Herbie Hancock Album-By-Album Thread

I like all of Herbie's Blue Note dates. From the 70s, Headhunters is too undemanding for my taste, but the earlier Mwandishi and Sextant are pretty interesting.

 

Love King Cobra.

The key tracks on this in my opinion are What If I Don't which became a Real Book standard and the tune A Tribute To Someone, while he was showing his Bill Evans influences on that track his own style comes through in a beautiful way which we get to hear more of when he would join the Miles Quintet. A transition album but like all his other Blue Note albums it's well worth owning. Plus you get Grant Green and Donald Byrd, what more do you need?

 

I think it's a bad idea. One of the points of ABA threads, at least for me, is to learn about the albums i am not familiar with, so please include all the albums of at least the 60s and 70s, and do them one by one in order. If interest is low for a certain album just move to the next. The reason the Miles thread is struggling isn't just because of lack of interest, but also because there's a new album posted like once a year.

 

I seen this thread and noticed it wasn't getting the love Herbie deserves so I stepped in as I adore this mans music.
How about one album a day ? Everyone feel free to jump in.
I have all(I think) of his stuff up to the mid 80's then I'm in need of a education.

 

I just gave Takin' Off a fresh listen. I think the band does "color within the lines" on this date, and Herbie isn't as adventurous as he would be in a couple of album's time, but Herbie was trying to make a commercial record. Donald Byrd had told him that he should make an album that was half for himself and half for the record company, meaning that he would typically include some of his own compositions balanced with standards. Hancock thought that if he could write something commercial himself, the record execs wouldn't expect him to record cover tunes and he'd make out on the publishing end with his own stuff. Not a bad call, considering Watermelon Man was a big hit.
At any rate, I think this is a top notch record in terms of good playing and good tunes, but no one seems to be pushing their own ability as a player...everybody plays it pretty safe. Herbie stretches a bit on Driftin', but he stays inside, for the most part. Honestly, in terms of exploratory playing, Higgins might push the envelope a little more than the others.

 

Trying to remember if Hancock and Billy Higgins recorded together again after this. Looking it up, I found that they did at least once - on the 'Round Midnight soundtrack in the 80's.

 

Incidentally, fans of early Hancock should hear Donald Byrd's Free Form with the same band as Takin' Off, except Byrd and Wayne Shorter rather than Freddie and Dexter. It is not hard to imagine Miles hearing that album and thinking, I'll have some of that.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but please let alamo54us conduct his own thread, especially now that it seems to be ramping up. he'a doing a fine job, and he's certainly been waiting long enough for the opportunity.

speaking of which, alamo54us, do you want to do this as an ABA in the end, or is this destined to be a general appreciation thread? someone could ask a gort to change the thread title if it's the latter to cut down on confusion.

 

That may be one of the few audio books worth hearing. The only other one I own is Steve Martin reading his Pure Drivel book.

 

no problem

 

Tell you what, let's keep going in the current direction: an ABA, but with some latitude. I don't mind if the conversation takes us to some interesting places as I'm here to learn. I'll try to keep things on track by suggesting the next album, but I don't mind if the discussions pull us around in the catalog, or explore Herbie's session work that was happening concurrently. I'll do my best to get us back to the "one" if things drift too far astray, but if that happens a lot and folks are still enjoying themselves, then we can have a gort change this to an all purpose appreciation thread. Fair enough?

For now, since we've discussed Empyrean Isles a bit along with Takin' Off, let's continue to discuss the first four albums:

Takin' Off
My Point of View
Inventions and Dimensions
Empyrean Isles

I'd also be interested in comments about the sessions Herbie was playing on during this period (someone mentioned Free Form, for example).

Thanks, everyone!

 

This 1963 release was HH's second album as a leader. I'm giving it a fresh listen tonight.

 

Superb game plan!

 

No love for Crossings?
"Sleeping Giant" fascinates me. That song is full of nooks and crannies. It's my favorite Mwandishi track.

 

I don't think this can be considered a Herbie title, although it is listed on Wikipedia as his first live album. Has anyone heard it?



Herbie Hancock, Thad Jones, Ron Carter, Jerome Richardson, Grady Tate, Jonathan Klein - Hear O Israel: A Prayer Ceremony in Jazz - Amazon.com Music

 

I haven't heard it . But I'll check it out - thanks.

 

I have never heard it, but Discogs also lists it as part of his discography.

 

I gave My Point of View a couple of new listens. Though the album sort of follows the Takin' Off template, I think we're starting to see some things with this album that reflect where Herbie might be heading. He's writing for a larger group, though every person doesn't appear on every track. The album was recorded in March of 1963, not quite two weeks after HH played on Hank Mobley's No Room For Squares (if my chronology is correct), and he'd shortly be playing on Miles' Seven Steps to Heaven. I find his playing on MPOV to be a little more evocative than on TO. He's still, for the most part, playing inside, but elements of impressionism are evident in his ballad playing and we can hear, on the blues numbers, how he and Grant Green use repetition to bring tension to their solos. That's not uncommon, but HH has always used that to great effect.

Without getting into a cut by cut analysis, I think My Point of View shows growth as an artist, but it isn't until the next album that Herbie really breaks out.

 

This is one I've been looking for but I've never heard it either.

 

This album is a real gem! It's a combination of modal jazz with Hebrew song and prayer. Highly recommended if you're into late 60's spiritual jazz.

Although the project was conceived and composed by a 17 year old jazz-obsessed son of a Massachusetts-based rabbi, Jonathan Klein, the all-star line up of top-flight New York jazz musicians is led by Herbie Hancock, so I think you can consider this album part of the Herbie Hancock discography.

The album was originally issued as a private press in very limited numbers (maybe a few hundred copies). The cover art posted by GregM is not the original, but the cover art from the reissue. This is the original cover-art (that the guys reissuing the album considered 'terrible'):

 

Interesting, thank you. The description on AMZ raves about it, but I don't place as much stock in that as in your post. Can you tell me if the cantor and rabbi in the recording are that kind of stodgy East Coast school of very operatic vibrato, or is it more of a relaxed vocal delivery? In any case I went ahead and ordered the CD from Italy.

Here's the description from Amazon: "Hear, O Israel: A Prayer Ceremony In Jazz CD. Originally privately pressed in 1968 in minute numbers and only for sale at Friday night prayer concerts, Hear, O Israel has to be one of the rarest and most extraordinary jazz recordings to come out of New York. Written by a 17 year-old and played by one of the greatest jazz line-ups of all time, this really has to be heard to be believed. And this is the first-ever proper release of this extraordinary album. Back in 1968, a 17 year-old named Jonathan Klein had written an alternative concert for Friday Night Jewish prayers. It had been performed a few times at various Friday night gatherings, and been received well. The decision was made by a Jewish charitable organization to take this concert a little further and record it properly. An extraordinary line-up was put together (we have no idea how this came about), and the recording was made. It was pressed in very, very limited numbers without a real label, with no catalog number and was only offered for sale at various prayer gatherings. Without real distribution, the LP disappeared from view very fast, and even today there is little or no reference to it anywhere except on an obscure Herbie Hancock recordings web site. Jonny Trunk first came across the album in the late 1990s, and again recently in 2005. Because it is so unusual and so incredibly beautiful, he decided to get in touch with everyone involved, and officially licensed the recording for its first-ever worldwide release. Musically, the album is like no other, with its wholly unique mixture of spiritual New York jazz, Hebrew praises and modal phrases. Led by Herbie on piano, from the moment the album starts, its striking originality will hit you, and for the next 40 minutes you may find yourself lost in subtle prayer that you might not have believed possible. The jazz moves, the voices soar, hallelujah! Music written by Jonathan Klein (who today may or may not be a tutor at the Berklee School of Music); Herbie Hancock (piano), Jerome Richardson (flute, tenor and alto sax), Thad Jones (trumpet and flugelhorn), Ron Carter (bass), Jonathan Klein (French horn and baritone) and Grady Tate (drums). The recording also features Antonia Lavanne (soprano), Phyllis Bryn-Julson (contralto) and Rabbi David Davis (reader)."

 

Make sure to give us your review once you've had a chance to listen. I hunted down another relative obscurity, the "Kawaida" album from 1970 and was disappointed by the sound quality, which I was told is uniformly poor no matter the pressing.

 

A link to some more information on Hear, O Israel:
Hear O Israel - Milken Archive of Jewish Music

Some comments about the reissue:
Hear O Israel

and a podcast:
Jonathan Klein’s Hear O Israel: Herbie Hancock’s maiden voyage with Jewish music

For those of you trying to keep the chronology straight, Hear, O Israel is from 1968, so a little ahead of the first four albums we've been examining.

 

On the topic of lesser known Hancock projects, here is "Deck the Halls" from 1969, included on 80's reissues of the Columbia album Jingle Bell Jazz. Band includes Hancock and Chick Corea on keyboards and Woody Shaw on trumpet. No idea how this came about.

 

The first seven tracks have women singing in what I presume is Hebrew (but could just as well be wordless vocals), while the last two track also feature short bits of scripture reading in English. It's all very relaxed with a nice spiritual vibe

In this case the Amazon description is pretty accurate (IMHO).

Edit: I just found a couple of tracks on YouTube: