One could excuse Hank Jones if, at the time of The Oracle, the 70-year-old pianist chose to stick to revivalist bop, but the biggest surprise of this very democratic date is how modern he plays.
Jones is Monkish on "Blues for CM" and often sounds more like a contemporary of McCoy Tyner than of Bud Powell, whom Hank was actually born six years before.
Bassist Dave Holland has nearly as much solo space as Jones (along with contributing three compositions), and drummer Billy Higgins gets more space than usual.
If there is any fault to this otherwise flawless CD (which also has some underplayed standards such as "Beautiful Love" and "Yesterdays"), it is that there are no individual features.
But the interplay between the three musicians is quite impressive.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | InterfaceHank Jones | Hank Jones | Play | 06:44 | 15 MB | 40 MB |
| 2 | Beautiful Love | Hank Jones | Play | 06:45 | 15 MB | 33 MB |
| 3 | The Oracle | Hank Jones | Play | 06:48 | 15 MB | 36 MB |
| 4 | Blues for C.M. | Hank Jones | Play | 07:24 | 16 MB | 40 MB |
| 5 | YesterdaysOtto Harbach, Jerome Kern | Hank Jones | Play | 06:26 | 14 MB | 36 MB |
| 6 | Blood CountBilly Strayhorn | Hank Jones | Play | 08:38 | 19 MB | 37 MB |
| 7 | Maya's Dance | Hank Jones | Play | 05:54 | 13 MB | 30 MB |
| 8 | Trane Connections | Hank Jones | Play | 05:49 | 13 MB | 36 MB |
| 9 | Jacob's Ladder | Hank Jones | Play | 07:30 | 17 MB | 42 MB |
| 62 mins | 141 MB | |||||
| 62 mins | 334 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Farber | Engineer |
| 2 | Otto Harbach | Composer |
| 3 | Billy Higgins | Drums, Performer |
| 4 | Dave Holland | Bass, Performer |
| 5 | Hank Jones | Composer, Performer, Piano, Primary Artist |
| 6 | Jerome Kern | Composer |
| 7 | Kenny Mathieson | Liner Notes |
| 8 | Billy Strayhorn | Composer |
| 9 | Lee Townsend | Producer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |