Customer Reviews

On the Mountain

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

 

 

We tend to think of Elvin Jones in conjunction with John Coltrane, but he had an amazing and varied career. Think of "Zachariah," now available on DVD. That'll make this seem tame! But this album contains some of Jan Hammer's best work, combining acoustic and synthesizer, with bass support from the album producer who happened to be a not incapable bassist.

A great Fusion Cd with the special Elvin Jones touch, for sure. Great power by the man himself and excellent playing by Jan Hammer too. The tunes are high energy and feature great laid back Fusion. A must have for all Elvin Jones and Jan Hammer fans!

First of all, let me caution any Elvin fans--this is not REALLY an Elvin Jones album. Half of the tunes are written by Hammer and half of them are written by Gene Perla, the bassist. And pretty much all the solos are taken by Hammer. The style is not jazz, but rather jazz fusion. Not the ridiculous variety that consists of everybody playing as fast and as loud as possible, but rather thoughtful, understated and sophisticated. That said, the tunes are gorgeous, the solos are lovely, and the rhythm section rocks. The sound of the recording is beautiful too. Basically, the album is flawless. If you care at all about Jan Hammer's playing in the jazz style, you MUST own this album. If you would like to read more reviews like this, check out JazzboNotes.com.

Jazz-Rock with a muscular edge, featuring Jan Hammer on keyboards and synthesizer soloing and as the composer of several excellent tunes. Jan Hammer fans will certainly want to add this surprise gem to their collection.

I tend to agree with C. Braman for the most part. My take on this album is that there is some fantastic interplay between the three men. You have Elvin, who has a secure place in the jazz world, Jan Hammer, who I consider to be one of the great accompanists of all time and Gene Perla, who is no slouch either. Remember, Jan has a solid footing in the jazz idiom, having studied piano at a very young age, being the son of two jazz musicians, gone to Berklee, going on the road with the great Sara Vaughn, i could go on and on. For me, this is where I prefer to live, where the players involved know their craft well enough to "forget about it and just play".
Gene Perla has a long history with Elvin as well, so the relaxed atmosphere comes through on the cd. Finally, I'm ok with the term "fusion", even though technically Mr. Braman is correct, because of the use of electronic instruments, synths,etc. My advice is that this is a great album. It is still fresh after all these years. Sit back and enjoy!

I'm writing this review because in my opinion the others got it wrong. This is in no way a fusion album. For starters, none of the tunes have rock-based rhythms with backbeats. This is instead an artistically honest collaboration between Elvin and two of his former bandmates from the '70s. Jan Hammer is a fantastic *jazz* pianist who also makes creative and musical use of the synthesizers of the time. The tunes are all written around Elvin's strengths and everyone shines. I highly recommend this well-conceived collaboration.

Let me set the record straight; I love Elvin Jones, and his drumming has inspired me in many ways. That said, his decision to team up with prime fusion schockmeister, Jan Hammer (most famous for performing the Miami Vice theme and recording overblown albums with Neal Schon and Jeff Beck) was a poor one. This album contains all the trappings of the worst fusion albums of the era: noisy synths, tuneless tunes, and tedium galore.