Jan Hammer - 1977 - Melodies

Jan Hammer

1977

Melodies

01. Too Much To Lose (2:47)

02. Peaceful Sundown (3:55)

03. I Sing (4:23)

04. Honey 5379 (2:37)

05. Window Of Love (3:30)

06. What It Is (2:57)

07. Don't You Know (2:58)

08. Just For Fun (4:14)

09. Hyperspace (3:43)

10. Who Are They? (6:14)

11. Your Love (3:30)

Jan Hammer / synths, electric piano, Mellotron (1,11), piano (5,11), drums (1,5,7), congas (1), backing vocals, producer

Steven Kindler / acoustic & electric violins, bass (7), cello & electric guitar (9), backing vocals

Fernando Saunders / bass, piccolo bass, acoustic guitar & cello (3), lead (3,7,10), harmony & backing vocals

Tony Smith / drums, lead (1,2,4-6,8) & backing vocals

By the time of Melodies, keyboardist Jan Hammer had largely shed his more experimental tendencies and settled into a comfortable, R&B-based fusion groove. The tracks on Melodies tend to be between two-and-a-half and four-and-a-half minutes -- just about the length of most pop songs -- and so some hardcore jazz listeners might be dismayed at the relative lack of boundary-stretching, even though that isn't really the point of this music. Melodies doesn't quite catch fire as often as some of its predecessors -- Like Children and Oh, Yeah?, for example -- but its best moments are catchy, accessible, and funky.

"Too Much to Lose" is such a killer opening track. A show of talents, a show of excellent songwriting, specifically unto the normal goals of a "Pop song." Right off the bat, very clearly a continuation of the slickly produced, funk-inflected second-wave(?) Fusion of JEFF BECK (culminating in his mid-70s releases Blow By Blow in 1975, and Wired in 1976, the latter featuring HAMMER). And unsurprising at that, as Jeff performed alongside the Jan Hammer Group in 1976, releasing their "eponymous" release March that next year.

Very interesting to me is track 3, "I Sing", a mostly acoustic track with sharp pointed guitar trills (simply beauty captured on tape, in my opinion), soft and low background strings (I assume cello) and layers upon layers of otherwise a capella vocals. The vocals throughout this release are really quite good.

More tracks have a different Jeff Beck-inspired sound, such as "Honey 5379" and "Window of Love", hearkening back to his early work with his JEFF BECK GROUP; though technologically very clearly in 1977, not 1972, for better or for worse. That's up to you, I suppose.

I have to know, especially sparked upon hearing "Hyperspace", which is just an ingenious way of sonically building using strings (so incredibly epic, definitely one of the most interesting tracks here): Was it actually Jan, and not JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, who had the greatest affinity for "classical strings" in Jazz Fusion? Jan did so happen to continue collaborating with violinist JERRY GOODMAN outside of (and both after) MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA. Just struck me. Certainly not going to suggest that Jan's breadth or diversity is greater than that of McLaughlin. Not sure this can even necessarily be debated.

Anyways, good album. Worth hearing.