Herbie Hancock

[Milestones]

I have quietly realized that Herbie is one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians.  He had that nice run on Blue Note, starting with one of the finest debuts in jazz history, Takin' Off.  There was the great work in the Miles quintet and many fine sideman appearances.  He followed Miles into fusion.  I liked Mwandishi, but not so much Head Hunters.  Then all that work with his old mates from the Miles band.  He seemed to largely revert to acoustic piano, with most of his records for several decades featuring traditional keys. 

I always thought he was doing  interesting things--sometimes quite successfully, and at other times just...interesting.  His odd The Imagine Project, with a cast of seemingly hundreds, is (I believe) his last record as of this date.  That was way back in 2010.  I believe he has toured a good deal with Terence Blanchard in recent years.  Herbie is certainly up there in years, but I've love to see a couple more jazz releases.  Something, Herbie, something...it's been 14 years.  

 

Edited January 23 by Milestones

[felser]

The Headhunters records grew on me over the decades as I was more able to embrace them for what they were rather than keeping them at arm's length for what they weren't.  The BN's and Mwandishi stuff still knocks me out, and I do like the VSOP recordings a lot.  the nightmare to me was/is the 80's funk stuff with the vocoder vocals etc.  Hope I never hear "Rockit" again, though it sits on my shelf in the big Complete Columbia box.

Edited January 23 by felser

[JSngry]

This is a really good record. 

[Milestones]

So much good stuff beyond the work with Miles and the Blue Notes.

I like Quartet, which has the Miles rhythm section with Wynton Marsalis (even those who don't like Wynton might enjoy his work here).  I love "A Quick Sketch," which at over 16 minutes is hardly quick.

Parallel Realities--intriguing trio with Jack DeJohnette and pat Metheny.

Gershwin's World is pretty good, much better than the others featuring "guests."   

1+1 with Wayne has its moments, though I can't sit through the full duration.

 

 

 

[kh1958]

Directions in Music (with Roy Hargrove and Michael Brecker) is also good.

[felser]

47 minutes ago, Milestones said:

I like Quartet, which has the Miles rhythm section with Wynton Marsalis (even those who don't like Wynton might enjoy his work here).  I love "A Quick Sketch," which at over 16 minutes is hardly quick.

I also like that one.  Actually loved Wynton's early sideman work.  Blakey, this one, etc.

[Gheorghe]

Head Hunters was my first Hancock album, which is natural because it was that time and I was starting my live long love affair with jazz. 

I still love to listen to it. 

It took me some months to realize that Hancock before Headhunters played acoustic jazz. 

It was the "Miles Davis in Europe 1963" that got me into acoustic Hancock, such a wonderful musician ! 

And most naturally my next great love, maybe my favourite acoustic band in my youth was "VSOP". 

I also had the Blue Note LA Double LP with some of the best tracks from the BN period. That´s where I heard Watermelon Man, Blind Man Blind Man, Maiden Voyage and most of all I liked the track "The Prisoner". 

As a youngster in the 70´s Hancock was one of my main men, and sure he remained it all my live. 

[Rooster_Ties]

I was fortunate to have stumbled on a used CD copy of The Prisoner very early on in my listening around 1989 (on one of my trips to Chicago while I was in College, at Jazz Record Mart).  While it wasn’t my first Herbie leader date, it might have been my third — and it was definitely one of my very first 40 jazz purchases.

And I think(?) I picked up a copy of Speak Like a Child on that same Chicago trip (I was in college 200 miles away in western Illinois) — the second of Herbie’s two “Gil Evans”-influenced albums.

I think I’ve cited either one (or the other) as “my favorite Herbie album” ever since.  Over the years, more often than not it’s been The Prisoner — although early on Speak Like a Child was the winner for a good 10 years!

Edited January 23 by Rooster_Ties

[JSngry]

Here's a good record:

 

[Gheorghe]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I was fortunate to have stumbled on a used CD copy of The Prisoner very early on in my listening around 1989 (on one of my trips to Chicago while I was in College, at Jazz Record Mart).  While it wasn’t my first Herbie leader date, it might have been my third — and it was definitely one of my very first 40 jazz purchases.

And I think(?) I picked up a copy of Speak Like a Child on that same Chicago trip (I was in college 200 miles away in western Illinois) — the second of Herbie’s two “Gil Evans”-influenced albums.

I think I’ve cited either one (or the other) as “my favorite Herbie album” ever since.  Over the years, more often than not it’s been The Prisoner — although early on Speak Like a Child was the winner for a good 10 years!

As you say it, "The Prisoner" is wonderful. 

Only when I got acquainted to Herbe thru "Headhunters" and the old Miles Davis LP from 1963, it was almost impossible to find individual Blue Note albums from the former decades (50´s, 60´s , so my only source of more pre-electric Hancock was the BN double LP with paper bag coloured cover. There were dozens of those, and some had a full albums, others where samplers (I think my Sonny Rollins BN recordings also is such a sampler from individual albums that were not in print anymore. That was the first time I heard that Sonny - Philly J.J. duo of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" and some tracks of pianoless trio. 

[Rooster_Ties]

22 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

…my only source of more pre-electric Hancock was the BN double LP with paper bag coloured cover.

Was that this Herbie comp??  (Not seeing anything on Discogs with quite a ‘paper bag’ color to it, unless this is it.

https://www.discogs.com/release/5686851-Herbie-Hancock-The-Best-Of-Herbie-Hancock

Yeah, when I found The Prisoner up at JRM, I had literally never even heard of it before, had no idea of its existence. It was a brand new CD, but a cut-out, so it was already OOP.

I was SO excited to get it home to listen to, especially since it had Joe Henderson on it! — who I already knew from two of his albums being half the my very first 4 jazz albums ever.

Edited January 23 by Rooster_Ties

[Kevin Bresnahan]

59 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Was that this Herbie comp??  (Not seeing anything on Discogs with quite a ‘paper bag’ color to it, unless this is it.

https://www.discogs.com/release/5686851-Herbie-Hancock-The-Best-Of-Herbie-Hancock

Yeah, when I found The Prisoner up at JRM, I had literally never even heard of it before, had no idea of its existence. It was a brand new CD, but a cut-out, so it was already OOP.

I was SO excited to get it home to listen to, especially since it had Joe Henderson on it! — who I already knew from two of his albums being half the my very first 4 jazz albums ever.

This Herbie comp:

was released with this cover in Germeny:

[mjazzg]

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

This is a really good record. 

Very, very good that one

[Milestones]

So does anyone know why Herbie has not released an album in 14 years?

[romualdo]

while we're on the topic of Herbie - his voice has been used as a sign off (for the past 22 years) for one of our revered Australian political weekly programs called "The Insiders" on ABC TV

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1558355497633362

Edited January 24 by romualdo

[felser]

19 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I was fortunate to have stumbled on a used CD copy of The Prisoner very early on in my listening around 1989 (on one of my trips to Chicago while I was in College, at Jazz Record Mart).  While it wasn’t my first Herbie leader date, it might have been my third — and it was definitely one of my very first 40 jazz purchases.

And I think(?) I picked up a copy of Speak Like a Child on that same Chicago trip (I was in college 200 miles away in western Illinois) — the second of Herbie’s two “Gil Evans”-influenced albums.

I think I’ve cited either one (or the other) as “my favorite Herbie album” ever since.  Over the years, more often than not it’s been The Prisoner — although early on Speak Like a Child was the winner for a good 10 years!

BN ran a lot of CD's out of print in 1987-1988, which is what prompted me to finally get a CD player.  I bought a big bunch of those CD's at Tower Records on South Street in Philly, thinking I'd never see them again, then bought a CD player the next day.  Turns out that the running them out of print was just to reset the catalog numbers IIRC, and they were very shortly all available again.  'The Prisoner' is a great album, I especially have a soft spot "I Have a Dream" and "He Who Lives in Fear", which I first encountered on that Best of Herbie Hancock 2LP set you mentioned.  That set and Lee Morgan 'Live at the Lighthouse' were my first jazz purchase, bought together at Franklin Records in late 1972 or early 1973, my first year of college.

[Gheorghe]

18 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Was that this Herbie comp??  (Not seeing anything on Discogs with quite a ‘paper bag’ color to it, unless this is it.

https://www.discogs.com/release/5686851-Herbie-Hancock-The-Best-Of-Herbie-Hancock

Yeah, when I found The Prisoner up at JRM, I had literally never even heard of it before, had no idea of its existence. It was a brand new CD, but a cut-out, so it was already OOP.

I was SO excited to get it home to listen to, especially since it had Joe Henderson on it! — who I already knew from two of his albums being half the my very first 4 jazz albums ever.

oh my friend, now I have to laugh: "Herbe comp" .....as a musician, "to comp" means if you play chords for the other soloists in group performance. So first I had thought you mean Herbie´s style of comping for others, as a sideman or if he recorded with horns. 

17 hours ago, bresna said:

This Herbie comp:

was released with this cover in Germeny:

The second one is the one I have. 

 

11 minutes ago, felser said:

 

I especially have a soft spot "I Have a Dream"

 

if you listen to "I Have a Dream" isn´t the first 8 bars based more than loosly on "Darn That Dream" ? 

[mikeweil]

That Blue Note twofer was my intoduction to Herbie, IIRC. But I replaced it with the CD reissues of single albums and then the Blue Note box set.

[T.D.]

20 hours ago, Milestones said:

So does anyone know why Herbie has not released an album in 14 years?

I burned some time investigating this and could find nothing. At his age (82 or 83?) album not likely IMO.

This 2022 interview alludes to a recording in the works, fwiw. https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/herbie-hancock-interview-140341/

Edited January 24 by T.D.

[medjuck]

I have tickets to see him in April so he's still performing.

[Milestones]

Which is why it's strange that there have been no releases for such a long stretch.

 

 

[JSngry]

Maybe he figures there's more money for him in touring behind the legend than there is in touring behind a record or two that might lessen it?

And/or maybe there's no money in making records today, period.

Besides, what's left for him to do and/or prove? He's old, most likely financially secure, and his legacy is secure. What better way for him to live it out than doing what he wants on his terms?

Good for him! 

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Maybe he figures there's more money for him in touring behind the legend than there is in touring behind a record or two that might lessen it?

And/or maybe there's no money in making records today, period.

Besides, what's left for him to do and/or prove? He's old, most likely financially secure, and his legacy is secure. What better way for him to live it out than doing what he wants on his terms?

Good for him! 

👍  

[Gheorghe]

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

Maybe he figures there's more money for him in touring behind the legend than there is in touring behind a record or two that might lessen it?

And/or maybe there's no money in making records today, period.

Besides, what's left for him to do and/or prove? He's old, most likely financially secure, and his legacy is secure. What better way for him to live it out than doing what he wants on his terms?

Good for him! 

That´s it ! It was the same with let´s say Dizzy 40 years ago. He was old but kept touring, much more than recording in the studio. And I think touring as a famous elder statesman is much more pleasant than all those almost inhuman itineries you had as a young man. You fly first class, you are VIP, you have the best hotels, suites, swimming pool, Spa, massage,  more time to relax and you enjoy high life.  

[Milestones]

Yes, but most jazz artists are prolific up until the end, sometimes putting out mostly concert recordings.