bverkerk
Jun 13, 2002, 07:25 AM
A new CD release worth checking out is Directions in Music on the Verve label, featuring Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove, along with John Patitucci and Brian Blade.
The CD is a CBC recording of a concert by the quintet last fall at Massey Hall.
I didn't hear the quintet at that concert, but did catch the group a month earlier at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and it was awesome, especially Hancock and Brecker.
The group was formed as a touring unit celebrating the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but it doesn't simply perform arrangements by the two jazz greats. Instead, it tries to look at compositions like Impressions, The Sorcerer and Transition in new ways.
In addition to the above three tunes, the CD contains the Weill-Gershwin standard My Ship; three originals "inspired" by Miles and Coltrane, one of which is Stella By Starlight turned completely inside out; and a solo performance of Naima, a technical tour de force by Brecker (I actually found this last number a bit disappointing; Brecker's version in Monterey was stunningly beautiful as well as technically impressive, but this performance lacks a lot of that beauty).
Overall, though, the music is great. The quintet's version of So What/Impressions is so cool!
The CD is a CBC recording of a concert by the quintet last fall at Massey Hall.
I didn't hear the quintet at that concert, but did catch the group a month earlier at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and it was awesome, especially Hancock and Brecker.
The group was formed as a touring unit celebrating the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but it doesn't simply perform arrangements by the two jazz greats. Instead, it tries to look at compositions like Impressions, The Sorcerer and Transition in new ways.
In addition to the above three tunes, the CD contains the Weill-Gershwin standard My Ship; three originals "inspired" by Miles and Coltrane, one of which is Stella By Starlight turned completely inside out; and a solo performance of Naima, a technical tour de force by Brecker (I actually found this last number a bit disappointing; Brecker's version in Monterey was stunningly beautiful as well as technically impressive, but this performance lacks a lot of that beauty).
Overall, though, the music is great. The quintet's version of So What/Impressions is so cool!