CROSSINGS

I've recently decided to make an effort to branch out in my jazz listening and move out of my jazz-rock/fusion-focused comfort zone, and after a few listens it seems to me that Herbie Hancock's Crossings is a great album for people who want to do precisely that.

It very much approaches fusion from the jazz side of things; the fusion passages here are more or less in the tradition of In a Silent Way, and in fact I would count it as one of the few albums to really recapture the soft, floating atmosphere of that classic album. But on top of that, you get more than just fusion here; at points, for instance, the band step back, calm down, and shift into a more purely jazz mode, or shift gear into a more avant-garde format which at points (especially on Water Torture) verges on being downright menacing. It's certainly an album which demands and rewards multiple listens, and opens the door to a far wider range of jazz influences than many fusion pieces offer.