Search - Bob Brookmeyer :: & Friends

How a WORK OF ART IS CREATED IN SOUNDS

Daniel J. McGarigle | EL SEGUNDO, CA United States | 08/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The "Bob Brookmeyer and Friends" Album could easily be described as a masterpiece. But it's more than a masterpiece. It's one of those rare albums that consistently reveals the inner voice of each song, and the inner voice of Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Gary Burton and Elvin Jones.Each of these guys has shown their own strong leadership abilities through the last 40 years fronting their own groups. This album shows how high the level of the art can go when every member of a sextet is a master in his own right, and just emerging as a major force in, and on, his own in Jazz. This serendipitous group. put together only once for this album, gives us the chance to hear art being made, instantly. Herbie Hancock's piano solo on the first tune, Jive Hoot, is simply a joy of creation to hear. And the interplay between Brookmeyer?s trombone and Getz?s famously beautiful tenor saxophone, is something to behold. The Jive Hoot song in my own favorite track because each player is at a peak in his art and technique when the album was made, and they render the leading tune (that is also probably played at by Marching bands at halftime), into a huge gem in ?Jazz' Chamber Music. The players lead us clearly through all the details and main points of the song in a collective performance that weaves us through the entire warp and weft of the song and also of all six players. This lead off song, Jive Hoot, is complete in it's own magnificent form, and also gives the listener a taste of what's to come through the rest of the album.Garry Burton adds his gorgeous chords and notes on his vibraphone to Herbie Hancock's masterful playing, while none less than Ron Carter and Elvin Jones give the foundations tf the harmonies, and the powerful, smoooooth and soft driving rhythm from Elvin. You just gotta hear Elvin playing, as quietly as he does on this album. to really feel his enormous strength and talent.While Elvin is usually known as a very well spoken, and certainly audible, drummer who can play polyrhythms until the cows come home. In this session Mr. Elvin Jones shows us all just how tastefully and supportingly 'Elvin Jones Power Drumming ' can be equally amazing, lilting and at times darn near invisible, and STILL have all that power under the hood of for this Chamber Music group. When listening, I sometimes think that Elvin has somehow physically lifted the other players up to the level in the air of his main ride cymbal,I have 1000+ Jazz LP's, all carefully selected and bought new since 1954.If I could keep only one album, and had to throw out all the others,
THIS IS THE ALBUM that I would have to be seriously asaulted and batterd on to force me to surrender " BOB BROOKMEYER AND FRIENDS ".Every time I play the album, everything is fresh again, and SO ALIVE AND THOUGHTFUL, because of this masterpiece created by Mssrs. Brookmeyer, Getz, Burton, Hancock, Carter and Jones. Dan McGarigle
Los Angeles, CA ( Hooray ! )"