the joys of chameleon

I had another go at 'Head Hunters' recently. I think I can pretty safely reaffirm my appreciation of this album - the Herbie's first go at getting funky, and what a go.

I'd like to use a phrase Robert Christgau used to describe Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' - 'beguiling logic'. That's what comes to mind listening to Chameleon, which sounds as modern as any of the electronic dance tracks you hear in clubs, only twice as kicking, and with that something special - that logical progression. At first I only heard the repetition, and it does go on - it's probably the longest iteration of AABA songform in the history of popular music (the A goes on for 4 minutes) - then I heard the slow, incremental, but fabulously satisfying development. Herbie plays the band like a keyboard here, never varying the drum beat or the two-note Clavinet melody (that IS the melody. not the horns!) or the envelope-filtered bassline. He just adds and subtracts layers at will. It's the horns sometimes, playing riffs, or its his keyboards howling.

There's something fundamental that Herbie grasped about funk here that I think could be missing in the music scene in Singapore. Nothing here (save the keyboard solo) is any kind of showboating. In fact, it's the exact opposite - five musicians in service of the groove. Personalities are laid aside (find me a drummer who'll play the exact same beat for 12 minutes at a go and I'll show you Moe Tucker, who didn't play funk unfortunately). Even Herbie's solo tinkles along at a relaxed pace, almost gloating in its relaxation. And that's the point. This is music for dancing, not for blowing or beating or getting faster. And Herbie shows his mastery of composition with a piece that never devolves into histrionics but slowly unfolds like origami over 16 minutes. I want to see that live.

adam