1969 · Album
How Insensitive
Recorded 1969 (three sessions) · Blue Note · Produced by Not specified in available sources
Pearson's Awkward Grandeur in Late-Era Blue Note
A weird variation on easy listening that never quite works, yet fascinates precisely because it doesn't.
How Insensitive arrived in 1969 as Duke Pearson's attempt to balance commercial appeal with compositional ambition—and it landed awkwardly. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it two stars, but his language reveals something more interesting than a simple dismissal: he heard a "very interesting failure," music too strange to work as background listening and too arranged to let Pearson's piano breathe. This was Blue Note trying to stay relevant in an era when the label was chasing easy-listening audiences, and Pearson obliged with layered, extravagant voicings that flirt constantly with schmaltz without ever surrendering to it.
The album came from three separate sessions in 1969, with Pearson augmenting his core band—Bob Cranshaw on bass, Mickey Roker on drums, Al Gafa on electric guitar, and Airto Moreira on percussion—with a choir. That's the core tension: lush vocal arrangements colliding with Pearson's offkilter harmonic choices. The unusual voicings keep the album from settling into comfort. You're waiting for the schmaltz to take over, and it never quite does.
This is late-career Pearson, well past his peak as a hard-bop player and arranger. It's not a starting point—try My Fair Lady (1965) or his earlier Blue Note work first. How Insensitive matters only if you're curious about what happened when jazz composers bent too far toward commercialism. It's a document of compromise, interesting specifically because it fails.
Who's playing
Bob Cranshawdouble bass
Duke Pearsonpiano
Al Gafaelectric guitar
Mickey Rokerdrums
Airto Moreirapercussion
Where next?
More by Duke Pearson
All 14 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
