1998 · Album
Like Minds
Recorded 1998, Avatar Studios, New York City · Concord Jazz · Produced by Gary Burton
Five Old Friends, No Wasted Notes
Five jazz heavyweights walk into a studio and just play — it works.
There are supergroup albums that feel like a marketing exercise, and then there is Like Minds (1998), which actually delivers. Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, and Roy Haynes had all crossed paths in various configurations over the decades, and it shows — this does not sound like five people meeting for the first time and being polite about it. It sounds like musicians who trust each other enough to leave space, which is rarer than it should be.
The vibe throughout is conversational and loose without being sloppy. Haynes in particular is a joy to listen to here. He was in his early seventies when this was recorded at Avatar Studios in New York City, and he plays with the kind of relaxed confidence that only comes from having been in the room with the best players for fifty-plus years. He does not overplay. He pushes when it counts. The interplay between him and Holland in the rhythm section gives the front line — Burton's vibraphone, Corea's piano, Metheny's guitar — plenty of room to move around. The album won the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance in 1999, which for once feels like the right call rather than a lifetime achievement consolation prize.
If you are coming to this as a Haynes fan specifically, it is a good entry point into his later work — proof that his timing and instincts were fully intact well into an era when many of his contemporaries had slowed down or stopped. If you are a fan of any of the five musicians here, there is something for you. This is not a challenging listen. It is a very good one.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Roy Haynes
Question and Answer 1990
Wanton Spirit 1994
Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker 2001
Cymbalism 1963
The musicians on this record
Remembering Bud Powell 1997
Chick Corea
plays piano here
plays piano here
A Map of the World 1999
Pat Metheny
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
Native Sense: The New Duets 1997
Gary Burton
plays vibraphone here
plays vibraphone here
Prime Directive 1999
Dave Holland
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
