Wayne Shorter - Juju
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Free Music Notes for Juju
Free Music Review: Timeless music.
Hit: 5 Stars
This is such a classic in so many ways. If I were a musician, perhaps I'd better convey the power of this recording, but alas, ... Just buy it-you won't be sorry.Free Music Review: Wayne does Trane?
Hit: 4 Stars
Let me start off by saying that this is a very good record and should be purchased by any avid jazz fan. However, in the following paragraphs I'm going to sound like I'm putting it down because I like _Speak No Evil_ so much better, but then I should mention that _Speak No Evil_ is about my favorite jazz album right now.Many people put _Juju_ on a par with Wayne Shorter's masterpiece _Speak No Evil_, but I really can't for a couple of reasons. In tone, soloing, and compositions Shorter seems to be inviting comparison to John Coltrane, and that's not really "him" when you consider the rest of Shorter's output. "House of Jade" and "Mahjong" have that flair of the exotic which is a unique and colorful mark of Shorter's compositions, but elsewhere on this album Wayne often (not always) sounds like nothing so much as a Coltrane knockoff (particularly on "Yes Or No", which he emphatically is not, as his subsequent album _Speak No Evil_ was to amply demonstrate. The playing on _Juju_ is perhaps more "exciting," and McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones play wonderfully together, but their combination only adds to the faux-Coltrane illusion. Some of this sounds a bit like _A Love Supreme_ outtakes, and you may well ask "what's wrong with that?" and I'd say "hey, I just thought this was a Wayne Shorter album."
The sound quality of this recording leaves much to be desired. I don't have the RVG remastered edition, but I hear it's not much better. Sonically it sometimes sounds as though the musicians are playing in different rooms. Wayne is given a left-speaker, and Tyner a right-speaker, bias, but the levels don't match up. The piano sounds rather distant, which is unfortunate, as Tyner's playing is excellent. The bass is mixed about one notch above subliminal. Elvin Jones' ride-cymbal work, though very exciting, overpowers the treble range in many spots.
The playing is superb, and the tunes very good, but stylistically and technically I definitely prefer _Speak No Evil_. You get the idea.
Free Music Review: excellent and a half
Hit: 4 Stars
In the late 1980s, when in college and did not understand the cross currents in jazz, I was into 1960s free jazz. I did not really know the overlap between Blue Note and Impulse and how free and hard bop were at times running concurrently and at times bleeding into one another.
I bought Juju because it was made in 1965, and, with only Reggie Workman instead of Jimmy Garrison, had Coltrane's best band at peak power. Idiot little jazz boy that I was, I dismissed Juju when I heard it and it was not free jazz.
But I found this today in the back of a pile, and understanding what I do now about jazz, played it.
This is a fantastic hard bop album by the great Wayne Shorter, who, next to Coltrane, was probably the most adept tenor player of the 1960s.
Juju is no head-solo-head album. These fantastic frameworks thrive on the razor cut grooves created by Elvin Jones. He is of course not drumming like he did with Coltrane in 1965, but lays down his brilliant polyrhythmic structures, which the whole band, including Jones, improvises on. Listen to the opening of the first and title track to hear the rich complexity of Elvin's framework.
Workman is not as adventurous a bassist as was Garrison, but his thick, solid ostinatos lock into Jones' skeletons amazingly. If Juju thrives on one element, it is groove. Tyner is his usual agile self-I wonder if it was a relief for him to go back to non-free jazz in the middle of 1965--and Shorter is simply amazing with his sharp, and yes, pre-free 'Trane "scrambled eggs" approach to soloing.
Hard bop, free, groove: it really does not matter, which is what I now know, but I also know Juju is high quality and complex jazz, and you just gotta hear it
Free Music Review: And the Winner is....
Hit: 4 Stars
If we listen to the best Jazz played today, we see that among the many directions suggested in the 1960's, Shorter's way has been the most influential. MOstly through his great work with Miles Davis' second great quintet, but also through his own recordings, Shorter created music that was both inside and outside, had free elements within known forms, and allowed the artists creativity in contexts that still relied on such terms as chords and scales.In Juju, recorded in 1964, Shorter's sound is dry, heavily influenced by Coltrane. The use Tyner, Jones and Workman adds more weight to the comparison. Shorter reminds me of Coltrane, but his energy is different. With Coltrane you feel that every solo is treated as though it is his last, while Shorter, energetic as he is, saves a little for later.
All tunes are by Shorter, and they are all unique. Tyner and Jones sound as if they really enjoy this one, and push Shorter to give his best. They work really well with workman.
Some may complain that this music is less "listenable" than Somethin' Else (Adderley & Davis) or even "The Sidewinder" (Morgan).
It is true that those masterpieces are hard to compete with, but Juju is a work of daring creative artists in top form, and this kind of work has the tendency to attract the initiated, the "experts" first, while the uninitiated come to it a little later, if they persist.
Free Music Review: Someone Stole My Review Title!
Hit: 4 Stars
I was going to title this "4 1/2 Stars", but too late. . . I came to this CD after developing a real affection for Speak No Evil. This gets 4 1/2 stars because Speak No Evil gets 5, and this is great, but suffers a bit in comparison.
Having acclimated myself to Shorter's "odd but emotional" melodies, harmonies that only make sense within their own context, and jarring solos on Speak No Evil, I was ready for JuJu and enjoyed it on my first listen. No trumpet here is a two-edged sword - it gives Mcoy Tyner more room to create masterful solos, but Freddie Hubbard adds SO much on Speak No Evil. He and Shorter push and challenge each other, both on solos and "heads". The interplay is magic. Plus, the polished sound of Hubbard and Shorter together creates a stark contrast from their free form solos, so even the structure of the songs has an internal rhythm that propels it forward.
My final complaint is the absence of Herbie Hancock. McCoy Tyner is a whiz on piano, and he is in his element playing edgy, challenging music, but Hancock set the bar SO incredibly high on Speak No Evil, particularly the wild sequences and accompaniments he throws in. Tyner's earlier work on JuJu is still great, but certainly not groundbreaking by comparison.
Out of context, JuJu may get 5 stars, but since Speak No Evil gets 5, it certainly cannot.