Throwback: Herbie Hancock-Thieves In The Temple

image_pdfimage_print

herbiehancockthenewstandard

[youtube id=”zqj2Z3gm-gI”] In 1995 Herbie Hancock’s The New Standard found him being adventurous again but this time with it was an album of pop covers. The band of all-stars including John Scofield, Michael Brecker, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Don Alias worked with Hancock to take the contemporary pop and mold it into jazz. Hancock’s inventive arrangement of Prince’s “Thieves In The Temple” turned the pop/R&B song into warm jazz underscored by Brecker’s tenor solo riding through the band’s playing with the buoyancy of a wave.  The outcome is a song respectful of the original but infused with Hancock’s style that really does make “Thieves In The Temple” a new standard for a jazz player’s fake book.Hancock felt Prince’s influence just like his former bandleader Miles Davis who believed that the Minneapolis artist was the future of music.

Share