New
Jersey Dispatch - October 18, 1975
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Hammer
Creates Surreal Session
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By LARRY VIANELLO
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The Jan Hammer
Group's concert the other night at The Bottom Line, was complex without
being pretentious, the performance virtuoso without seeming egotistical,
the mood simultaneously relaxed, and nervously exploratory. Hammer, a master
of keyboard instruments including pianos, synthesizers, digital sequencers,
and the mellotron as well as the drums lit the stage with a blaze of total
space age jazz improvisation. Forget Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. This
27-year- old Czech- turned American citizen, who bears a vague physical
resemblance to Elton John, is undoubtedly the keyboard man of the future.
This polyrhythm master gets your pulse beating from the tip of your tapping
toes to the last shock of your hair. Hammer, smoothly changing from a piano
modified to sound like a guitar to a low register organ as aptly backed
up by drummer Tony Smith (formerly of Malo and Azteca) and bassist Fernando
Saunders.
Talented
Back Up:
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The other
lead instrument in the four-piece band is the electric violin. Steven Kindler,
who like Hammer, is a former member of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra,
complemented the keyboard solos and handled long passages of seemingly
ad libitum jazz passages with the adroitness of a super star. His talent
should have been noticed long ago. This music soars into outer space at
the speed of light, no holds barred. This observer feels he must warn those
listeners who are faint of heart to stay away. This kind of energy might
give cardiac arrest to the modern jazz listening neophyte. Unfortunately,
Hammer did only one number and the intro to another from his latest album,
"The First Seven Days." This piece of craftsmanship is a delight right
down to the cover.
Eerie, Celestial
Mood:
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This album
matches the creativity imagined to have gone on in the first seven days
of heaven and earth. Especially fine is the final cut, "The Seventh Day,"
where an eerie celestial mood is intermingled with the earthiness of syncopated
piano work that changes its time signature with each measure. It is the
final climax to a spellbound creation of the imagination. Hammer's music
is at once primal and seething, teeming jungle undercurrents, and the most
far-out adventures of a star trek to unknown thresholds of the mind. Its
success lies in outstanding classical study and unending determination
for new frontiers. It is the music of the future and it is older than man.
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