Herbie Hancock - Possibilities

[DudeAsInCool]

Herbie Hancock, "Possibilities"

Whether you like jazz pianist Herbie Hancock's newest may depend somewhat on how much you'd like Hancock to actually play jazz. The album -- duets with artists ranging from Sting and Annie Lennox to Santana and Christina Aguilera -- is an experiment in pop/jazz fusion, and most reviewers echoed the Independent's take that, "Though every bit as cool, stylish and sophisticated as you'd expect from a Herbie Hancock project, this album of collaborations with pop and rock musicians does tend to drag somewhat." Some of the contributors fare well with the critics -- as the New York Daily News writes, "Paul Simon manages one of the most haunting and sure vocals of his career on a jazzy redo of his 1975 cut 'I Do It for Your Love.' Annie Lennox caresses 'Hush Hush Hush' with such sensuality and sophistication, one wishes she would move away from straight pop more often." And according to Billboard, John Mayer and Hancock "spontaneously combust on the highlight of the CD, the catchy, up-tempo leadoff number 'Stitched Up.'" But that's as far as the praise goes -- Christina Aguilera's version of Leon Russell's "A Song for You," comes in as the most contentious track on the album, called everything from a "show-stopper" (Billboard) and "surprisingly good" (Philly.com) to "death-by-melisma"(Independent) and an "object lesson in how not to sing" (NYDN). On the one hand, Hancock has made it clear that he wanted to make it an album along the lines of Santana's "Supernatural," but a number of reviewers note that there's also more than a slight influence from Ray Charles' posthumous duets album, "Genius Loves Company" -- which, like "Possibilities," was also released by the Starbucks music label, Hear Music. Most reviewers agree with the AP that the result "has none of the energy that those collaborations did." And while Billboard tries to argue the album's a "gear-shifting collection of pop tunes under-girded by a jazz sensibility that cultivates music free of genre borders," the majority consensus agrees with the AP: "At its best, 'Possibilities' is a decent cabaret album -- probably suitable background noise for cappuccino sipping." Either way, you can listen to the entire album at Real.com.

Thomas Bartett's Audiofile, Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/ent/audiofile/index.html

[DudeAsInCool]

You can listen to several cuts here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4817825