A top note: Our New Orleans is a benefit album helping to fund Habitat for Humanity’s construction of new homes for displaced Gulf Coast musicians, which features piquant and powerful new recordings by Crescent City stalwarts like Dr. John, Irma Thomas and the Wild Magnolias, as well as lesser-knowns like trumpeter Charlie Miller.
Miller is worth knowing better, because he plays the best final chorus of the year on his unaccompanied “Prayer for New Orleans.” After singing the title in a mellow drawl, then blowing his horn with smoochy vocalisms embellishing the melody, Miller leaps to the top of his range, shakes down several scarifying moans, and with a single breath bends one amazing pitch to express, in sequence, utter despair, full-blown pride, quiet hope and controlled resolve. That’s the spirit—easily worth the price of a download.
You can contrast that with a bomb of 2005. If you’ve reached the enviable career position where you can do whatever you please, you may ask yourself why you should bother recording an album that evidences how you got there. Pianist Herbie Hancock’s ability to pen ditties as memorable as “Watermelon Man,” “Chameleon” and “Future Shock” is equaled only by his brilliant collaborations, over decades, with such peers as Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, George Benson, Milton Nascimento, Joni Mitchell, et al.
But Hancock wimps out on his new CD Possibilities, now for sale at Starbucks, letting his guest stars take over. John Mayer, Santana and Angelique Kidjo, Christina Aguilera, Paul Simon, Paul Simon, Annnie Lennox, Sting, Jonny Lang and Joss Stone, Trey Anastasio—did I mention this is a Herbie Hancock album? You wouldn’t think so, listening: Even his most extended piano passages blend blandly into this determinedly mainstream mix. Hancock is a devout Buddhist, so maybe this self-effacement counts as putting ego aside. Or maybe he considers these possibilities roads he might have taken, if he hadn’t been working on Maiden Voyage or Gershwin’s World. Word, Herbie: Few of your fans will warm to this pop pap, and I doubt anyone attracted to the big names will notice the piano player.
The shameful case is that of Tarik Shah, the jazz bassist and martial-arts teacher held since last May, in solitary confinement, and without bail having been set, on suspicion of terrorist activity. He is a journeyman musician, no star, and may, perhaps, have planned as rumored to train al Qaeda enthusiasts to wield machetes while rampaging through New York City.
However, Shah is also an American citizen, and our Constitution presumably protects us—remember “innocent until proven guilty” and “right to a speedy public trial?” According to the Times, he was snared by a police informer. His lawyer calls the accusations ridiculous. The government is offering no details. The media has ignored the story. Shah’s jazz-world friends are mostly stunned and don’t know what to think, but believe in the premises of U.S. law. Shah’s late November hearing was brief and unproductive; he’s scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska on February 17. Did someone say a vigilant press is the watchdog of liberty?
And, finally, as the year ends, may I also add a few last thoughts: If you’ve got a CD gift certificate, check out Bill Frisell’s East-West, two fine live sets from the guitarist with an unparalleled color palette; anything by pianist-composer Andrew Hill, whose just-now-issued late ‘60s recordings Dance with Death and Passing Ships remain as enigmatic as tomorrow; and Close to You, in which trés-cool Norwegian singer Rigmor Gustafsson and pianist Jacky Terrasson’s trio refresh a repertoire made famous by Dionne Warwick.
All soothe without simplifying the heart, mind and soul.
