Jerry Goodman et al. The Stranger's Hand

The Stranger's Hand

Jerry Goodman

Steve Smith

Howard Levy

Oteil Burbridge

The Stranger's Hand is no where near as good as some of the other albums with Steve Smith like Cause and Effect and especially Count's Jam Band Reunion [See Reviews]. Which is a shame and perhaps a wasted opportunity when you've got Mahavishnu Orchestra legend Jerry Goodman on board. It's a mixture of things that doesn't work quite as well as it should. Like the arrangements are a bit weird with violin, blues harp, bass and drums constituting a large portion of the tracks, with Levy turning his hand to piano, keyboards, ocarina and penny-whistle in places, and Goodman having a go on electric guitar. A veritable Moto Grosso Feio of instrument swapping. It's not the execution, the playing is superb. And it sounds like these 4 guys, completely unknown to each other prior to this session, locked away together for 9 days, worked their nuts off getting this recording down. That fact in itself is quite astounding - 4 complete strangers coming together to cut an album. Wonderous! But the weakness here is the compositions. No plants means no Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and an album is only as good as its Begoniaceae. There are some gems in there, but, sorry to say, there's also some stinkers. The composition rights are fairly evenly shared across the album, so I guess the good news is that I'm not going to insult anyone in particular.

The Good

Four Four And More keeps the attention because of it's polyrhythmic complexity. A interesting exercise in mixing time signatures if that's what you're in to.

Goodman's Glimmer Of Hope starts very Mahavishnu but overdriven guitar quickly slips into a groove more deserving of Van Halen. Violin soloing over the top keeps it going until Levy's sparse piano style and swooping runs cut through a moderated middle. Goodman comes back with an impressive solo to redeem the piece, with either his guitar-sounding violin, or perhaps even a violin-sounding guitar, and there is a real Mahavishnu sense of an inner mounting flame.

The short tribute to Elvin Jones Elvin quite rightly gets a "Yeah man" at the end of it. A sweet loose ballad with unison harp and violin making a great substitute for horns at the head.

Caliente is a fun swinging salsa that shows off Goodmans versility in violin styles, here taking more of a Grappelli stance, and Levy's piano once more cascades up and down scales, before he takes to the harp and blows hotter than Max Geldray in a furnace.

The furious harmonica playing reaches a peak in Going Up, a superb duet with drums. The harp line climbs in and out of the drum kit, ducking and diving to keep it's head above water, repleat with Jeremy Steig-like humming and gasps for air.

The closing track is also the title track which moves from an intriguing ethnic warble on Levy's penny-whistle into the main indocentric theme that snakes from the violin, and is recapitulated in duet with bass. All the while the drums are building until they burst through and send Goodman stratospheric, quoting trademark phrases and lifting the roof off the building. A very exciting piece that will please any Mahavishnu fan. Burbridge's bass sits tight in a groove whilst the penny-whistle rises to the challenge and takes the second solo slot before the theme returns and the track slips away into the past.

The Bad

Amusing haughty flicks on violin and harp are not enough to ease the pain for Howard Levy's Sufferin' Catfish. It's a tearoom tango with aspirations of one day becoming a cha-cha. Dream on.

Pinky's Revenge is a straight ahead 3/4 funk that somehow doesn't pick it's head up off the ground. Expert rapid bass runs and self accompanied scat singing with the smoothness of George Benson on heat are not enough to escape the "Quiet Storm" deathknell.

The Average

Brick Chicken, the opening track, is from the pen of Jerry Goodman, quite a simple signature riff pumped out with full rock gear engaged. Whilst energetic, the soloing is crass, but the more subdued middle section improves with Oteil Burbridge playing a Zawinul-like bassline and more F.Frederick Skitty [Fat Freddy' scat].

Moonchild is a slightly endearing lullaby that hints of A Lotus On Irish Streams (Mahavishnu Orchestra) in places, but whose melody is actually closer to Six Weeks (Dudley Moore).

OK, so it was an interesting experiment and considering the circumstances, quite an impressive result. But not having collaborated previously does show, and interplay and communication are the victims; although Steve Smith's lightning fast embellishments work like glue to keep it all together. The production is clear and warm and very well balanced considering the disparate nature of the instruments being recorded. The good tracks are in the majority, and some are really, really good, so why not get familiar with Stranger's Hand?