Customer Reviews

Piano

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recordings is so free of any excesses, it's a wonder.

So many times you get a master pianist recording a solo album and having a situation where the pianist goes on pyrotechnical tangents that seem to stray completely from the theme of the pieces.

NOT SO HERE!!! This recording comes close to sheer perfection as a solo piano recording because Herbie exhibits such fine ear for the pieces while improvising marvelously over them that it's breath taking. His use of space and rhythm is impeccable. He lets the phrases resonate and takes you on a journey of sorts on each piece. There are no signature licks but careful attention to each piece while embellishing and redefining.

Romantic and emotionally relevant, there is not a clinical moment in the whole recording.

It's hard to pick a favorite here. This is the kind of recording you just put on and listen from beginning to end.

This one is a must-have.

If ever there's a stairways to heaven, I want this music to be there with me.
Herbie is a genius with the keys. But you already know that and you certainly don't need me to remind you of the undisputed truth.
Just for a moment forget about categories. Don't think of Herbie as a jazz musician. He is a creative genius, period. Always was and always will be. My favorites are his trio recordings, either for Blue Note or CBS. But that's his jazz side.
This is more private. A session, just he, the piano and you. His most personal gift to us, his fans and music lovers.
Music is a universal language anybody can understand. Herbie is opening doors here. As if freed of boundaries, he is floating onto a cloud of notes - and he takes you with him!
His music, his playing the keys, it is a pure delight to the ears, your heart - and your imagination. This man is so creative with the instrument, ahh, what can I say, just get it!
I bought it the moment it came out as a Japanese pressing, but when I noticed they reissued it with a few extra takes I bought it again, to have on the side if ever I need a gift for someone dear.
Guess what, I ordered another one. The gift is still here, waiting for the right moment, but I wanted the extra takes for myself. They're that good!
Put it into your player and for a moment forget about the world. There is just sound, the sound of music, of Sonrisa (my favorite)

Aurally stunning, this direct-to-disc recording (no tape or unwieldy electronic processing in the way of the music) is an intimate private concert. Forget all your preconceptions about Herbie; this is a maturing keyboard virtuoso in peak form in an almost perfect acoustic environment. No editing, no dubs, and the alternate takes are equally breathtaking as the final choices.

Great liner notes and 24-bit remaster make this recording a credit to your collection.

Wow.

Recorded in Japan in October 1978 and released in that country one year later, Herbie Hancock is taking a look back and forging ahead as a solo pianist. It is artistic brilliance.

The trio of jazz standards - Someday My Prince Will Come, My Funny Valentine, Green Dolphin Street - were performed with the Miles Davis Quintet, while a suite is shaped by the four original tracks. The album was finally released in the U.S. in 2004 and includes four bonus tracks, which makes this set even more remarkable.

Looking back, this is a period between the fusion-laden funk and delving into the hip-hop mix. It is as smoothly satisfying as those periods were amazingly electric.

This is an excellent CD, one of the finest album recorded by Herbie Hancock: top-level inspiration, imagination, delicacy, superb sound... Everything you can expect from jazz piano is there. Why it took Sony so long to reissue such a masterpiece?

I won't repeat what you've already read. But let me add that Herbie's performance on this album is so beautiful that you might find a tear rolling down your cheek as you listen to it.

Listening to "The Piano" performed by Herbie Hancock gave me greater appreciation of his genius as a jazz muscian. I have seen Herbie Hancock perform live in Europe and in the US. Having his CDs play in my home is the next best thing to seeing him live.

The Piano This is an older CD of Herbie Hancock playing solo piano. It lends itself to a mood for total relaxation. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it and I have also recommended it to friends of mine. Since purchasing this CD I have also purchased Herbie Hancock's latest release, "River: The Joni Letters".

The recognition of Herbie Hancock has already reached the appropriate levels of praise, so adding to it would be possibly repeating what you've already heard or read. Still, the man is one of those rare musicians and composers who has shaped contemporary music. To think anything less would be insufficient, unjust, even petty. Whether you've loved every turn of his musical career, or had troubles with one or another phase of evolution of his boundless imagination and sense of adventure, Hancock remains a national treasure.

This collection, previously unavailable unless you own a copy of the limited edition Japanese album when it came out in 1978, is Hancock as a pianist at his astonishing best. Particularly in the first three tunes--"My Funny Valentine," "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Someday My Prince Will Come--his playing is reminiscent of his great with Miles' quintet, subtle, deep and always flawless.

The rest of the original material is just as beautiful. Rarely a pianist can match virtuosity with deep feeling as Herbie manages to in this album. "Harvest Time" and "Sonrisa" make that point gloriously. In addition to the original album's recordings, we are treated to alternate takes of the first four songs already mentioned, and they are worthy of their inclusion. For a change "alternate" is not a synonym for "throwaway."

This is Hancock for big fans and lovers of the piano alike. This an intimate series of moments with a master of his instrument and craft. A treat, really, the gift of true art.

The 1960's were a turbulent time in America. Riots, marches, and other types of protest were constantly forming. People wanted racism to end. Citizens wanted an end to war and violence. During this transformation, a new sound took over America. The Beetles and the Rolling Stones helped user a new pop music-Rock n' Roll. On another front, the sound of Motown (Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Mavin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops and more) became popular in urban America.

In 1960's jazz, there were a handful of young emerging jazz pianists that were regarded as `masters' in their craft. These pioneers combined elements of rock, soul (Motown), classical, and more into their comping (playing). These pianists included McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock.

Herbie Hancock started in the 1960's as a pianist to backup Miles Davis. His playing was a match of the fluid touch of Bill Evans (see Kind of Blue) and the blues-rooted approach of Wynton Kelly (see Someday My Prince Will Come). Seeming unusual for a jazz player to think so `out of the box', Herbie managed to gain wide acceptance through his playing with Miles (look at the box set The Second Great Quintet) and a host of releases he did for Blue Note records (see The Complete 1960's Blue Note Recordings).

As the 1970's ushered in the electronic piano, Herbie quickly took to it as his new weapon. He slashed out mega pop hits such Chameleon and Watermelon Man (which was really a song he did on Blue Note in the 1960's) as well as the soundtrack for Death Wish.

In the start of the "Direct to Disc" age of vinyl recording (1979 to be exact), Herbie recorded a few albums that featured him on acoustic piano to the Japanese public. Americans didn't get it; why did he only give Americans electric music and gave Japanese acoustic work (an exception to that is the VSOP album, but that's only one)? Many American `acoustic Herbie' fans paid high shipping prices to get these treasures in their homes.

25 years later, Columbia has saved the day. This re-release of The Piano is sonically excellent. With silent backgrounds and clear piano intonation and reverb; it makes you wonder if records sounded this good back in 1979 why did we ever give them up?

Herbie's playing on this recording is not exactly what you expect from him. He usually gives you progressions and scales that make you think, "Dah heck?? Let me wind that back and hear that again . . . Ok . . . . AHH! HE DIDN'T JUST RESOLVE THAT WAY!" This round, the sound is more easy listening and much more melodic. He employs a mostly-melodic approach to his music here and it sounds serene and atmospheric.

Is this the same Herbie you have heard before? Yes. However, this is a lot more peaceful and subtle than what you have heard with Miles or even in the Sextant. The Man-child prodigy, in 1979, allowed his classical training and Evans influenced melodic approach dominate the 7 pieces he did (the last 5 are alternate takes of previous ones).

I encourage anyone who want to hear him play by himself to get this recording. However, this isn't Herbie as usual; this is the reflective side of Herbie.

On the cover, there's a picture of a river. This is an appropriate picture. The music is fluid, a bit blue, and very reflective. Forget Handel---this is true water music.