I don’t know who said it, but Jan Hammer is the bomb. Yeah that’s right, The Bomb!

Well before he donned the white suit of Miami Vice instrumentalist, which made him more famous than I think he wanted to be, Jan was a talented jazz synthesist (is that what you call someone who plays the synthesizer as their main instrument?). In 1977 he released his breakthrough album, Melodies.

Now I’m going to be honest with you here and tell you that I like a lot of music, but I really don’t like jazz. I like some, but I’d say for the most part I could do without it. Period.

This album definately falls into the “pop/rock jazz” camp. I’m not convinced of the album as a whole. Some tracks are “funky” some are “rock” with little blues licks thrown in. Although there are some interesting tracks, like What It Is, which has the blues line taken up by an electrified violin, with nice soulful keyboard chord progressions behind it, layered over a funked out drum beat. Reverbed vocals by Tony Smith make the track sound more like a psych/rock jam. But for the most part the album dilly/dallies with tracks in an endless circle of noodling on songs that would be better if they were cut down to their basics.

Then there is the track, Don’t You Know. Last summer I was rifeling through some stuff at Jive Time and this track was playing. I was blown away. What is this? Jan Hammer? Wow.

It’s like chillout music, before there was chillout music. It’s perfect, they didn’t take it and go off on any progeressions, they just kept it real simple. It is just right. I put it on hold, and they were nice enought to keep it all summer for me. So now I’m passing it on to you.

I’m also passing along a recent cover of the song by a group called Beauty Room. It’s from a 10” series called the Vanity Project, where bands get to cover one of their favorite tracks, then have it remixed. Hefner does the remixing and it’s a nice little minimalist techno take. The vocals still float, though slightly distorted, but the song is cut apart and re-assembled into a new structure altogether.

You can check them out at my blog, T.M.L.