The U.K. quartet Breathe was the most popular of several late-'80s British acts like Waterfront and Johnny Hates Jazz, which combined lush easy listening pop with a light George Michael-style touch of R&B. Breathe was just as derivative as its counterparts, but vocalist David Glasper was gifted with a warm, pitch-perfect voice, tailor-made for adult contemporary radio. The misleadingly titled All That Jazz spawned two Top Five ballads, and both "Hands to Heaven" and "How Can I Fall" are aural equivalents of a Harlequin romance novel. Breathe is quite adept with a ballad; predictably, the remainder of All That Jazz rarely strays from the lushly produced elevator music of the two hits. Although far from perfect, All That Jazz is a pleasant enough listen for fans of harmless, romantic pop.
For 20 years Rune Grammofon have made a habit of releasing music that is beyond easy classification, in later years typified by Swedish trio Fire!, consisting of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin. All three are highly accomplished musicians, but Fire! music is not "difficult" in the sense that jazz and especially free jazz is often perceived. Very much a tight knit unit with three equal players, Fire! has been likened to powerful guitar led trios such as Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but with Berthling´s heavy, doom laden basslines being such a typical identifier, we can´t help but thinking of Black Sabbath´s debut album when it comes to hypnotic impact.
JATP concerts from the 1940s were documented in 1998 on a 10-CD Verve boxed set. But until now, the 1950s concerts have been passed over for a retrospective. In fact, since the CD era began very little of the material from that span has been available at all.
Reissue with latest DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. Herbie Hancock's lackluster string of electric albums around this period was enhanced by this one shining exception: an incorrigibly eclectic record that flits freely all over the spectrum. Using several different rhythm sections, Herbie Hancock is much more the imaginative hands-on player than at any time since the prime Headhunters period, overdubbing lots of parts from his ever-growing collection of keyboards. He has regained a good deal of his ability to ride in the groove.