![]() ![]() It sounds great, demands and repays active listening. It features strong musical personalities, in their performing and in their compositions. Oblique is an exemplar of the art of intelligent collective improvisation. “Hutcherson, a harmonically sophisticated and intense performer, can rarely have played better, and Hancock is as significant an ensemble player as he is a soloist.” John Fordham (Jazz critic, The Guardian): It’s soft and sensual, with a swirling sensation, aided by the soft shimmers of Chambers and pulse of Stinson’s bass.” The music is elegant and seems to glide rather than swing. Hutcherson’s ringing vibes and Hancock’s hypnotic chord riffs have a lavishly sophisticated sound. “The sound of Hutcherson and Hancock together is otherworldly. The critics, who are better with words than me, say this: ![]() Not really the correct setting for Hancock’s Theme but a good nostalgic sample of Swinging London and its Carnaby Street preoccupation with fashion models.īut back to Oblique. The most disturbing part of the Yardbird’s sequence is the blank expressions of the club audience, passive, like human sponges. Hemmings in the crowd seizes a trophy broken guitar neck, subsequently only to discard it, a film metaphor for the futility of… something, superficial nihilsm, also very ’60s, but it won over the Cannes jury. Beck smashes up his guitar, all very ’60s. Seamless link, Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up (winner, Cannes Palme d’Or 1966) : David Hemmings drives a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud drop-head coupé through London streets, and we see another iconic piece of 60s engineering, a Nikon F1 camera.Įn routee, ban the bomb protesters wave signs, fashion photoshoots with ultimate pro-toy Hasselblad using real film, a lot of Vanessa Redgrave’s back, and a British R&B shoe-in of The Yardbirds – Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page together briefly in 1966. Theme From Blow Up, Hancock’s modal repeating vamp has overtones of Maiden Voyage. Hutcherson throws in a samba, and more conventional groundwork for fiery interchanges and solos. Chambers offers “ daring symphonies-in-miniature“. The line up presents a percussion triple threat: percussive piano, percussive mallets, percussive percussion, a three way dialogue with Chambers, freed from timekeeping.Īn added dimension of the album is the cross-section of composer’s styles. Hancock has conversation mode enabled, sparking complex changes of tempo and direction within the quartet. Opening waltz, tinkling children’s music box gives way to an up-tempo groove, Hutcherson and Hancock sparring, great Stinson bass solo to finishīobby Hutcherson, vibes (and drums on Bi-Sectional) Herbie Hancock, piano Albert Stinson, bass Joe Chambers, drums, gong, tympani, recorded for Liberty at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Jfirst issued in 1979.Īs in Happenings (1966), a hornless quartet format puts Hutcherson squarely in the front line. ![]()
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May 2023
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