Soon the group, which then consisted of nine men, spread its tentacles with solo projects from Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and others, and by the mid to late ’90s their place in the rap canon was firmly established. The first Wu-Tang Clan album dropped in late 1993 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was a rough, raucous work laced with loud vocals, harsh ghetto storytelling, and snatches of English-dubbed martial arts movie dialogue, and it set the hip-hop world on fire. If the New York rappers exist at a remove from, say, bebop, it’s a distance that can easily be bridged: you just have to think of acts like the Last Poets or Gil Scott-Heron. It’s a stretch to bring Wu-Tang Clan-one of this year’s headliners-into the jazz orbit, but that’s not to say there’s no connection. Purists may balk at its ever-increasing inclusiveness, but locals who value variety over boundaries will be grateful for the opportunity to see Herbie Hancock one night and LSD Trio another. With each year, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival’s offerings grow more diverse.
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