Mercy Street

If you are a fan of Peter Gabriel then you are more than likely a fan of his classic song Mercy Street. It's a moving and poignant song that sounds as perfect as a song could sound. If you are a fan of Herbie Hancock then you know how talented that man is and what his legacy is when it comes to jazz music. There is nothing Herbie cannot do, and he proved that when he dropped his album The New Standard back on March 5th 1996.

Herbie took pop songs and turned them into jazz standards. He refashioned them, updated them, made them funkier, fresher, gave them a different voice. One of those songs was Peter's tune Mercy Street. Herbie gave it some serious juice and and sped the song up and made it even harder to forget it. The piano work is pure perfection, but what outshines Herbie on this track is the tenor sax work by Michael Brecker and hearing those two go back and forth with one another is timeless. Michael Brecker's play gives me goosebumps it's that GOOD!

This was Herbie's 40th studio album, 40th and it is absolutely amazing, as his rendition of Mercy Street can attest to. This is one of my favorite albums because if you put this on today, it sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday. The New Standard stands the test of time and for an album that's bordering on being twenty years old, you can't get much better than that.