Keyboardist Herbie Hancock achieved legendary status through his adventures with Miles Davis and a myriad other jazz outfits, although his profile as an innovator has been lower since his jazz fusion activities in the '70s. Now he’s here with an album in which he collaborates with a catalogue of mainly non-jazzers, including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Sting, Joss Stone, Santana, Christina Aguilera plus our own Damien Rice and Lisa Hartigan.
The playing throughout is impeccable, with Hancock in toppest form, and not as dominant as you might fear. Simon’s ‘I Do It For Your Love’ is transformed into a thoughtful after-hours weepathon, and U2’s ‘When Love Comes To Town’ takes on a bluesier tinge in the hands of Jonny Lang and Joss Stone, but Sting’s own ‘Sister Moon’ really comes alive here. Our own Damo and Lisa get to grips with the wistful Billy Holiday classic ‘Don’t Explain’ and they don’t let the side down either. But the entire album is worth the admission price for Stevie Wonder’s harmonica solo on the self-penned ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’.
As a marketing exercise the record should work a treat, introducing Herbie to new markets while enabling the likes of Aguilera to gain some much-needed musical cred. In musical terms it might even appeal to the new ersatz jazz market which often has no connection with its parent genre at all. But don’t tell them that. Just play them this instead.