Vsop Quintet [Import]

This has been a desert island disc for me for as long as I can remember. Can you call this jazz? Can you even call it music? It's something that feels like a whole lot more. This music teems with life, people, thought, emotion, creativity, joy, and insane energy like no jazz I've ever heard before or since. And Ron Carter flat out rocks the bottom out of it on acoustic bass. Give these guys a nobel.

The two selections that always kill me are "Jessica" and the hard rocking "Lawra". Jessica features a beautiful arrangement: the bass plays the lovely and poignant melody solo, accompanied by rich, dissonant, single note arpeggios from Hancock which lay out the complex terrain the soloists will then negotiate. Later, the bass is doubled by the trumpet which refines the texture even more.

The same group did a poignant and deeply beautiful version of Maiden Voyage on another live album called "VSOP" but that recording exists only on vinyl. Still the live version of Maiden Voyage is available on some compilation CD. Get it and live well!

This jazz is not a set of solos with other instrumentalists passively watching. Hancock, the Socrates of this group, pushes the band into a state of musical aporia: he doesn't accompany solos, he questions them, challenging each musician with his absurdly inventive figures; and he's coming with both jazz and modern western musical arguments. And when it's his solo he dives deeply into the darkest part of the woods and then, when you think he's lost, he's emerged out into the bright light.

Tony Williams seems to be playing in a state of ecstasy: he pounds new worlds into being and the horns have to dance in his garden or die. Ron Carter rocks out on acoustic bass - he keeps the pulse and he untethers Williams and Hancock to play with the rhythm and meter.

Hubbard plays superb and complex music on his solos; Wayne Shorter then steps beyond music and shows us that a horn can be as expressive as natural language.

Essentially a second quintet ghost band, VSOP sounds better in 2003 than it did in 1977. One of Freddie Hubbard's last great outings before he blew out his lip, it's too his credit that he doesn't try to emulate Miles as closely as say a Wallace Roney does. For me. Delores and Third Plane are standouts but the band is in fine form and the interplay between Tony Williams and Herbie reaches many of the same heights as on Live at the Plugged Nickel.

I personally enjoy listening to this album because of it's sound quality. Obviously due to the stellar line-up the improvisation would be good and it certainly exceeds this expectation. But this album goes further. It has the best sound of any live recording I have heard. Hancock's piano can be heard swirling away over every subtle nuance of William's ferocius drumming. Carter's bass is heard amazingly well. I amagine he would have been using a fingerboard pickup aswell as the bridge pickup to get the sound of his bass' deep rumblings. Being a bassplayer myself i am pleased with this outcome. As always the horns of Hubbard and Shorter ring out loud and clear.

Overall I recommend that you purchase this album whether you be a fan of Hard Bop, Be Bop, Free Bop or even perhaps Fusion.