Towards the end of a phenomenal evening set on Sunday, Achim pulled out a monster. One of the legendary Blue Note Records' most critically acclaimed albums, Wayne Shorter's 1966 LP, Speak No Evil. Clearly influenced by his concurrent work with the Miles Davis Quintet, Shorter enlisted a couple of his band-mates from that group, with Herbie Hancock on piano and Ron Carter on bass; while enlisting John Coltrane's drummer, the mighty Elvin Jones, to be the backbone of the session. Standing up front with Shorter was probably the second best trumpeter on the scene at that time, none other than Freddie Hubbard.
"The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection" calling it "by far Shorter's most satisfying record". Allmusic.com assigns the album five stars. Murray Horwitz stated in 2001 that "Speak No Evil is sort of a consolidation of Wayne Shorter's compositional excellence. It's so thorough and consistent and wide-ranging. It's almost a manifesto for his ideas. Those ideas were new 40 years ago, but they're still fresh today."[
Achim played the album's opener "Witch Hunt," and if you missed it, you can check it out here. A high-energy start is a bold-faced lie, as the group checks to see if you're paying attention before laying back into an infectious modal groove. Enjoy.
