HERBIE HANCOCK/FODAY MUSA SUSO

VILLAGE LIFE

  1/  Moon/Light                                 (Hancock,Suso)                7.57
  2/  Ndan Ndan Nyaria                           (Suso)                        9.50
  3/  Early Warning                              (Hancock)                     2.50
  4/  Kanatente                                  (Hancock,Suso)                19.59

          Recorded at CBS/Sony Studios, Shinano-Machi, Tokyo on August 7, 8 &
            9, 1984
          Recorded by TomooSuzuki and Dave Jerden
          Assistant Engineers: Nobuhisa Kawabe and Shinichi Miyoshi
          Digital Editing Engineer: Tetsuro Tomita
          Produced by Bill Laswell and Herbie Hancock
          Associate Producer: Tony Meilandt
          Direction: Tony Meilandt
          Administration for Bill Laswell: Roger Trilling
          Mastered at Capitol Records by Wally Traugott

Herbie Hancock: Yamaha DX-1 digital synthesizer, Yamaha RX-11 digital drum machine; Foday Musa Suso: kora, talking drum.

          1985 - CBS/Columbia (USA), FC 39870 (Vinyl)
          1985 - CBS/Columbia (USA), CK 39870 (CD)

Note: Bill Laswell does not play on this album.

REVIEWS :

This quiet, lovely record, in which the Gambian kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso is given equal billing, was generally ignored when it came out, probably because it fit no one's preconceived idioms — be they jazz, funk, MTV, or even world music. The only performers are Hancock on a detunable Yamaha DX-1 synthesizer and drum machine and Suso spinning his webs of delicate sound on the zither-like kora, vocalizing a bit and playing a talking drum — all in real time in a Tokyo studio. The results are absolutely mesmerizing, with Herbie aligning himself perfectly within Suso's unusual, complex rhythmic conceptions and folk-like harmonies. On the 20-minute "Kanatente," Hancock does introduce some of his own advanced harmonic ideas, and he contrasts and interweaves them with Suso's deceptively simple lines in a splendid jam session that eventually ends in a dance that can only be described as Gambian funk. This music generates the same feeling of ecstatic well-being as an Indian raga — and even hardcore jazz fans may find themselves seduced against their will.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

Richard S. Ginell courtesy of the All Music Guide website