Future to Future: Herbie Hancock


Back from the days of Head Hunters, Herbie Hancock has shown an interest in picking up popular genres of music and seeing where they took him. With Head Hunters he struck gold, literally, and forged a plethora of imitators. Some of them went on to better things, while others languished and ended up littering the charts with pale pastiches of his work.

With this 2001 release, Future to Future on Transparent Disc, Herbie again turned his hand to popular genres, namely hip-hop and drum&bass to which he added a dash of world.

This recording works best as an exemplar; something to which maybe younger musicians can turn for ideas, or failing that to see what their elders make of their music.

And this is perhaps the problem with this album. Its ambition is a little widely focused. It is never better than good. There is none of the excellence or cross-over successes that marked Head Hunters. Herbie’s choice of musicians cannot be faulted. He gives space to younger artists as diverse as DJ Rob Swift, and Dance artists Carl Craig and A Boy Called Gerald. He also calls on sassy soul singer Chaka Khan plus his old colleagues Wayne Shorter and Jack de Johnette.

Yet the best tracks are those where the other artists determine the direction. This leaves Herbie playing a near supporting role - as though he were a guest on their project. Still there is plenty to enjoy here.

Rob Swift provides a taut contribution named, ‘This is Rob Swift’. Mixing samples of what sounds like a music professor earnestly discussing ‘rhythm’ against neatly syncopated beats and sampling to which Herbie adds some nice electric piano. An ironic touch. Black Gravity, a contribution from A Guy Called Gerald, is funky and textural but never quite takes off. ‘Ionosphere’ remains trippy and pleasant. Of the younger generation only Carl Craig produces something memorable with Kebero Pt 1 and Pt2, a strange middle-eastern electronic chant of sorts. However Herbie’s contribution is that of keyboard effects and an ending motif, and good though that is he seems somewhat superfluous.

Elsewhere there is some nice sax playing from Wayne Shorter on ‘Tony Williams’ though the spoken lyrics sound a little preachy and close to New Age sentiment, (as does the track, ‘Wisdom’). ‘Essence’ is an enjoyable song, Chaka Kahn producing her trademark vocals and the album finishes out with ‘Virtual Hornets’ a closer to standard jazz track that, again, has some nice work from Wayne Shorter.

Perhaps the problem is that for a younger generation their music takes place in a sphere that they alone understand. In the urban poetry of hip-hop or the protocols of the dance club or rave.

Full marks to Herbie Hancock for trying though. But I suspect this recording will make few converts among the twenty somethings and leave us older ones feeling just a little perplexed.

(This review refers to the standard release of the recording and does not include the bonus disc of re-mixes)

Copyright (C) David Millington Nov 2007

Future to Future: Herbie Hancock. BUY

Song X: Pat Metheny


Against the run of play, Pat Metheny released the original Song X (Geffen) in 1985. A radical departure from his dreamy, west-coast jazz, this collaboration with legendary saxophonist Ornette Coleman took many by surprise, not least his already legion fans. A wild and at times atonal journey through free-jazz and improvisation it challenged even the most adventurous of listeners.

Including both Jack de Johnette and Denardo Coleman, (Ornette’s son) on drums and percussion and Charlie Haden on bass, it was a huge stab in the dark and risk for Metheny. This version, the twentieth anniversary re-release (WEA 2005), includes six out-takes from the sessions, adding greatly to the original project.

Despite being officially a Metheny project, undoubtedly Ornette Coleman is the driving force here. Focusing his alto sax like laser, he explores bop, post bop, free-jazz and his previous flirtations with north-African phrasing and melodic lines. In fact it would be true to say that at times Pat is relegated to a supporting role. Something he pulls off with great aplomb and originality. Showing what his virtuoso fret-play can achieve when pushed and challenged. It is tempting to say, (in light of some of the criticism levelled at him later), that in the presence of a true master his comfort zone was so shattered that he reached into himself and came up with something special.

The music itself is a roller coaster of ideas, influences and pure throw away playing. It exemplifies Ornette Coleman’s philosophy of music. An exploration of pure sound and spontaneity, of harmonics and rhythm. It is never less than compelling. Never less than innovative. The freedom and opportunity Coleman gives for experimentation and unconventionality provide Metheny with ample space to show what those lightening-like runs and licks can express. His musings and flights, his inverted scales and stretched arpeggios frequently contrast the sax’s wail, its bent and soaring notes. All of which is driven along by Haden’s forward moving bass lines and de Johnette’s relentless and scattered drumming. (Denardo provides the electronics and extra percussion).

The tracks are of such variety and difference it is difficult to know what to consider special. There is the frenetic and atonal ‘Endangered Species’. The jerky uber-bop of ‘Video Games’. A speedy and stabbing tribute to Charlie Parker on ‘Word from Bird’. ‘Police People’ and ‘Mob Job’ both play with conventional 4/4 swing, the later in particular a glorious toe-tapping gem of exuberance. The quirkiness of ‘Compute’. North- African shades on ‘The Veil’. The angular improvisations of ‘Trigonometry’. And not least the achingly beautiful ‘Kathelin Gray’, just Metheny and Coleman, playing like a father and son, student and master, learning from each other while all the time teasing out the exquisite bluesy twists and turns of melody.

This is not music to sit and reflect on. It grabs you and drags you into awareness. It breaks rules, makes new rules and then breaks them. A great recording. If only there was more.

Copyright (C) Peter Hodgins Nov 2007

Song X: Pat Metheny. BUY