Country and eastern music (Goodman/Hammer) (LP 855 - 856)

Jan Hammer   The First Seven Days (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1975) ****  

Jerry Goodman & Jan Hammer   Little Children (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1975) ***

Genre: Jazz fusion 

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records/Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Topeka

Gear costume: Fourth Day - Plants and Trees

Active compensatory factors: Jan Hammer's sound is instantly recognisable - both his drumming and his keyboard work. Jerry Goodman's violin also has a unique sound.

They combine superbly on Little Children - never getting in the other's way but creating a complementary soundscape.

Both were members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early seventies and so they know what they doing! Little Children sounds like Goodman and Hammer though - without the fiery guitar pyrotechnics and fever drumming from John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham respectively.

Neither are great singers, so the vocals aren't crash hot (a star off as a consequence).

Seven Days is a Hammer solo album - his first. Jan plays pretty much everything (bar some congas, percussion and violin - by Steve Kindler this time). 

Everything he touched turned to gold in seems as he uses the creation myth as an album concept to explore his keyboards to great effect (no guitars on this album at all).

Where do they all belong? Jan definitely conjures up an eclectic sound - Little Children has some classical/ jazz/ pop/ fusion elements, while The First Seven Days features some clearer fusion wig outs with proggy flourishes (a la Rick Wakeman).