The title kinda says it all, except well, Rocks don’t rock. It’s a quasi-retrospective of the Brecker Brothers, with plenty of arrangements culled from the BB band or its Reunion format. It’s thus fitting that David Sanborn and Ada Rovatti (loosely filling Michael’s shoes) are on board. Rovatti is class throughout, notably on ‘Adina’, a showcase for her on tenor and soprano written by hubby Randy. So, a lot of songs are familiar, be it ‘First Tune of the Set’, ‘Threesome’ or ‘Squids’. What’s not so familiar is that, much as we love the NDR band (which can nail the rock bit of jazz rock), it still feels like funk by numbers: yup, it’s all note perfect, spankingly tempoed, yet somehow stiff-legged. ‘Squids’ for instance immaculately drives through all those changes, but with none of the hip-sway dirt of the original, even when Randy kicks in all Milesy-dark. Listen to the hi-hat, it never ever changes. It’s just on or off, binary style. It’s intriguing to compare this project with Bob Holz’ Silverthorne, also reviewed this issue, which from the opening bar drips white-boy funk… whatever the hell that is.