UNTOLD PASSION Album Network - September 28, 1981 Neal Schon & Jan Hammer Untold Passion (Columbia) Some things are so simple it's amazing people don't think of them sooner. Over the years, some of the finest representatives of jazz/rock fusion have had a difficult time attracting universal album radio acceptance. Examples are Al DiMeola, Jean-luc Ponty, Larry Carlton, Jeff Beck, and The Dregs, etc. As outstanding as these musicians are with their instruments, the one missing ingredient was a commercial vocal quality. Neal Schon & Jan Hammer's Untold Passion has it, as well as all the stories, rock and roll rumors and hippie myths you have ever heard about Neal Schon's great guitar phrasing. Schon has been an exceptional player since he was around 15 years old; that's when Eric Clapton put the word out he was interested. Seconds later, Santana stole him away, and Neal provides all the second guitar licks on some of the finest albums from Santana's middle period. Developing with each passing day, Journey is Schon's most current association with album radio, and here he gets the chance to stretch out and uncork a high grade performance with Jan Hammer, one of the most revered musicians in all of jazz and rock. From side one The Album Network recommends "Wasting Time," and "I'm Down." On side two try "It's Allright" and "On The Beach." If you liked Jeff Beck's Wired and Blow By Blow, you'll certainly admire all of Untold Passion, a multi-colored display of outstanding musicianship. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ HERE TO STAY Buffalo Evening News RECORDS: ROCK The Powerhouse Partnership of Neal Schon and Jan Hammer By Dale Anderson News Critic The latest fruit of their partnership is Here to Stay (Columbia 38428), an album of such force and forthrightness that it should pique the interest no matter what one thinks of Journey. Having probed each other's potential in last year's introductory Untold Passion album, Schon and Hammer zero in what they do best. The outcome is superior to what either of them do separately. No homogenized licks from Schon here. He propels Hammer's hard-edged moods with the kind of lyrical overdrive that'll make people remember he once played with Santana. Hammer, meanwhile, in his quest to build better basic rock, gives Schon the substance and the schematics to work with, then wisely holds back most of the time and lets his new found playmate wail. The opening "No More Lies" demonstrates just how incendiary their approach can be. The phrases of the chorus flare out. The guitar cuts the synthesized backdrop into perfect pieces of kindling. It burns like a house afire. When Hammer takes the upper hand in the brittle blockish "(You Think You're) So Hot" and "Long Time," you understand why he gave up jazz. Friday, January 28, 1983 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEYBOARD/JUNE 1983 RECORDS JAN HAMMER, "HERE TO STAY" About 15 years ago Jan Hammer began causing a stir with his Balkan-flavored jazz piano stylings. Somewhere along the road since then he underwent an artistic conversion, and following a fiery baptism with the Mahavishnu Orchestra he was born again as a purebred rock and roller. On this album, his second duo collaboration with guitarist Neal Schon of Journey, Hammer betrays only the slightest trace of his jazz roots. Instead, he immerses himself in the mammoth dimensions of stadium rock with a fervor and instinctive understanding of the style that could easily bring a coliseum full of Foreigner fans to their feet. Though Schon's overdriven guitar dominates this disc, Hammer gives it a deeper level of expression with his array of synthesizer settings. When doubling Schon's riffs or chords, Hammer favors cold crystalline colors. His solos are miniature gems, remarkable for their restraint within the album's power rock context. Usually you can pick Hammer's lines out from the wall of six-string distortion, especially when he adds a hard edge to his tone, or resurrects the woody textures he favored with Mahavishnu and on his own early solo projects. But there are moments when his chameleon-like command of guitar phrasing on the synthesizer blurs the edges between his and Schon's licks. He evokes electric violin sounds in his fills on "So Hot," and nails down a harmonica patch just about perfectly in "Peace Of Mind." Young keyboardists can learn a lot from an album like this about how the slightest nuances in keyboard phrasing and synthesizer programming can shoot new life into rock music without compromising its integrity. Columbia, FC-38428. –Bob Doerschuk KEYBOARD/JUNE 1983