanced fusion that borrows the spontaneity and emphasis on group interaction of classic jazz while still emphasizing the groove and elastic sound of electronic music. For his second album, French producer Ludovic Navarre expanded the possibilities of his template for jazzy house by recruiting a sextet of musicians to solo over his earthy productions. The opener "Rose Rouge" is an immediate highlight, as an understated Marlena Shaw vocal sample ("I want you to get together/put your hands together one time"), trance-state piano lines, and a ride-on-the-rhythm drum program frames solos by trumpeter Pascal Ohse and baritone Claudio de Qeiroz. For "Montego Bay Spleen," Navarre pairs an angular guitar solo by Ernest Ranglin with a deep-groove dub track, complete with phased effects and echoey percussion. "Land Of..." moves from a Hammond- and horn-led soul-jazz stomp into Caribbean territory, marked by more hints of dub and the expressive Latin percussion of Carneiro. Occasionally, Navarre's programming (sampled or otherwise) grows a bit repetitious -- even for dance fans, to say nothing of the jazzbo crowd attracted by the album's Blue Note tag. Though it is just another step on the way to a perfect blend of jazz and electronic, Tourist is an excellent one.

Matthew Cooke (Amazon.com)

Smooth, downtempo grace flows through the veins of St. Germain, a.k.a. noted French composer-producer Ludovic Navarre. His record is a sensual flow of jazzy textures, Latin rhythms, and bass-ridden beats, hovering on the verge of techno, jazz, or experimental headphone music without tipping its hand too far in any direction. The result is irresistible: class with an edge.

Bob Bannister (Amazon.com)

Techno and house music producer Ludovic Navarre is--along with Laurent Garnier, Air and DJ Cam--one of the biggest names in French electronic music of the past decade. His ability to imaginatively blend jazz elements with recent dance-music styles has been demonstrated before, but the seamless quality of this release is stunning. Compared to someone such as Amon Tobin, who obviously (although brilliantly) creates sampled collages, St Germain makes it pleasantly difficult to identify the boundary lines between "live" performance, programmed electronics, and sampled sound. Part of the credit must go to this album's musicians, including Pascal Ohsé, Eduoard Labor, Alexandre Destrez, and Idresse Diop (at least some of whom are francophone Africans making their mark in the post-colonialist European Afro-jazz scene). The CD's opening piece, "Rose Rouge," is centered on an edgy piano rhythm and a looped vocal fragment from jazz singer Marlena Shaw. The dub-inflected "Montego Bay Spleen" features Jamaican jazz guitarist Ernest Ranglin, who offers a clean, warm, neo-Wes Montgomery style filtered through his years as a session musician-architect of ska and reggae. And Edouard Labor's raspy flute tone on "So Flute," its role as much rhythmic as melodic, adds a Latin flavor to the mix. "Sure Thing," another high point of the release, is built around a vocal and guitar sample from blues guitarist John Lee Hooker, borrowed from the soundtrack to Dennis Hopper's film The Hot Spot and noteworthy on its own as probably the only time Hooker, Miles Davis, and Taj Mahal ever played together. Navarre's skill in selecting musicians, finding sample sources, and assembling cool, streamlined grooves adds up to quite an accomplishment.

Kate Nafolo (Amazon.co.uk)

Moby may have stolen his thunder on Play but St Germain, aka Ludovic Navarre, has been showcasing his futuristic nous and love of roots music by funking up the 4/4 electronic world with a little blues and gospel since the early 90s. After his F-Communications swan song, From Detroit To St Germain in 98, Navarre worked with a host of great session musicians for this, his major label debut. Tourist, his first album for the legendary Blue Note label, certainly justifies the continuing hype. A perfectly formed melodic journey of eclectic and idiosyncratic deep house that mixes blues, latin percussion and, of course, jazz without the noodle factor, Tourist is likely to generate as much head-nodding as dancing down your local groove emporium. The tracks range from the straight-ahead blues cut, "Rose Rouge" to the aptly titled "So Flute", an Afrobeat percussive shin-dig with a wondrous flute riff. "Latin Note", a funky latin stomper, reminiscent of Nuyorican Soul/Masters At Work is packed full of minor chords, smashing beats and off-the wall dynamics. Elsewhere, Navarre proves himself a master of suspense and beat-heavy poignancy, "Pont Des Arts" combines a carnival spirit with a monster piano groove, whereas "What You Think About" would have made Roy Ayers circa "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" very happy.Tourist is the kind of album that is put on at a fantastic, idyllic beach bar stereo at sunset and then constantly looped, a future classic.

Legendary jazz imprint Blue Note made a splash in 1993 with Us3, a couple of British vinyl junkies who incorporated extensive sampling of jazz classics with hip-hop rhythms and rhymes. Back then, the hybrid was striking and fresh, but in the years since, many have traveled down the same road, often with unimpressive results.Once again, the French have arrived to save the day, this time in the form of St. Germain, a.k.a. Ludovic Navarre. On Tourist, his first release on Blue Note, Navarre forms snippets of jazz and blues into a stunning patchwork featuring sinful tastes of house, dub, and funk. Navarre nails this formula on such tracks as "Sure Thing," where a Rhodes-led funk jam builds from a sampled John Lee Hooker riff and vocal. "Land Of…" starts like a Sunday morning at a Southern church with a sinister organ lick, then hip-hop beats and keyboard flourishes join in underneath ultra-smooth sax solos.
The sultry grooves of French house find their way onto Navarre's palate along with a stirring flute solo on "So Flute" and supporting a delicate bass line, ride cymbals, and piano solos on "Pont Des Arts." Like traditional jazz, Navarre has the rhythm section -- whether acoustic or computerized -- lay down the underlying structure on each track, leaving ample room for individual solos. That's what makes Tourist such an enjoyable listen. While displaying an endearing reverence for the past, Navarre gives jazz a delightful pinch in the ass that hurts so good.

Enrique Lavin (CMJ New Music Report, issue 680, August 28, 2000)

Parisian house DJ Ludovic Navarre a.k.a. St. Germain is a pioneer of the "French Touch" electronic music sound, a hyper fusion that melts techno with jazz, blues, ambient, house and dub. In taking the electronic concept to a live sound, he assembled a crack team of jazz musicians: Pascal Ohsé trumpet, Edouard Labor saxophone and flute, Alexandre Destrez keyboards and Edmondo Carneiro percussion. A follow-up to his acclaimed debut Boulevard, Tourist is the 30-year-old's continuation of innovative jazz-house collage. What's astonishing about the 60-minute CD is the way it is both an obvious jazz album and a DJ set at the same time. Most compositions are songs within songs -- the average duration of each track is more than six minutes long. And even as each piece stands alone, the underlying dance groove inherent throughout the album pulls it so tightly together that it seems like one long jam.

Ben Osborne (DOT Music)

St Germain's (aka Ludovic Navarre) new album, Tourist, picks-up where his seminal Boulevard left off, taking his peculiarly European take on black American music deeper, while maintaining the accessible home-listening vibe of his 200,000 selling debut.

Tourist exhibits the diversity of his earlier work but also has greater dance floor application. It jumps from jazz house, 'Rose Rouge', the first single, and 'Pont Des Arts', to summer dub, 'La Goutte D'Or', 'Montego Bay Spleen' and 'Sure Thing', easy going funk, 'Land Of…' and 'What Do You Think About', percussive house on 'Latin Note', and the storming Mondo Grosso- like 'So Flute'.

Navarre is clearly on a musical expedition and this is an aptly titled second instalment of his journey. The next stage will be a live eight-piece band, which begins a world tour in July and is scheduled to reach the UK in September.

After that he'll be returning to the studio to continue re-working the roots of contemporary dance music. "In the future I'd like to ask the older artists, like Herbie Hancock or Al Jarreau, to do a remix of my work," he says. "Or to do an album with Herbie Hancock playing on it. So rather than sampling older artist's tracks to make new music, I would do it the other way round."

Navarre is on a trip. Go with him.

It's been five years since Ludovic Navarre - aka St Germain - released his debut set Boulevard, a record lauded as the blueprint for decent French dance music. On this first release for the Blue Note label, Navarre continues to steer clear of the disco licks favoured by many of his compatriots, remaining instead in the realm of traditional black American sounds. He skillfully harmonises machine and musician, past and future - live keyboards, percussion, sax and trumpet meander across tidy electronic beats and samples - to create the most innovative, organic, melodic house found on either side of the Channel. The Moby-esque first single Rose Rouge is a case in point, splattered with horns and a nagging bluesy vocal hook, and the standout track So Flute gives both the whistle and keys an energetic workout.

David Fricke (RollingStone, issue 849, 2000)

On Tourist, St Germain -- the nom de mix of veteran French DJ Ludovic Navarre -- solves the great mystery of travel: how to be in two places at once. With its circular drum sizzle, real-time horns from the Kind of Blue handbook and hot-sugar samples of jazz thrush Marlena Shaw, "Rose Rouge" is a rolling joy, a wild Ibiza weekend squeezed into the Village Vanguard. In "Montego Bay Spleen," Navarre relocates the Jamaican Wes Montgomery chops of guest guitarist Ernest Ranglin to a futurist Trenchtown, part electric Miles Davis, part Sly-and-Robbie dub. And over the pillowy cadence of "Sure Thing," a digitally altered John Lee Hooker moans and plucks at his guitar like a vaporous griot, a sub-Saharan mirage of craggy Mississippi soul. A sly dog with a disciple's touch, Navarre shows respect for the spirit, if not the letter, of classic jazz. He gives his live soloists, including trumpeter Pascal Ohse and saxophonist-flutist Edouard Labor, room to breathe, if not blow wild. And Navarre manipulates with care: You're two minutes into "Latin Note" before you realize that, underneath the cafe-blues temper of the vibraphone, Navarre has gunned the percussion into a house-music gallop. Fusion without seams, swing that never flags, Tourist is a modern valentine to one of the lost joys of jazz -- as dance music.

© Frank Steven Groen