ZZCD 9803 - The Business with Mike Hatchard & Herbie Flowers

Bath & West Life (Formerly Bath & West Country Life) - Summer 1998

Ignore the dancing banjoists on the cover and move swiftly into a compilation of very familiar standards. Hatchard, or "Marvin Hanglider" as he is portrayed in his solo night club act elsewhere, reveals an easy-flowing genuine feel for this straight-ahead fifties popular jazz style, while session man bassist Flowers fits the mood perfectly, Actually, the latter could be considered as the foremost session man, having recorded diversely with Sinatra, McCartney, Mancini, Scaffold, Lou Reed (bass line in Walk on the Wild Side), Jool Holland and John Williams. as a founder member of Sky, .The Hatchard CV is also impressive. including work with Cleo Laine, Salena Jones. Matt Munro and Vic Damone.

Those who use the word would describe this CD as accessible

Jazz UK Studio Time - Making Tracks

On Zah Zah is a duo set by Mike Hatchard with Herbie Flowers on bass. 'The Business'  (ZZCD 9803) finds the pair doing just that, with the benefit of fourteen will established standards chosen by Mike simply on the grounds of their sheer quality. And there's no mistaking the deep affection with which he plays them from a wistful 'Autumn in New York' to a chirpy 'Honeysuckle Rose'
                                                                                                                                           Pete Martin on new British releases

Cadence Volume 25 No. 2 February 1999 (Page 120)

Work Song / Tangerine / Wave / I Can't Give You Anything But Love / Stella by Starlight/On Green Dolphin Street / All the Tiings You Are / Watermelon Man / Waltz for Debbie / Pennies from Heaven / Honeysuckle Rose / Autumn in New York / I Can 't Get Started 63:51
Hatchmd, p; Flowers, b.
There are clearly situations in which the identity of music matters little, it's just nice to have around. These CDs by pianists fall into that category. Hearing them, you might enjoy them, might even wonder who they're by The next time you hear the same CD, you might ask the same question. Part of that's the problem of the piano, a hard instrument on which to come by an identity Further, it's the extent to which received ideas dominate much of the landscape of Jazz. There's a certain classicism at play here, and it extends beyond merely "classical" training, though that's an element in each of the three pianists. It's also the classicism of the current period in Jazz, a period in which fidelity to the ordained parameters of a style is sometimes a more potent idea than identity Curiously Oscar Peterson is mentioned as an early influence on every CD.

Stuart Broomer