Jazz & Blues > H Jazz & Blues > Jazz Instrument

Essential chilled jazz funk from 1973

Advantages: irresitably funky
Disadvantages: only 4 tracks (but long all the same!)

This is the only Hancock album I own but being intrested in all styles of music I wanted to give this a try. Hancock is a very talented keyboard player, who with his very tight 4 piece band and his large bank of synthesisers and electric keyboards creates all sorts of radical and new sounds in jazz that shook the jazz world in 1973. First track chameleon is based on a low analog synth riff and off beat drum rythm, that starts the album off on a ...
...by the eerie 'watermelon man', starting off with an amazing african percussion section by Bill summers, and gradually a jazzy bass line creaps in, leading the way to another great slice of jazz fusion, complete with sax solos and funky harmonies. 'sly' is essentially a tribute to the music of sly stone, the famous funk musician, and is a long jam full of trademark clavicords, complex rythms and a very free funky style. The album ends on a more ...

joey_rza 14.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Head Hunters - Herbie Hancock

Hancock delivers once again

Advantages: Bonus tracks, intimate recording
Disadvantages: Not the greatest sound quality

Herbie Hancock has been making high quality CD’s over the last 4 decades and this CD is no exception. 'The Piano' is a stunning album which features Hancock on his own at the piano. Tracks 8-11 feature previously unrealised material, which are different takes of earlier music on the album. This enables the listener to get a little closer to the creative mind of Herbie Hancock. The piano was an early "disc to disc" recording and the quality could ...
...to hear Hancock in action on his own. My personal favourite is track 4 'Harvest Time'. In this track Hancock is in complete control of the music and as a listener we are left on the edge of our seats wondering what is going to happen next. Not as ground breaking as some of his other albums e.g. 'Headhunters' however this is one of Hancock’s most creative albums. ...

Nathanmusic 23.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Piano, The - Herbie Hancock

A Great Archive Let Down By Sequencing

Advantages: Fidelity is great, songwriting, guitar playing and vocals superb, thorough research
Disadvantages: Sequencing - the track order is frustrating

...music fans a like. The Complete Robert Johnson comes across like a standards song book, the contents of which has given birth to numerous cover versions from acclaimed and esteemed bluesmen and rockers from across the globe spanning six decades. There is however, one glaring disappointment with this set and that is with the sequencing. This is the most comprehensive collection of Johnson's material and as such there are alternate takes included. ...
...by side with their original counterparts which makes the whole very hard to listen to as each track is repeated, albeit a variant of the original. It still baffles me as to why the alternates were not on a separate disc from the originals. Even for me, a hardened fan of the genre, it makes for difficult listening if you using an old fashioned CD player. This is a wonderful and comprehensive archive but unfortunately does not work as a listening experience ...

Nixu1980 03.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings) - Robert Johnson

An Older and Wiser Sequel

Advantages: Great voice, band
Disadvantages: None

...stronger with every listen. Feels Like Home with The Handsome Band and special guests. I am a big fan of Norah Jones. Her first album, Come Away with Me was an absolute classic. The album was certified diamond by the RIAA on February 15, 2005 having sold over 10 million copies in its first three years of release. It won five awards at the Grammy Awards of 2003, including "Record of the Year", "Album of the Year", and "Song of the Year" for "Don't ...
...to an article I read, Feels Like Home is the second album by jazz songwriter Norah Jones, released in 2004. It sold a million copies in the first week of its U.S. release, the first album to do so since Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) and it was the second best-selling album of 2004, with about 4 million copies sold. It sold 1,920,000 copies on its first week worldwide. Probably the most popular song from the album is track number ...

Spottydog11 29.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Feels Like Home - Norah Jones

Blues from Brum

Advantages: Awesome talent, Blues solos
Disadvantages: Joanne Taylor Shaw sounds better???? It's really that good that's my only gripe

...I would never hear....a British white girl playing blues guitar so deep and passionately it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!!! Not only was I in total shock but it took me a good few minutes to ask her how long she had been playing like that ? "A few years" she replied "how old are you now" I asked "sixteen she said. I woke up a few seconds later on the floor. **White Sugar** Now 23 years old Joanne Shaw Taylor released her debut ...
...To Be? Time Has Come White Sugar Kiss The Ground Goodbye Heavy Heart Watch 'em Burn Blackest Day Joanne get's things started with "Going Home" which opens with a gut wrenching "Sea Sick Steve" like blues riff. the bass comes kicking in and then the drums crash in before you get the real guitar brilliance, For someone of 23 her vocal is all the more remarkable, her raspy smoky vocal belies her age and has all the power and grace of someone nearly ...

jcneil 15.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of White Sugar - Joanne Shaw Taylor