PARALLEL REALITIES

Jack DeJohnette has been the flag bearer as it were for the ECM label for many years. And in the ECM tradition we get a very mellow recording. I am surprised they are a trio here but then Jack has played in trios before like that "Gateway" album with John Abercrombie and Dave Holland. That one is a classic, this one not so much. We get Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock and for many these are two legends. Herbie yes, Pat no in my opinion. There's not a lot of Metheny albums that I can enjoy, he's such a lightweight and he's using synclavier here along with keyboards to create that bass sound. Pat adds orchestration as well and no I don't like it. Jack also uses keyboards to replicate the bass. Herbie is pretty much all acoustic piano except for some uninspired sax on that closing number. The biggest surprise was the aggressive piano to start "Nine Over Reggae" in fact it brought to mind ART ZOYD right away but it was gone so fast unfortunately. I like the start of "John McKee" too but again it lightens so quickly. Don't want to wake anybody up. So a very laid back and relaxed record in the ECM tradition.

There was a great performance I found from this period on YouTube, consisting of this trio with Dave HOLLAND. Again, it was great. I was pleased to see they had put something from this time together to tape, I suppose with or without Dave. I can't say he could have saved them from the low points on this album, unfortunately. The compositions herein were either written by Jack or by Pat METHENY. Pretty even mix.

As recalled from the aforementioned live performance, this is very of the time "Cool" Fusion. To my pleasant surprise, many moments that could have been spoiled by very plastic, corn-fest sonic flavors were spared (perhaps the nearest to this occurring was, to me, the faux-horns on "Nine Over Reggae", likely the second best track). But regardless of your tastes, of course all well performed, and, for what it's worth, the tracks are each unique; writ and performed by some of the definite all-time greats. That's undeniable.

I will say, plastic or not, songs such as "Exotic Isles" and "Dancing" are maybe too soft, if not flat, for my tastes. Not a whole lot else to say on that. The latter, especially, is very much a low-light, slow-go Pat Metheny song.

Lastly, Herbie on sax on the title track?! I had no idea! So many of these guys are so much more well-rounded than we thought possible lol. I can't say too much in the way of "good" for this track though; Just worth mentioning.

The only real highlight for me was the opener, "Jack In".

True Rate: 2.5/5.0