Customer Reviews

Mirror Mirror

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether it's the weather, the studio, the time of day, we'll never know but there are always those sessions that just don't fire, when everybody plays well but it just doesn't jell and I fear this is one of them. The credentials of all involved are impeccable and there are good to great moments scattered throughout but overall...? I find it difficult to analyse just why I feel like this in regards to this album. Sometimes there is a restraint at work that keeps it all in check and sometimes an almost depressing feeling of 'going through the motions'. That, and a pervading sense of 'sameness' leaves one wishing for a bit more fire and a bit more passion. Of course it's a given that, even like this, they all individually and collectively play a thousand times better than I ever could and thank goodness for that - that's why they're the performers and I'm the listener. It's just that this time I'm not inspired to listen all that often. When I do, it's to individual tracks - 'Keystone' for example, with its angular piano from Chick Corea and Billy Higgins' time-teasing drums - than to the whole cd. Maybe its just the sequencing. Good, very good in parts but frustratingly never great.

Man, I hate to give a Joe Henderson acoustic quartet session only 3 stars but this one is a bit of a drag. After hearing RELAXIN' AT CAMARILLO also with Chick Corea on piano this one disappoints. It is down tempoed too much with waltz-like tunes and a ballad. Joe's Bolero seems a bit over latinized. Only on the last tune do we get a straight-up up-tempoed swinger. Maybe you can use this to cool off with after listening to JOE HENDERSON BIG BAND.--Hey,don't forget drummer Pete La Roca's Blue Note quartet session BASRA which could pass for a Joe Henderson quartet date. You must know about Joe's classic quartet date INNER URGE by now.