Herbie Hancock Album-By-Album Thread

To me, My Point of View obviously suffers from a lack of compositional inspiration compared to Takin' Off, but is in every other respect a major step forward. The band sounds like a unit, rather than a bunch of guys filling in the hard bop blanks. This is interesting, to me anyway, because on paper you wouldn't expect Mobley, Grant Green or even Donald Byrd to hook into what Herbie was doing at this stage. But they all do, and IMO this is one of Mobley's more impressive showings.

Herbie himself sounds way more in command than he was the previous year. He is rapidly approaching his full artistic maturity, and happily the arrangements give him more space.

I just wish the tunes engaged me more. Herbie at this stage was just on the verge of squaring the circle compositionally, realizing that his spontaneous inventions could be more durable than his ideas worked out with a T square on graph paper. You can hear it happening on "King Cobra".

 

I'm blown away by Thrust in 4.0 DSD. Kevin Grey did a tremendous job and I was surprised by the aggressive use of surrounds. The keyboards and percussion has such good presence. My old Japanese import CD didn't come close to this. Gained new appreciation for this album for sure. I had always held the previous album in much higher regard. I will have to rethink my position on that and may just prefer Thrust now! Thanks to all who recommended this.

 

Well alright! Great to hear. It's one funktastic album.

 

My Point Of View was a more than decent follow-up to a remarkable debut, but IMO Herbie's next release, Inventions and Dimensions, is a lot more interesting.

One of the things I like about My Point of View is the 'Grant Green connection' (albeit only on two tracks). Herbie Hancock played piano on two sessions with Grant Green for Feelin' the Spirit and Goin' West a couple of months before My Point of View was recorded and Grant Green is returning the favor here. For Herbie's work as a sideman Feelin' the Spirit and Goin' West deserve a mention in this thread!

 

Feeling' the Sprit was my introduction to Grant Green because I picked it up due to Herbie being on it.

Became a huge Grant Green fan after that. Herbie's playing on Feelin' the Sprit is really cool for those not familiar with it.

 

I agree completely about Inventions and Dimensions. IMO, that's where HH really takes off. Paring his group down to bass, percussion, drums and keys really opens up his sound. Herbie really challenged himself on this album, a lot of which was improvised.

 

I was just listening to this album last weekend, my wife and kids were digging it and we played it 2 times through. I realized that I really like the sound of a small group with drums and an extra percussion player. I was listening to a tenor player's album on Friday, may have been Ammons' Boss Tenor, and it had drums plus congas and I realized that it was something that I really dig.

I hadn't joined the forum yet when this thread first started but I would've been on board for a Herbie album thread, I have many but not all his albums, but I'm sure the majority of them I don't have could be streamed. I read the first page of the thread (still need to hit pp. 2&3), and I wasn't quite sure after p. 1 if this is now just a general Herbie or still an ABA.

Perhaps you could place an "ad" for this thread in the listening to Jazz or Beat threads and more people would see it. I just happened to find it because it was at the top of the forum threads on a rare occasion that I went to that page.

 

Welcome, Jason!
The thread has only been revived within the last week or so. When you go through some of the older posts (from a few days ago) you'll see that the question of whether or not this is an ABA or an appreciation thread has been mentioned. At this point, I think we've agreed to give things a bit of time to see how contributors would like to proceed. Right now, we're loosely doing an ABA, but if the thread regularly veers more toward the all-purpose direction, we'll ask a gort to change the title.

 

I post occasionally on both the Jazz Beat and the Conversation threads, but I wasn't sure if it was good form to "advertise" another thread on those boards. Is there a standard forum protocol for that?

 

Me too. On a personal note, I started playing with a percussionist instead of a drummer in my little combo and have really enjoyed the dynamic it brings to the music.

 

Interesting odd record. I think it is the only record where Paul Chambers played semi-free music (although reportedly he subbed for Ron Carter with Miles's Second Quintet at least once).

 

I'll listen to it on Apple Music. Does anybody have any clue why The Blue Note Years compilation completely ignores this album? None of the tracks made it to the compilation album.

 

Thanks alamo (haven't ever caught your actual name from the Jazz convo)!

Yeah, that's why I was wondering, based of of the first page it sounded like there wasn't a consensus on whether to do a general vs ABA thread. I've never caught on to an ABA thread from the start and I've never participated in one--the Miles thread was already past Jack Johnson by the time I discovered it--so I'd personally be game for an ABA, but whatever shakes loose is cool.

Yeah, good point, I suppose that's not the best thread etiquette (threadiquette?).

Cool, I occasionally play with a pianist who, unlike myself, can actually play jazz. It's very informal playing in that we usually play when or kids get together to play, so a percussionist, rather than a drummer, would be a nice addition (guess we'll have to recruit one of the kids to learn bass cuz a bassist would be nice too).

I had to put on Takin' Off, an album which I just got a month or so ago. Interestingly, until I got this album, I never realized that the version of Watermelon Man from the Headhunters album was not the first. Or, perhaps I did, but it never fully registered.

 

Looking up the tracklist, my guess is that they wanted to find tracks that appealed to people new to jazz, and this album doesn't fit that bill very well. Nothing from The Prisoner is there either, probably for the same reason.

 

I would think mentioning it, using a link like this - Herbie Hancock Album-By-Album Thread within the context of your post, especially if it has triggered recent Hancock listening (that you are posting out) would be perfectly fine, and would be enough to advertise this thread to fans of the artist.

 

"Theory" as in music theory? If so, regarding what exactly?

 

Imagine if Herbie Hancock had recorded Takin' Off and My Point of View and then disappeared. Two solid albums in the Blue Note tradition. We might remember him as we do Tina Brooks, and these albums might be as cherished as True Blue. It's only because Herbie reached such extraordinary heights that we look back on his first two albums as somewhat disappointing.

 

Well... that's because Thrust is better.

 

I wonder why I keep seeing (cd) copies of Takin' Off, Maiden Voyage, Empyrian Isles and Speak Like A Child everywhere but never the other Blue Notes. Bet there is a genial answer to this question.

 

There was definitely an evolution with these Blue Note albums that is quite unique. He was very young when he signed on, and was growing rapidly. You can hear his evolving conception on each of these recordings, and his stylistic nods. My theory as to why nothing from I&D and Prisoner made it on the compilation: the theory of compilations suck. Much better to discover music by the individual albums, and never truer than with Herbie's Blue Note output. I think the choices of Hancock and Alfred Lion with regard to the compositions they should tackle and the supporting musicians who would tackle them is also instructive and distinguished the work from that of the Miles quintet.

 

Yes, music theory, but I took another look and there isn't as much of that as I remembered. Some, but easily skipped without losing the narrative. The book is academic in tone, though, so not really a narrative history anyway. There's a lot of detailed analysis of individual tracks and solos throughout the Mwandishi years, so if that doesn't float your boat proceed with caution. There's a lot of great info, but it isn't a breazey read like Possibilities.

 

Those are the four with the most recognizable songs, probably. No real "hits" on the other BN's.

 

Nice, no, I'd be very interested in the theory and analysis, both books sound interesting. It's been a while since I've read any sort of (auto-)biographical book on a musician. The last thing was an audiobook of Miles' auto-b, but it must've been an abridged version because it felt like it was really short.

I've been trying to catch up to Inventions today, I've listened to Takin Off and My Point of View a few times (it hasn't been the most focused listening as I've been supervising the kids and taking them around various places while listening). I have the Takin Off Music Matters 45 but, due to aforementioned kid activities, I've been streaming the album instead of listening to the 45, only option for Point is steaming. I don't find anything disappointing about either album, going in without any sort of expectation helped perhaps. The non-blues/R&B numbers really hit the Hancock vibe that I've come to know and enjoy.

 

I've loaded the HH Blue Notes on my iPod to review on a long flight tomorrow, so hope to read and contribute to the thread soon(and once I get accustomed to the new time zone). Most of my Hancock BN catalog is on CD, a mix between RVG's and earlier editions. I thought the piano on MPOV was a little murky, so wondered if it improved with the MM edition.

 

I'm sure it was just Siri futzing with you via autocorrection, but I like the term "copypastas" and wish it was a thing.