IN CONCERT, VOL. 2 (WITH STANLEY TURRENTINE, FREDDIE HUBBARD, JACK DEJOHNETTE, RON CARTER AND ERIC GALE)

Although the first installment of the CTI In Concert series comes across more like a Freddie Hubbard release, Volume Two belongs to Herbie Hancock. The first side features his working quartet at that time, and on the second side they are augmented by Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine. This was an interesting one time only ensemble Herbie gathered for these live dates that apparently took place after he disbanded his Sextet, and before he assembled his new Headhunters group. The big plus here is Jack DeJohnette on drums. The free-form jazz rock jams of the early 70s were DeJohnette's domain, his fierce driving style that mixed hard rock, groovin swing and avant freedom into every blistering phrase had already driven other masterpieces of that time including Miles' legendary sets at The Fillmore.

On side one DeJohnette and Herbie push each other relentlessly as Hancock does an extended work out on the static avant-funk groove of Hornets. Always known for his delicate beauty and harmonic innovations, this album shows Hancock in a harsh and energetic mode as he rivals Jon Lord and Sun Ra for sheer sonic power and pushes his distorted Fender Rhodes through dissonant Echoplex settings while building sheets of syncopated dissonant chords and angular scales. Although this album may seem a bit dull to many music fans, to fans of really intense keyboard soloing, this is a must have.

Side two brings on Hubbard and Turrentine on horns as the band launches into a side long agro-bossa hyper groove that borders on free jazz during it's long course. It's really interesting to hear Stanley Turrentine, the king of smooth RnB jazz, go off like Bennie Maupin channeling Coltrane. The always fiery and intense Hubbard takes an extended ride before they break down for some quiet spaciness and then onto one more psychedelic Fender Rhodes onslaught from Hancock. In the tradition of Mahavishnu's Between Nothingness and Eternity, Crimson's Earthbound and Miles' Live at the Fillmore, this is a rough and tumble live album that favors raw energy over slick production. I would highly recommend this to fans of live early 70s jazz rock jams, and it also contains some of the most intense Herbie Hancock solos ever recorded.

This album, taken from two different concerts in 1973, is basically two songs. Side one of the LP contains two different recordings of Hornets, a Miles Davis-like piece, where the band riffs in a fairly simple, maybe even too simplistic jazz-funk riff, whild Herbie Hancock does some wild soloing on an electric piano. The piece is good, but with only one riff throughout, it does tend to get tedious if you try to listen to anything other than Hancock.

The second side, containing only Gibraltar, is more of a band piece, and more entertaining. Here, the rest of the band gets to stretch out as well. Jack DeJohnette shows why he became one of the premiere jazz drummers, Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard play some crazy good solos on their horns, and of course, Hancock, on the official keyboard of seventies fusion, the Fender Rhodes.

3 stars.