Customer Reviews

Live at Maybeck 7

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John Hicks at his best , this album represents the skills techniques & the will to share the joy of music with the listener. no doubt this maybeck album is one of the best performances in this beautiful location. one of the best John Hicks piano performances if not the best.

I don't know whether John Hicks was nervous for his Maybeck recital, or if this represents his solo piano style, but in either case the results are disappointing especially in view of the high expectations set by the playing on his beautiful tribute album to Billie Holiday (Lover Man: Tribute to Billie Holiday). The central problem with Hicks' Maybeck outing is that it suffers from such an an over-abundance of ideas that it completely lacks focus. Compounding this is Hicks' blending of styles, as if he's decided to throw everything into the recipe and that the final product will come out sounding like the work of a creative genius. Consequently, each song is a collision course of musical thoughts and styles, a shifting from one to the next within a matter of seconds. Not one song truly comes together; even Monk's "Rhythm-A-Ning," which is one of the two or three things that starts out promisingly, devolves into an non-cohesive mishmash.

The usually enthusiastic Maybeck Hall audience is understandably tentative this time around.

Avoid.

I have almost all of the Maybeck Recital series and they are all great!
Arnie Fox-author of "Compendium of Over 2000 Jazz Pianists".