LP Review: Echoes of an Era
Released: 1982
LP Charts: #11 Jazz
For years, Chaka Khan had been dippin’ and dabbin’ in faux jazz. Finally, she was able to fully indulge the jazz spirit on Echoes of an Era. For the occasion, she was able to finagle five jazz legends, three of whom were part of the jazz fusion band Return to Forever.
Stanley Clarke — bass
Chick Corea — piano
Joe Henderson — tenor sax
Freddie Hubbard — trumpet
Lenny White — drums
A good roster, but will this actually be a good jazz album or just a vanity project?
The cool and bouncy “Them There Eyes” is a pretty darn good start. Corea’s piano is crisp and Hubbard’s trumpet bursts are the real standout. “All of Me” has a similarly upbeat feel. Two strong songs opening this jazzy excursion.
Then comes “I Mean You”. Not a fan of Khan trying to be a sassy, smart-talking jazz chanteuse. At least the song is short at just 3:28.
“I Loves You Porgy” returns Khan to a more sedate performance for most of the song before finding some damn good emoting toward the end. She really can handle these type of jazz tunes.
“Take The "A" Train” is kind of a pain to get through, but your reward is “I Hear Music”. Okay not really. It’s a fine song, but nothing you haven’t heard before on this album. Same for “High Wire - The Aerialist”.
At this point, it’s safe to conclude all the good songs sound essentially the same. Everyone is in fine form, but nothing here is eye-opening. As if to prove my point, there is an alternate take of “All of Me” that is not that much different than the previous version.
The album finale, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most”, gets suuuuper quiet. If you’re not careful, you’ll forget the record is still playing.
ALBUM GRADE: C
Like I said, everyone sounds fine here, but listening to two of these songs pretty much gives you the point of these proceedings. So the final verdict is that this was a vanity project. Maybe, they should have taken more time than two days to record this thing. Would have created songs with greater stylistic variety.
Also woulda gave this a C+, but doubling up on “All of Me” is such a lazy move.
Song Scores
Them There Eyes: 7.5/10
All of Me: 7/10
I Mean You: 5/10
I Loves You Porgy: 7.5/10
Take The "A" Train: 4/10
I Hear Music: 6.5/10
High Wire - The Aerialist: 7.5/10
Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most: 6/10