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Review by miguelito54 July 10, 2007 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
After being diagnosed with inoperable cancer, Herbie Mann, one of the pioneers of what is now called world music, decided to go back to his Eastern European roots (his parents were of Romanian and Ukrainian Jewish descent). The trip, however, led him to Hungary, probably for better medicinal care, which borders on the Ukraine and where musicians from the same circles are to be found. The CD includes only one track (Jelek) from the recorded encounter with Hungarian jazz musicians - the remainder was recorded in US studios with a mixed band including Mann's son Geoff on drums and Gil Goldstein on accordion for the Klezmer flavor.
The fusion presented here is rather on the light side, charming but not too experimental, true to the principles of combining openness with accessibility that the flutist pursued thoughout his career, and one certainly does not expect the breaking of musical barriers from a musician facing the end of his life - Mann died soon after the CD was published. In the context of his biography und under the given circumstances, the best possible last recording for a musician who left an indelible mark on the scene.
The music was obviously recorded by using multi-tracking with close miking and artificial reverb and sounds similar to a well made red book CD recorded the same way - there is not that much difference between the CD and SACD layers - the latter sounds a bit more transparent, especially the attack of the hammered cymbalom strings is heard better. The high resolution delivers the best results when applied to recordings in a natural ambience.
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Review by Barb January 20, 2008 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
H. Mann flt, B. Dunlap g, A. Fedoriouk cimbilium, G. Goldstein acc, G. Mann ds & perc & mandolin, P. Socolow b, M. Borbely ss & fujara, M. György g & bouzouki, Z. S. Kovacs ds, M. Szandai b, HMM 2000.
Mann remembers his Eastern European roots (his mother born in Romania) on eleven tracks of gypsy influenced folk-jazz. He contributes six compositions, Geoff Mann and Goldstein wrote one each, two are traditional and “Jelek” was composed by Mihaly Borbely, a member of the Hungary(?) band joining on this track. The music`s mood reaches from melancholy songs to gypsy dance rhythms and has always that Eastern European timbre. It`s music not heard very often and so is a welcome alternation in my repertoire.
The sound is very good, rich of colour, very good soundstage and imaging, air for the instruments to breath, very dynamic, brilliant.
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