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Speak No Evil

Speak No Evil is one of a smallish number of jazz CDs I've bought at Kriminal Records, a stall in Newport market: - though it's been quite some time since I visited, so I'm not sure it's still there. Their vinyl prices, while by no means kriminal, were a little higher than I preferred to pay, so CDs it was. This is a copy of a '99 re-issue that cost me a few pounds.

Highly-regarded by aficionados, rated by many as Shorter's finest outing as a leader, this is an album I find I sometimes love and other times don't: my response to it very much depends on my mood and the circumstances of the moment. 

It's a cool and confident and dark and sinuous record with Shorter's striking compositions fleshed out by an all-star quintet. Straightforward hard-bop ingredients and more astringently avant-garde ones are mixed to great effect: with the proportions so well-judged that the resulting concoction is a heady one.

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