Best Herbie Hancock (As Leader) Album Poll of 1960s/70s/80s era.

SEXTANT

I don't bother with anything before "Head Hunters". "Sextant" has its moments, but is generally too weird.

Geir ya killin' me!

maiden voyage 4EVER

call me weird but I like the disco-era vocoder jams better than mwandishi

The Mwandishi records are all sorts of awesome. If you like Herbie Hancock records of that period including Sextant and Headhunters, definitely look up some Eddie Henderson.

Maiden Voyage is a fantastic album, even though all of Herbie's Blue Note stuff is good, I think it is the best of the lot. Maiden Voyage is like Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil in that it is a solo record away from the Miles Quintet that is every bit as good as the best records made with Davis.

Another Geir wtf tonight lol

I'm surprised Tuomas hasn't heard Mwandishi.

So Headhunters ftw again?

Oh, and saying all that: I voted for Thrust I think. It may not be his best record overall -- but it's the best of the Headhunters records.

Also, Secrets is pretty underrated in that sense -- I have it on some weird 2-CD two-fer with Sextant and it has lots of the great String Ensemble spaciness of the Mwandishi/Headhunters years but also the first instance, I believe, of vocoder.

Also worth noting, "Nobu" from Dedication is one of his best all-analog ventures -- and completely solo.

Thrust is great and I don't think Secrets is as bad as people make out.

It would almost be easier to do this by era

So what would everyone's favourite era be then? Mine is definitely early to mid 70s.

The same for me, I guess, from Mwandishi to Sunlight.

It's an awesome period.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

So many great albums here, get those votes in!

So Tuomas, is Headhunters going to get hardly any votes as everyone wants to avoid the 'canon' album?

Another predictable vote for <i>Sextant</i>.

So Tuomas, is Headhunters going to get hardly any votes as everyone wants to avoid the 'canon' album?

Well, it won the previous poll...

Has anyone read the book about Head Hunters (this is the correct spelling, I think, though confusingly enough the band is called Headhunters without the space)? I though it was okay, but maybe a bit too over-reaching and academic. I liked the book about A Love Supreme (which was in the same series) more.

Another predictable vote for <i>Sextant</i>

me too

yesterday I listened to Speak Like A Child and if I hadn't already voted for Maiden Voyage...

I just hope there's a reasonable amount of votes.

Get voting!

Anyone fans of the 70's VSOP acoustic stuff he did inbetween the electronic albums? I have never checked that stuff out. Worth it?

I remember some essay or review calling it "arena jazz", which seems pretty accurate. I only heard one album but it sounded like 60s Miles but less crazy and heavier (for Tony Williams' part, anyway).

Worth checking out?

I saw Herbie play with his acoustic quartet in Edinburgh in 2005 I think it was.

it's been so long, i can't really say. with that lineup, it can't be <i>bad</I>...can it?

True, I will try find it cheap somewhere.

Another predictable vote for <i>Sextant</i>

me too

And again. Is Sextant the new Head Hunters?

If it wins, it deserves it. Sextant is among my top 5 records ever, it's just amazing.

It's kinda sad that it was practically the last Mwandishi recording (if you don't count those Eddie Henderson LPs which, like I mentioned upthread, are good but not quite as good as Sextant). Who knows what might've happened if that band would've sticked together?

Btw, Mwandishi fans might want to check the duo record Patrick Gleeson and Bennie Maupin released some years back, Driving While Black. It's quite different from the seventies stuff (there's no other players on it, so everything besides Maupin's reeds is electronic), but interesting nevetheless.

Sextant is a wonderful album and if it or Head Hunters wins it , it will deserve it.

90 mins left to vote

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So Head Hunters won the last one and only got 3 votes this time. Typical ILM lol. Glad other albums got so many votes though. Over 50 votes in total isn't bad either.

I wonder how a Miles Davis vs Herbie Hancock 1970-1975 poll would do.

Wow, I'm ashamed I had never checked out Sextant until now. This shit is sick.

It's awesome stuff.

I wonder how a Miles Davis vs Herbie Hancock 1970-1975 poll would do.

Shall I do that?

I like picturing Herbie messing around in a huge room full of synthesizers and making his amused Herbie faces.

Have you seen the back cover of Sunlight?

Btw, is it true that Miles was angry for Herbie for him managing to do the fusion thing Miles had already started, only with more commercial success than Miles ever had?

i'm sure miles was slightly annoyed about that. what's really interesting is that Miles actually *opened* for Herbie on several occasions in the mid 70s (post Head Hunters I presume) -- an arrangement that must've been awkward for all parties involved.

Wayne Shorter probably had equal if not bigger commercial success with Weather Report, I'd imagine.

I got a new (old) turntable and was able to listen to Thrust last night, it is awesome. The Palm Grease break must have been sampled in a ton of rap tunes, right?

I thought, this being ILM, "Mwandishi" might have won this

I love Actual Proof. Mike Clark is tops on that one.

I thought that The Blood Donor might have won.

So Marcello is back,eh?

brian blade is the man

Man-Child is the best of the Headhunters-era albums, but Secrets is really good, too.

My wife bought a copy of this for me in maybe 2005-2006 when I was mostly trad jazz and, because it wasn't five stars in the AMG book I had, I didn't give it much play. When I came back to it a year or two ago (now huge fan of Herbie) I was like, "what was I thinking"?

this = Man-Child

Oh yeah Blade might be my favorite contemporary drummer and p sure he is just high on life.

When I saw Shorter in 2011 (Voice review here) Blade was definitely one of the main attractions.

The main set was a 75-minute medley. It began and built slowly, with heavy chords from Perez setting the mood. Shorter hung back at first, nestled in the curve of the grand piano’s body, listening. Patitucci seemed more concerned with establishing a counter-melody than building rhythmic momentum, and Blade’s playing, too, was all accents, with little or no traditional forward movement. It all had the feel of modern chamber music, neither swinging nor bluesy. The drummer made his move soon enough, though. He quickly revealed himself as the most aggressive of the four players (with Perez coming in a close second), erupting more than a few times with a power many rock drummers would envy and creating a thunderous, tympani-like rumble even when playing with mallets.

...

As the lengthy piece moved from one melody to the next, it started to feel like a series of semi-climaxes with no real payoff — the sound of four men feeling each other out while a paying audience sat and paid respectful witness. But around the 50-minute mark, Blade took an absolutely apocalyptic drum solo, his kick sounding like a trap door slamming shut. It not only woke up anyone inside Town Hall or down the block who might have been drifting, it provided a crescendo for the music as a whole; from there, it was a slow, tentative glide back down to earth.

Not a single mention on this whole thread of "Fat Albert Rotunda"? Is it the jazz funk or the Cosby associations?

Can't deny the results - I once wrote a pretentious secondary school essay based oh a minute of Sextant but Feets, Don't Fail Me Now is perfect too

“tell me a bedtime story” from fat Albert rotunda is all-time

Thrust is really really great too. All that Mike Clark and Paul Jackson shit is head exploding.

Bedtime Story on Fat Albert Rotunda is another example of one good ballad on an otherwise indifferent Hancock album.

thrust is incredibly poppin. actual fucking proof

There’s really nothing else like that track

mr. hands is the best one

The line up on that record is insane.

features ron carter and jaco lol

Sheila E!

for me, "sound system" is the one. i went to it looking for breakdance sounds in 1984 and it split my tiny brain wide open. "metal beat" still sounds absolutely mentalist

Mr. Hands is phenomenal

Sextant was my introduction and remains my favorite, but I dig all the '70s albums that placed well in the poll.

Herbie is making his now (apparently) annual trip to the Kennedy Center this June. Of course I will be there.

Tempted to do a "best of the rest" poll for the ones that got zero votes. Of the ones I know, I'd probably pick either Inventions and Dimensions, Fat Albert Rotunda, or Flood.

I got heavily into Eddie Henderson's mid-70s solo albums last year, which are a fine companion to the Mwandishi stuff - same band even!

I wrote a piece about VSOP last year.

Flood is an insane set that goes OFF!!!!! So good

Inventions and Dimensions

severely underrated album - really interesting lineup

Tempted to do a "best of the rest" poll for the ones that got zero votes. Of the ones I know, I'd probably pick either Inventions and Dimensions, Fat Albert Rotunda, or Flood.

I've been tempted to do a poll of his best "sell out" tracks (intended in a positive way; I adore his disco/dance/funk/break stuff)

the disco records are all soooo dope. i think i love lite me up the most

Those Eddie Henderson records are dope. I'll stan for *Realization* all day long. More Dr Patrick all the time.

“mr. hands” is cool. aside from the amazing cover art works well with london-style “jazz dance” records (ie the uptempo latin inflected stuff with trad instruments)

i lean heavily on “spiraling prism” and “calypso” when i play it out

sorry to jump around here+i'm positive someone has brought it up before now BUT-

if you want even more super hot 70s headhunters/hancock/miles adjacent action, bennie maupin's slow traffic to the right from 1977 is about as good as they get. funky, spacey, mellow, but mad.

probably old news, putting here for posterity mostly. highly recommended either way.

I've been listening to that Maupin record recently, since his debut is maybe my favourite ECM record. I like it better than the funk-era Hancock I've heard, and it walks an interesting line between being tasteful and gently exploratory, and also trying to sell some records in the context of late 70s fusion.