This is an extremely symbolic album, for
Herbie Hancock and the V.S.O.P. rhythm section essentially pass the torch of the '80s acoustic jazz revival to the younger generation, as personified by then 19-year-old
Wynton Marsalis. Recorded during a break on a tour of Japan, a month before
Marsalis made his first Columbia album, the technically fearless teenaged trumpeter mostly plays the eager student, imitating
Miles,
Freddie Hubbard, and
Clifford Brown, obviously relishing the challenge of keeping up with his world-class cohorts. Things start out conventionally enough with a couple of
Monk standards, and then they progress into the mid-'60s
Miles Davis post-bop zone, with
Ron Carter and
Tony Williams driving
Marsalis and
Hancock relentlessly forward. Several staples from the
Miles/V.S.O.P. repertoire turn up ("The Eye of the Hurricane," "The Sorcerer," "Pee Wee"), and there is one wistful ballad, "I Fall in Love Too Easily," where
Marsalis sounds a bit callow, not yet the master colorist.
Hancock remains a complex, stimulating acoustic pianist, the years of disco having taken no toll whatsoever on his musicianship. This looked like it would be a Japan-only release, but since the buzz on
Marsalis was so loud, CBS put it out in the U.S. in 1982, fanning the flames even more. ~ Richard S. Ginell