Herbie Hancock - Quartet (1981)

Herbie Hancock - Quartet (1981)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 385MB

Columbia

Allmusic:
This is an extremely symbolic album, for Herbie Hancock and the V.S.O.P. rhythm section essentially pass the torch of the '80s acoustic jazz revival to the younger generation, as personified by then 19-year-old Wynton Marsalis. Recorded during a break on a tour of Japan, a month before Marsalis made his first Columbia album, the technically fearless teenaged trumpeter mostly plays the eager student, imitating Miles, Freddie Hubbard, and Brownie McGhee, obviously relishing the challenge of keeping up with his world-class cohorts. Things start out conventionally enough with a couple of Monk standards, and then they progress into the mid-'60s Miles Davis post-bop zone, with Ron Carter and Tony Williams driving Marsalis and Hancock relentlessly forward. Several staples from the Miles/V.S.O.P. repertoire turn up ("The Eye of the Hurricane," "The Sorcerer," "Pee Wee"), and there is one wistful ballad, "I Fall In Love Too Easily," where Marsalis sounds a bit callow, not yet the master colorist. Hancock remains a complex, stimulating acoustic pianist, the years of disco having taken no toll whatsoever on his musicianship. This looked like it would be a Japan-only release, but since the buzz on Marsalis was so loud, CBS put it out in the U.S. in 1982, fanning the flames even more.

Tracks
-1 "Well You Needn't" (Thelonious Monk) - 6:29
-2 "'Round Midnight" (Bernie Hanighen, Cootie Williams, Monk) - 6:41
-3 "Clear Ways" (Williams) - 5:00
-4 "A Quick Sketch" (Ron Carter) - 16:27
-5 "The Eye of the Hurricane" (Hancock) - 8:05
-6 "Parade" (Carter) - 7:58
-7 "The Sorcerer" (Hancock) - 7:19
-8 "Pee Wee" (Williams) - 4:34
-9 "I Fall In Love Too Easily" (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn) - 5:52

Personnel
* Herbie Hancock - Piano
* Ron Carter - Bass
* Wynton Marsalis - Trumpet
* Tony Williams - Drums

 sample & buy: Herbie Hancock Quartet

Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter - 1+1 (1997) (eac-log-cover)

Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter - 1+1 (1997)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 290MB

Verve

Allmusic:
Beyond category or idiom, audacious in its very idea, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter perform a little over an hour of spontaneous improvised duets for grand piano and soprano sax. That's all -- no synthesizers, no rhythm sections, just wistful, introspective, elevated musings between two erudite old friends that must have made the accountants at PolyGram reach for their Mylanta. Hancock's piano is long on complex harmonies of the most cerebral sort, occasionally breaking out into a few agitated passages of dissonance. His technique in great shape, Shorter responds with long-limbed melodies, darting responses to Hancock's lashings, and occasional painful outcries of emotion. The leadoff track, "Meridianne -- A Wood Sylph," clearly takes off from a base of Satie to set the reflective mood for nearly the whole CD; only the final, brief "Hale-Bopp, Hip-Hop" offers a hint of comic relief. All of the tunes, save for Michiel Borstlap's "Memory of Enchantment," are Hancock or Shorter originals; some, like Hancock's "Joanna's Theme" (from the film Death Wish) and Shorter's "Diana," date back to the '70s. As avidly as this music was awaited and as wildly as it was acclaimed by critics, it doesn't really touch the emotions as deeply as the best of the pair's work together and apart. It stands as a graceful, high-minded anomaly in the output of both, but not something you would expect to pull off the shelf to hear too often.

Tracks
-01. "Meridianne - A Wood Sylph" - Shorter - 6:09
-02. "Aung San Suu Kyi" - Shorter - 5:45
-03. "Sonrisa" - Hancock - 6:26
-04. "Memory Of Enchantment" - Michiel Borstlap - 6:20
-05. "Visitor From Nowhere" - Hancock/Shorter - 7:44
-06. "Joanna's Theme" - Hancock - 5:22
-07. "Diana" - Shorter - 5:32
-08. "Visitor From Somewhere" - Hancock/Shorter - 9:04
-09. "Manhattan Lorelei" - Hancock/Shorter - 7:22
-10. "Hale Bopp, Hip-Hop" - Hancock - 1:51

Personnel
*Herbie Hancock - piano, producer
*Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone, producer

sample & buy: 1+1