1974 · Album
Like Children
Nemperor Records · Released: 1974 · Musicians: Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman (both members of Mahavishnu Orchestra)
Jerry Goodman's Violin Transforms Hammer's Vision
Goodman's violin work elevated Hammer's synthesizer experiments into something neither musician could have achieved alone.
Jerry Goodman's presence on Like Children is what makes this album work. Hammer had already proven himself as a keyboardist and composer, but pairing him with Goodman's violin — an instrument that could answer, argue with, and sometimes overwhelm the synthesizer — created a genuine conversation rather than a showcase for either player's gear. The violin doesn't just decorate these tracks; it shapes them. On pieces like 'Country and Eastern Music' and 'Steppings Tones,' Goodman's playing set the emotional temperature while Hammer responded beneath and around it. AllMusic reviewer Michael G. Nastos singled out those same tracks as high-water marks for this style at the time, and you can hear why: Goodman brought a kind of classical rigor and expressive range that kept Hammer's more experimental impulses grounded.
Both musicians were coming out of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, where they'd learned to play at the intersection of rock energy and jazz sophistication. Like Children was their chance to explore that territory on their own terms, without the rest of the ensemble. That freedom mattered. What emerges isn't fusion in the flashy sense — it's two serious musicians working through what happens when violin and synthesizer stop pretending they're part of the same instrument and start treating each other as equals. The album doesn't announce itself as important, but listeners looking for something beyond the standard keyboard-and-drums setup of the era would find real substance here.
Who's playing
Jan Hammersynthesizer
