Search - Herbie Mann :: Memphis Underground (24bt) (Shm)

Not As Simple As It First Seems

a consumer | 01/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"OK, let's get the simple part out of way first--this is a well-made late '60's jazz-pop album played by solid musicians and the title track is infectious and bears repeated listenings. I think that Mann is not an all-time great flute player, but he is a very good one and he's at his best when he gets to work in an easy, lazy groove, like the title cut or "Chain of Fools": he has a nice languid style on those cuts that brings out the essence of the tunes. I'm not that wild about his "Battle Hymn of the Republic", which seems like a pretty corny concept, and the problem is that the album is only 35 minutes long to begin with, so cut out that tune and you're left with 28 minutes. Seems like Rhino could have reissued this on a disc with another of Mann's albums, like they've done with reissues of other Atlantic stuff like Charles Lloyd.



Anyway, that being said, there are some truly unusual things going on in this album. Mann used to get a bad rap for being too pop, too "commercial", and admittedly he can tend to play with a pretty light touch, at least when compared to, say, Roland Kirk. But when he wanted to do this jazz-rock album, he teamed up with a fairly gritty bunch of guys, i.e. the Stax studio hounds, rather than a line-up of the usual jazz studios wizards. This contrast would be unusual enough, but then Mann brought along Sonny Sharrock, one of the most aggressive, "out-there" guitarists around, and let him rip on "Hold On, I'm Comin'". (The song also has Miroslav Vitous, another avant-gardist who was soon playing with Weather Report, on bass.) The Stax guys, who started the song sounding so funky and gritty, wind up sounding like Boy Scouts when Sharrock starts his strafe-and-destroy feedback solo. All this arranged by a flute player who was thought of as "light" and "commercial". You start to wonder what darkness lurked in the heart of Mann. It's worth getting this album just for this outrageous musical moment.

"

Outstanding end-of-night song

M. Brockbank | Schenectady, NY USA | 04/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This rendition of Battle Hymm of the Republic was played as the closing song each night in our college town's dance hall in 1968-69; it will ever be etched as the last thing we heard after an evening of adventure. It was never tiring, and the alblum's other songs are likewise long-lasting.

Buy and enjoy."