JERRY GOODMAN & JAN HAMMER: LIKE CHILDREN

I've read a few reviews bemoaning the breakup of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra line up. I think there is some consolation in the fact that the individual musicians went on to make some great music on their own. Like Children fine example. This is another one of Jan's great long lost albums. No disrespect to Jerry. He's an equal partner in this music. He seemed to have disappeared from the music scene after this one until he started making reasonably good new age music in the '80's. This album hasn't totally missing over the years. It did resurface in parts on the 1986 Jan Hammer compilation The Early Years.

I know there's a lot of early Maha fans who really need to check it out. If you've acquired the Lost Trident Sessions, you've already heard two songs here - Steppings Stones and I Wonder. The piano line on I Wonder reminds me a lot of Beethoven's Fur Elise. I think it's in the same key.

It's strictly a studio creation. Goodman and Hammer play all the instruments here. Hammer actually plays drums fairly decently. Goodman does some vocals. Also of note, Ken Scott provided engineering. He'd worked previously with the Orchestra and late with the Dixie Dregs.

As with Oh Yeah?, the vocal bits might put off hard core fans of the original MO, but this is really a must have item for your collection. I was fortunate to have found a used copy of the LP a few years back and have been enjoying this music for quite a while. Extra special thanks to Wounded Bird Records for releasing the CD and Mr. Hammer for remastering. No bonus tracks or remixing, unfortunately.

Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2006

4.5 stars. This was love at first listen. After MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA broke up Jan Hammer and Jerry Goodman got together and created this amazing album. I must admit I was shocked to find out it's just them two on this record. I had been listening all week and just assumed they brought in a drummer and guitarist to help out. Not ! Jerry can play guitar folks along with various strings and some vocals. Jan on the other hand is a very capable drummer, he really impressed me and of course he plays synths, piano and adds some vocals as well. I can't remember the album but I reviewed one a ways back that had Jan Hammer guesting on it but not on keyboards but percussion. Who knew ?! Anyway I love this album.

Those Jazz & Releated polls i've been doing are for fun but I also believed it would bring attention to some amazing albums. Well it has also (through people's recommendations on those polls) brought some new music into my life including this one, so thankyou everyone.

"Country And Eastern Music" kicks in hard quickly. How good is this ? Kicking ass and taking names that's how good. When the violin comes in the sound changes to more of a mellow vibe but then it kicks back in after 1 1/2 minutes. The vocals that come in are almost shouted. It settles again with violin 3 minutes in. It kicks in again ! Nice. A top three for me. Great song. "No Fear" is interesting with that somewhat haunting intro before the moog and sequencers go wild as they rip it up. "I Remember" sounds so good with the acoustic guitar and violin as it builds. Synths after a minute. This is melancholic and atmospheric. "Earth (Still Our Only Home)" is a funky little devil with the moog-bass and drums creating that groove. Distorted guitar and vocals join in. Nice guitar solo before 2 minutes that goes on and on. "Topeka" is a good upbeat tune as the guitar, violin and synths trade off lighting up the soundscape as the drums pound away.

"Stepping Tones" is another top three. Love this Laird composed track. Just a classic and this version is unbelievably good. Incredible ! "Night" is my final top three. This is dark as violin and moog-bass open the song. Synths replace the violin before 1 1/2 minutes but not for long. It kicks in just before 4 1/2 minutes and they are just killing it here. And check out the drum work. "Full Moon Boogie" has so much going on in this uptempo beginning. Vocals and guitar join in. The violin before 2 minutes starts to trade off with the synths. Cool. "Giving In Gently / I Wonder" has vocals from Jerry and a pleasant soundscape. A change 2 1/2 minutes in as the piano, drums then guitar create a powerful sound.

A must for not only MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA fans but J/R Fusion fans in general.

Finally, a CD version to replace my tired vinyl copy !!! Since getting it when it was originally released, I have been humming the catchy bars of "Country and Eastern Music" (nifty title, no?) ever since. This rather playful recording (which is probably why the titled it "Like Children") was the aftershock of leaving the demanding MacLaughlin-led gig, arguably one hell of a tough act to follow and not exactly remembered as pop music!!! I still remember the debate between 70s rockers about who was the fastest six stringer- no contast. So supremo violinist Jerry Goodman and his equally innovative Moogist Jan Hammer erected this often original, extremely unpretentious & very quirky set of tunes , influenced by a variety of moods and experiences. In fact, the interplay between Hammer's keyboard driven "lead guitar" excursions (reprised with subsequent Jeff Beck and Neil Schon albums) and the violent thunderbolts from the violin, make for some inspired music.Nevertheless, this recording serves as a special signpost in the rather eccentric and elitist jazz-rock history, clearly proving that unending technique (hello, Stanley Clarke!!) and the insufferable ego that goes with it , is not what music is about. Above all, it should be, at the very least entertaining, hopefully memorable and at best, awe inspiring. This album certainly doesn't fall in the last category but certainly earns the first two . Oh yeah, before I forget, "Country & Eastern Music" is a real gem that will stick in your mind forever.

4 childish oberheims

After the collapse and dissolution of the original Mahavishnu Orchestra, the band's multi-instrumentalist violinist, Jerry Goodman, and multi-instrumentalist keyboard player, Jan Hammer stick together for a while in order to hash out some of the collaborative magic they'd been suppressing.

1. "Country and Eastern Music" (5:34) acoustic piano opening is joined by a breakout of full-spectrum rock band power motif which, after establishing itself over then next 30 seconds rests while Jerry's acoustic string quartet and Jan's percussives perform a little classical string quartet for the next 35 seconds. Then the rock motif returns within/over which Jan's moog solos with some violin support just behind. Boisterous choral vocal scream-chanting starts at 2:35-- still within the heavy rock motif. At the three-minute mark there is a return to the string quartet motif while multi-track vocals continue, only now in a softer, more GENTLE GIANT-like approach. Return to the rock motif at 3:53 for some dynamic electric (and, later, acoustic) violin soloing. In the second half of the fifth minute Jan takes a turn in the lead with his Moog--which ends up, briefly, duelling with Jerry's violin--before everything de-escalates into the "string quartet" motif for the finish--with Jan's recorder-like Moog soloing over/within. Interesting and very UK-like! Also Todd Rundgren's UTOPIA. (8.875/10)

2. "No Fear" (3:28) a solo keyboard and sequencing exhibition by Jan. I can't really determine whether or not Jerry is participating at all in this as most of the sounds heard are synthetic: it seems to me to be just Moog over sequencer from start to finish. Even the long-held bent-notes that could be violin I am willing to bet are coming from the Moog. I quite like it, though. It's kind of like a preview of 1980s Jean-Luc Ponty. (9.125/10)

3. "I Remember Me" (3:47) violins and soothing electronic keyboard sounds, chords, and gentle guitar arpeggi supporting from below with barely a rhythm track implied! Impressive and pretty but, ultimately ,kind of forgettable-- like a New Age song. (8.875/10)

4. "Earth (Still Our Only Home)" (4:15) a funk rhythm track from bass and drums with distorted rock electric guitars emerging from the background eventually support some interesting vocals: part rock anthem, part SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE/OHIO PLAYERS-like funk-R&B declarative. The violin and synth solos are top notch, it's the main rhythm track that I find myself wanting to change, shift, and/or develop more. Also, the shouting-choir approach to the delivery of the vocals leaves me with an even more difficult challenge of deciphering the lyrics. (8.75/10)

5. "Topeka" (2:57) another rather simplistic rock motif that feels more useful as a warm-up or étude eventually shifts into a more straightforward vamp vehicle over which Jerry and Jan take turns soloing, each using multiple instruments to do so (violins and guitars for Jerry; a variety of Moog sounds for Jan). Even the chorus is a little dull and "by the numbers"--all just providing the set up/foundation for the solos to exist. (Which makes me wonder what the solos would sound like without any rhythm track. I have the feeling they would have the exact same impact. (8.75/10)

6. "Steppings Tones" (3:29) Moog bass and moving electric piano chord arpeggi give this the feeling of a slowed down or Mahavishnu Orchestra riff or more-typical Jean-Luc Ponty motif. It does build in both fullness with layering and drum and cymbal intensity, which is nice, but it never really seems to "launch"--I find myself waiting for the "break out" moment. (8.875/10)

7. "Night" (5:48) ominous synthesizer bass and echo-reverb electric violin duet for the first minute. (Jan does supply numerous incidental percussive accents.) Moog steps in to take the place of the violin in the second minute before Jerry's highly-processed violin rejoins and croons its melody like some 1950s Stéphane Grappelli. The whole thing has an eery, fog-like spell cast over it, but does eventually amount to some very impressive Moog and electric violin solos. A song that could easily have accompanied a scene in Alan Rudolph's 1987 film, The Moderns. At 4:20 there is a development (Yes! Development!) as Jan's drumming suddenly takes off (despite the continued drag of the morbid bass line) carrying us off down the speeding mountain road as Jerry and the Moog try to keep up. Cool ending! (8.875/10)

8. "Full Moon Boogie" (4:11) another rock motif is quickly set up that sounds as if it could have come from The Talking Heads' 1980 album, Remain in Light. The chorus motif, though still retaining a kind of David Byrne/Brian Eno style and sound, ti's a cross between "Standing at the Crossroads" and "The Great Curve." It gets a little funkier in the instrumental passages. Pretty cool though eerily prescient. (9/10)

9. "Giving in Gently / I Wonder" (4:47) what starts out as an innocuous little song with more "normal" ROBERT WYATT/RICHARD SINCLAIR/TODD RUNDGREN-like vocals from one of the dudes (I'm guessing Jerry due to the lack of any kind of accent in his pronunciation of the English words in the lyrics) turns quite nicely as it goes instrumental. A very standard hard-rock guitar solo (think George Harrison or Eric Clapton) occurs in the fourth minute. The song feels very Beatles and Clapton-like with tinges of Todd Rundgren-ness. And it does get better, stronger, as it moves into the second half (the instrumental half). Plus, Jan Hammer is a very good drummer. (9/10)

Total Time: 39:16

The biggest surprises in this album listening experience for me were: how impressive Jan Hammer is as a drummer; how cutting edge are Jan Hammer's sequencing equipment and abilities; how good Jerry Goodman's guitar skills are; how "second rate" some of the foundational motifs are--in order to accommodate/bolster the soloing being done over the top, and; how advanced and "futuristic" are the sounds and styles achieved by this duo in 1974!

B/five stars; an excellent addition to any prog and j-r-fuse lover's music collection.