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On this remarkably intimate session, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter reduce themselves to their purest instrumental voices, Hancock's piano and Shorter's soprano sax. In some way the improvisatory character is a return to their musical roots, eschewing the techno-grooves and layered sounds of their most successful commercial ventures. For Hancock it's a return to the spontaneity of theduets with Chick Corea, while for Shorter it's akin to the recording withJim HallandMichel Petrucciani. Either way, it's one of the most arresting dates of their later careers, a work of creative introspection and retrospection, two artists turning to a pivotal partner for inspiration. Whether the music is wistful or unsettling, it's the subtlety--almost the minimalism--that's most startling, a mature knowledge that you can sometimes make the most with the least.--Stuart Broomer