Herbie Hancock has been recording albums for more than three decades, exploring a variety of different directions in jazz while maintaining an interest in the interface between jazz and popular music styles. For me, his first great album was
Inventions and Dimensions (1963). With its stripped-down arrangements of bass, piano and percussion, the responsibility is solely Herbie’s to keep the music dynamic and interesting, and he manages to do so by drawing on both 20th century classical music and jazz. In “Succotash,” for instance, he moves easily from percussive rhythmic figures in the manner of Bartok to virtuosic melodic riffs to impressionistic chord progressions in the manner of Debussy.
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Tags: great music by Jon O
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In the consumerist, money-obsessed recording industry, artists have had to fight hard to record the music they love. Tori Amos detoured through the failure of the pop/big hair rock band Y Kant Tour Read because countless labels told her “that girl with the piano thing is dead.” Her successful solo debut, Little Earthquakes, was initially rejected by Atlantic Records (she was told she needed to replace all the pianos with guitars for it to be a viable record). She made some compromises on the final line-up of tracks, but held firm to her artistic vision for the music. [Read more →]
Grammy awards in two of the three most prestigious categories went to beleaguered singer of modest talents Amy Winehouse and proved, once again, the wasteland that is contemporary music. I’ve come to expect that image and mass appeal trump artistry when it comes to music awards, but why all the fuss over her? Am I missing something? What does it all mean? 
