When Herbie Hancock Went Disco

I think the problem with most of these albums is that even though Herbie wanted to embrace disco/r'n'b, he wasn't willing to discard his jazz roots altogether, which results in a mix that is a bit disappointing for both jazz and r'n'b/disco fans.

On his three electro-funk albums of the 80s I think he was more successful in embracing a new style, though that may be because they are allegedly more Bill Laswell/Material productions than proper Herbie solo albums.

They are great nevertheless. Among my favourite "jazz" albums of all time and IMO even better than "Headhunters".

It is indeed baffling why the "Watermelon Man" sixties hitmaker felt the need to go pop.

Most of those VSOP issues were Japanese so it's probably no surprise that they got short shrift in the States. Over in Britain we got both sides of Herbie so consequently when "I Thought It Was You" went top 20 we all went WTF? in a pleased way.

I think Herbie was taking the lead from Miles, in his flexibility of adapting (and/or creating) new styles of music. Miles was always looking ahead, Hancock did too. Herbie even put out a jungle-esque record in the late 90's(?) that was hailed as being pretty good. So disco is no stretch. I like 'Monster' for the Gahan Wilson cover though.

"magic number", "i thought it was you", etc Herbie killed it on the disco tip.

I've recently pulled down a bunch more of these records. A few reactions:

That vocoder duet between Herbie and Patrice Rushen on Lite Me Up is pretty great.

That last cut on Sunlight is very experimental indeed. The idea that the same person who would like "I Thought It Was You" would like this crazy dissonnt, modal jam ("Good Question") is crazy.

Incidentally, tho it's technically outside of the purview of this thread, the "Cantaloupe Island" on Dedication from 1974 w/ the ARP bassline and space keyboards is amazing, as is "Nobu" which features him jamming on Rhodes over a sample-and-hold riff on the 2600.

Monster, I forgot, is his first "rock" record -- but it's only rock insofar as those early 80's records Giorgio Moroder produced for Donna Summer are rock. They have guitars, that's about it. I like some of it, tho...

Stars in Your Eyes is the absolute shit (the extended mix especially). I hadn't thought of it as a rock album, apart from the opening and closing tracks.

Also, "Getting to the Good Part" on Lite Me Up is another gem, with its vocoder goodness.

Overall tho, it's amazing how utterly trashed these records were by critics in their day -- to these ears, they're a pretty solid collection of electro funk records, hardly anything worth getting angry about, with some moments that are downright exceptional.

Fuckin’ a, I just saw Herbie in Portsmouth and the guy played songs from Sunlight and Thrust like he just wrote them, did a deep space vocoder a capella solo for five minutes, and concluded things on a ridiculously funky keytar “Chameleon” jam. Dude is utterly undiminished at 82.

oh he’s still so goddamn amazing live

imagine how fun it is to play if it's that much fun to watch.

All I want in life is more songs that sound like Stars In Your Eyes. Amazing vibe on that one.

Dude jumped in the air with his keytar at the Kennedy Center

!

Any excuse...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-NgnympxAE

Xpost not very high admittedly but for his age pretty respectable.

did the same in Central Park last week. Great set with Terence Blanchard and Lionel Loueke.

This is one I found on Youtube a couple years ago that I have listened to a few times. Good sound for a radio broadcast.

I think I remember that Jaco did some playing with Herbie, but I did not know this existed until a couple years ago.

Herbie Hancock w/ Jaco Pastorius on bass - Live in Chicago 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUaws6zjWZY

Herbie is on Jaco's debut too, that I know.

yep, this is awesome. thanks for posting!

Oh well then, this thing is just ridiculous how good it is. Herbie, Ron Carter and Tony Williams with a whole slew of all stars. Japan loves some jazz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZwHYX7_fgA

It's awesome that Herbie was doing stuff like Rockit and then going over to Japan and just blowing the hell out of some postbop jazz. Bad MF'er.

that's fantastic, thanks for sharing

It's awesome that Herbie was doing stuff like Rockit and then going over to Japan and just blowing the hell out of some postbop jazz. Bad MF'er.