THE NEW STANDARD

Herbie Hancock with well-known jazz musicians team turned on pop/rock classics. Happily nothing here is pop or pop-rock, everything is quite successfully converted into post- bop/contemporary jazz pieces.

Hancock plays acoustic piano only, all other instruments are mostly acoustic as well. So - you can find 70+ minutes of well-known melodies in vintage jazz sound. Strong side of that album is that musicians all are great and all work is tasteful enough to be a pleasant listening. Weak point is there are nothing new in this music, sound at all. Yes, it is unusual look on popular songs, but no way brave or experimental. More adaptation for conservative jazz lovers target group.

I believe some listeners will be happy with this album, but this music is far from any progressive rock, jazz electronics or whatever you want. Zero progressivity, but in some moments pleasant listening.And no way The New Standard (happily).

While this is a nice jazz album, which features popular, and not so popular, pop and rock songs from the sixties through the nineties, there is nothing progressive, and very little fusion to be found here.

The songs are mostly bebop, with fusion only in a couple of places, predominantly on Thieves In The Temple, by Prince, sort of played electric blues style. John Scofield's performance on the album doesn't elevate this to fusion either. Mostly, he plays in a stictly jazz style.

If I were rating this a a jazz album, I would probably rate it at four stars, but since we are talking prog, the best I can give it is three.