| Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter - 1+1
(rel.1997)
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| Notes |
_Rating: 5stars
Last time out together - 1992 - it was in the company of the other members of the last great Miles band with Wallace Roney depping for the recently departed trumpeter and the general consensus, with which I will not disagree, is that it was a worthy venture overhung by the loss of one of the greats.
This time round it's very different. I was somewhat troubled when I realised that Shorter was playing soprano only - probably my least favourite of the saxophones (sopranino and contra-bass excepted) - and that we were being denied what would undoubtedly be some highly expressive tenor playing. And then a couple of things occurred to me: why do I not have the same problem with Steve Lacy, who has made a whole career on soprano? And why have I never realised just how expressive Shorter is on the smaller instrument? (In a recent BBC interview Shorter stated that he decided to stick to soprano for this set feeling that a change to the larger horn would disrupt the flow of the music.) Truth is, Wayne Shorter is one of the finest, most eloquent, saxophonists in jazz today, a man whose music just flows out of him. The technique is there, but it's purely at the service of his creativity.
The same can be said of Hancock. Too often in the past I've felt that many of his solos are just note-spinning - this set is quite different. Every note, every phrase, has a meaning; at times (as on the opening track) Hancock comes closer to Bill Evans' impressionistic style than I've ever heard, at others his playing is immensely muscular and powerful. Powerful, not overpowering.
Duo-playing, especially by two such unlike instruments, is an art that is often difficult to bring off successfully; frequently, one player overawes the other and ends up simply being accompanied. Here, each musician balances the other perfectly; you can hear each listening to the other. Effectively there are no solos as such, but a series of animated conversations between two people who know each other well.
The themes have been well-chosen: three by each musician, three collaborations, plus Michiel Borstlap's "Enchantment" which won the Monk Composition prize in 1996. This is an hour's worth of superb playing, and more than an hour's worth of listening. No gimmicks, no electronics. Five stars.
MR |
