Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » John Hébert: Sounds Of Love

12

John Hébert: Sounds Of Love

By

View read count
John Hébert: Sounds Of Love
In sport, they talk about 'horses for courses,' to describe a parcour suited for particular athletes. That same language can be used to decide an ensemble's lineup for a particular category of music. Bassist and bandleader John Hébert made careful choices to create the quintet to perform music in the spirit of Charles Mingus. In the early 1960s, Mingus toured with saxophonist Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Johnny Coles, pianist Jaki Byard, and drummer Dannie Richmond. For Hébert's touring ensemble from 2011 to 2013, he convened a cast of somewhat disparate, yet correlative players.

The magic of Sounds Of Love is Hébert's amalgam. He draws on his long-standing collaboration with pianist Fred Hersch, plus drummer Ches Smith and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum both of whom he plays with in guitarist Mary Halvorson's various ensembles. The finishing touch was adding Tim Berne who tailors his saxophone voice most agreeably to both John Hébert's and Mingus' vision.

The music includes two covers, the luscious "Duke Ellington's Sounds of Love" which opens with Hébert's expressive bass and the raucous "Remember Rockefeller at Attica" with its booming swing and dark humor. Hébert's arrangements and choice of players eschew imitations, yet honor Mingus' spirit. "Love What" acknowledges Mingus' "What Love," which itself was based on Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Like taffy, the music is pulled and folded together by way of Berne's mad science solo and Hersch's keyboard dash, creating a transmuted amalgam. The same is true of "Frivolocity," which is modeled after "Sue's Changes." The simple becomes complex, and the complex simple.

Track Listing

Constrictor; The Blank-Faced Man; Duke Ellington’s Sounds of Love; Love What?; Remember Rockefeller at Attica; Frivolocity.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Sounds Of Love | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Sunnyside Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.