Herbie Hancock - Hear O Israel: A Prayer Ceremony In Jazz (Johnny) This is pretty special. A Friday night prayer concert, recorded in 1968 in New York. The music was composed by 17 year old Jonathan Klein at the request of Rabbi David Davis, and the jazz sextet on the recording was led by Herbie Hancock, then a veteran of Miles Davis’ band, and had already put his name to several landmark recordings of his own. A mere four years later he would record Head Hunters and take the genre to the funky side, but there’s nothing here that might suggest Level 42 could possibly be the final destination. Hear O Israel is far more in tune with much horn and piano led ‘60s jazz. Hancock trades licks with Jerome Richardson’s sax and Thad Jones’ trumpet, but it moves into pleasantly surreal territory when the operatic song-prayers come in and the Rabbi reads. Johnny Trunk states in the sleeve notes that Hear O Israel has “an overall sound you may not have experienced before”, and he’s spot on. I’m rapidly becoming a jazz buff - I’ve reached that age - and though only a novice, this is completely new to me, and I'm already curious to find out if there’s more of this sort of thing out there. I suspect, if there is, young Trunk’s the man to find it. I’m relying on you, Johnny. Rob F. Check out the Trunk Records website where exotic sounds, ‘70s cookery and retro porn happily co-exist: www.trunkrecords.com Next