Music: Herbie Hancock (& friends)
Herbie Hancock, one of the greatest jazz experimenters assembles a killer quartet to cover this Mile Davis staple
In the world of Jazz, there are standards, songs that are part of just about everyone's repertoire (not mine, I am a hack) that they can fall back to. For guitar, to get a feel for the standards, pick of Jo Pass's Virtuoso.
But then there are standards that are associated with icons. If I say "Take Five" your mind instantly gravitates to Dave Brubeck, or "Spain" and any one of the incarnations of Chick Correa.
Solar is one of those second sort of "standards" but the author is Miles Davis, the maestro of the trumpet. Miles once said that if you hit a wrong note, it isn't a mistake until your next note, meaning that it can launch you into a new orbit and a wildly freakish riff and it won't be a mistake.
Herbie Hancock is a jazz pianist extraordinaire, a true titan and a powerhouse player. But the real value of his playing is the ability to collaborate with some of the finest musicians.
When I saw this thumbnail come across for a 13 minute jam, and I could see Pat Metheny on the guitar, it was foreordained that I would press play.
And what a joy. This is 13:06 of Herbie's interpretation of Miles Davis' "Solar" with Pat on guitar, and Dave Holland on Bass, Jack DeJohnette keeping time on the drums:
Just so cool, I had to share!
And do check out Joe Pass, his two Virtuoso albums are perfection!
