Track Listing

1. Meridianne -- A Wood Sylph
2. Aung San Suu Kyi
3. Sonrisa
4. Memory of Enchantment
5. Visitor from Nowhere
6. Joanna's Theme
7. Diana
8. Visitor from Somewhere
9. Manhattan Lorelei
10. Hale-Bopp, Hip-Hop

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158512 in Music
• Brand: Wayne
• Released on: 1997-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
On this remarkably intimate session, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter reduce themselves to their purest instrumental voices, Hancock's piano and Shorter's soprano sax. In some way the improvisatory character is a return to their musical roots, eschewing the techno-grooves and layered sounds of their most successful commercial ventures. For Hancock it's a return to the spontaneity of the duets with Chick Corea, while for Shorter it's akin to the recording with Jim Hall and Michel Petrucciani. Either way, it's one of the most arresting dates of their later careers, a work of creative introspection and retrospection, two artists turning to a pivotal partner for inspiration. Whether the music is wistful or unsettling, it's the subtlety--almost the minimalism--that's most startling, a mature knowledge that you can sometimes make the most with the least. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Quit calling it jazz and then listen
I think part of the negative reaction to this CD is based upon a pre-conceived notion of what this CD SHOULD sound like. Obviously, it's always dangerous to assume anything, particularly with musicians such as Hancock and Shorter - they're awfully difficult to pigeon-hole musically.

This CD, I feel, more than any other I've heard, exemplifies how futile it is becoming to uphold the boundary between "jazz" and "classical." This music rings of jazz and improvisation (most audibly in the closing track, Hale-Bopp Hip-Hop). However, at other times, this music bears far more in common with the music of Erik Satie (and occasionally with Debussy) than it does with anything we might call "jazz."

I can see why some people might call this CD self-indulgent. It is extremely static and introspective...at times it sounds withdrawn and subdued. However, I just don't think that's an issue of artistic arrogance or lack of creativity. Listen to this music - it is bubbling over with creative melodies and extremely rich harmonies. The more closely you listen the more this CD will blow you away. The music presented here remains with me, and there are some days in which this is the only CD I will listen to.

This CD, simply put, is not jazz. However, I don't mean this in the same way as when I say Kenny G is not jazz. "1+1" is not any style, which is the point. Rather, it is a synthesis of the diverse musical backgrounds of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. And it is a masterpiece

Fascinating, beautiful
This a return of sorts for both artists...but a return to what? What we here is not the HH of Maiden Voyage, or the WS of the Miles Davis Quintet that produced such masterpieces as Nefertiti...this is music that escapes categorisation, and by that I do not mean that is 'fusion' or 'crossover.' With no support from drums or bass, the two musicians have to plumb the depth of their artisry to find compelling ways to paint beautiful pictures on blank, hostile canvases. If you've only previously experienced HH on something like 'Future Shock', or Shorter on a Weather Report album, you'll be in for quite a shock. This is music of illusion, dreams, and serenity. Familiar sounds poke there heads through the mist, then dissappear again just before you can identify them. At times, it doesn't work, but at others, notably 'Memory of enchantment', it's perfect. Is it classical...jazz...who cares. It's sublime.

Not for people with small ears
This album steps outside of the familiar musical categories with which people seem so familiar. That's the crux of the matter. A lot of people get so used to feeling music a certain way that they can't shift gears.

But that's precisely what I like about this album. It doesn't have typical song structures. One of the pieces has no II-V progressions at all (but isn't that a trend in modern jazz anyway?) Hancock has presented original compositions that, yes, use development sections and other compositional techniques more associated with European Classical music. This is played by master jazz musicians with a free feel and includes some nice improvisation. (To the people who think this music is mediocre: YOU try blowing over those changes.)

It is a reminder to me that 'jazz' doesn't have to be a restrictive noun. It can be a liberating verb that allows to explore new ideas and draw inspiration from any musical idiom. It can even smash old preconceptions about what 'jazz' should be. I say bring it on.