Herbie Hancock

man...i really hated herbies last few albums....but i do love his 60s and 70s work. used to have manchild on a cassette and listen all the time. his solo on chameleon is so good

The newest one is pretty good I think.

Has anyone heard the hip-hop album he made in 1993, Dis Is Da Drum? Some friend of mine had it back in the 90s, and I remember liking it, but I haven't heard it since.

I'm sitting at home with a flu, and I just put on Lite Me Up, and today it's sounding really good to me. So well-mannered and smooth and nice. I guess some people would say it's lacking an edge, but why should all music sound edgy? I've been listening to a lot of early 80s R&B/urban contemporary exactly because it's often decidedly non-edgy and non-raw, and I think that's a perfectly valid and often interesting approach to R&B. As Lite Me Up proves.

Nice live version of Chameleon over at Destination Out.

http://www.destination-out.com/media/tracks/Hancock_Chameleon.mp3

Well then.

Let's talk about Lord Xenu, Ned.

A vision!

(I am rather glad I was wrong about him being a Scientologist, that had depressed me.)

He was/is a Buddhist, I think. But unlike many of his jazz contemporaries, I don't see that big a sprititual or religious influence in his music, he's always seemed rather down-to-earth.

Oh, I just read he won the Best Album Grammy this year. Congrats for him! Has anyone actually heard the new album, is it good? It seems to have gotten quite good reviews, but since I have little interest in Joni Mitchell, I hadn't really thought of buying it.

The River is close to great. It deserves a million grammys. or not, i don't know what makes an album the best album of the year ... but it is good -- even if you're not super into Joni, there's some great playing from Hancock and Wayne Shorter ... And the guest appearances are actually pretty solid -- Tina Turner brings it! It's certainly better than a lot of the latter day Hancock I've heard.

We really need to do a thread on his post-Headhunters, pre-Laswell electronici funk records with the vocoders and shit. It's like a whole world exists there.

Out of those albums, I think only Sunlight and Mr. Hands are really essential. (And even with Mr. Hands you have to be able to like its rather, er, soft 80s sound in order to appreciate it.) The rest of them usually have one or two great tracks, but the rest is not spectacular. I think Herbie was trying a bit too hard to appeal to the popular taste of that era, so the sound and the arrangements on those albums are often kinda too polished and neat.

the death wish soundtrack is pretty amazing, isn't it?

Mr. Hands is really amazing.

Recently got "Feets Don't Fail Me Now", and it's wonderful.

Barely a mention of Sextant? It's such a spectacular album that every so often I just put it on, sit down and go "wow" for 40 minutes. Back in school many years ago, I structured an essay on Macbeth around the opening track (I'd been reading the Wire too much and thought that tenuous connections were the basis for art criticism). My English teacher didn't like it much.

pretty sure if you look around ilx, there has been about a fuck-ton of sextant love

tenuous connections are the basis for artmaking
(xpost)

Death Wish SNDTRK rules, no doubt
(xxxpost)

Yeah, there's plenty of Sextant love on other threads. It won the Herbie album poll we had:

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

And it was the only Herbie album to place in the ILM alternate 1970s poll:

TURN THIS MUTHA OUT! It's the Alternate 1970s Albums Poll on ILX — Results Thread

For me, it's pretty much favourite album of all time.

"my favourite album of all time"

blecch, this sounds awful (and I liked the river)
The Imagine Project
An all-star effort from Herbie Hancock -- like his previous record, a set that's filled with guest appearances from really dynamic range of talents! This collaborative change in Herbie's later years is a real surprise, and it's definitely helped him explore music with the sort of freedom to genre-step that he had back in the 70s -- maybe not as cutting edge as in those days, but still surprisingly strong at the core. India Arie sings on a version of "Imagine", which also features Konono and Jeff Beck; John Legend and Pink sing on "Don't Give Up"; Ceu is on "Tempo De Amor"; The Chieftains play on "The Times They Are A Changing"; Los Lobos and Tinariwen are on "Tamatant Tilay/Exodus", Dave Matthews sings and plays on "Tomorrow Never Knows"; James Morrison guests on "A Change Is Gonna Come", and Chaka Khan, Wayne Shorter, and Anoushka Shankar all appear on "The Song Goes On"

That sounds made up.

Yeah, sounds pretty terrible. I'm not sure why Herbie has been so keen on making these kind of "eclectic" all-star albums during the last years - is it just for the cash, or does he genuinely believe they're musically worthy? The tune he made with Chaka Khan on Future 2 Future was dope though, maybe their new collab is worth listening too...

yeah, you wonder how these things are put together? does his manager just say, oh yeah, Pink, she's like the new janis joplin and herbie's like "whatever"?

Btw, why hasn't anyone written a proper biography of Herbie? Or at least I've never come across one. You'd think such an important and controversial figure in jazz would deserve his own book? The only Herbie book I know of is the one that's about Head Hunters only; it's okay, but kinda overtly theoretic.

is his life not very interesting, at least aside from music? (not that that would stop a bio from being written ...)

Maybe so. Its just that I realized he's one of my favourite musicians ever, but I know hardly anything about him as a person, except that he's is/was a Buddhist... and apparently he's quite nice in real life? I dunno, even if he hasn't lived a rock star life, it'd be nice to read about his thoughts and experiences.

Another musician I really love who has apparently never had a biography written about him is Curtis Mayfield... Who, from what I've gathered, was also a nice and gentle person. Is it so that nice musicians are not good book material?

i dunno, i'm sure there's a good book about both of those dudes somewhere in there, even if they weren't crazy/drunk/high, etc. I mean, I'd love a good analysis of herbie's various stages/phases, along with maybe how each phase fit into the music of the time/pop culture of the time. might not be a straight bio, but his career overall is a pretty fascinating one.

Yeah, I'd definitely read a book like that. The Head Hunters book was trying to do something like what you're describing, but it was only about that one album.

Another musician I really love who has apparently never had a biography written about him is Curtis Mayfield...

i read a pretty dreadful curtis biog a few years back - the extent to which the author dwelled on differences between labels on specific pressings of curtis LPs was intolerable. would love to read a great one too.

That sounds made up.

― _Rudipherous_, Monday, June 21, 2010 3:58 PM Bookmark

We should have an invent-the-next-Herbie-Collabo-album thread.

Apparently Sony is putting together a 35-disc box of Herbie's entire Columbia output. I don't think I need that, but maybe someone here does.

hey looks like there *is* a book coming out about the mwandishi years: http://www.electricsongs.com/mwandishimusic/

That sounds interesting! I's still like someone to write an overall look of Herbie's career and life though, not just one phase of it.

There was a great article about the Mwandishi group in the Wire many years ago, all I can remember of it is that they were constantly broke and they played some epic live jams. Must dig it out again if I can find it.

I always thought Herbie was kind of under-lionized, probably just because his life story doesn't have the drama or weirdness of a Trane/Miles/Mingus/Monk/Bird type figure.

This youtube of Herbie Hancock showing Quincy Jones the Fairlight CMI has been making me unreasonably happy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6QsusDS_8A

(there's a clip in the "related videos" sidebar of him showing it to some kids on Sesame Street too, which is also making me happy, but is less srs business for srs thread)

so awesome, both those videos

"metal beat" offa "sound system" is one of the most deliriously deranged mutant funk jams ever - scarred for life by this when i boughht "sound system" on cassette as a teenager looking for breakdancing jams like "rockit"

Yeah, I was just listening Sound-System yesterday, and realized for the first time that "Metal Beat" doesn't even have a proper melody - just some simple basslines and relentless beats. Even though electro was always heavy on the beat, most electro singles (including "Rockit") did have hummable melodies, whereas "Metal Beat" only has the spine of a rhythm.

"Hardrock", on the other hand, sounds like a pretty shameless attempt to produce a new "Rockit".

i love the way the scratching is relentlessly crappy throughout. chuffachuffachuffachuffa - i'm guessing the majority of it is a scratch sample in a fairlight or summat. love those art of noise metal gong orchestral stabs, tho.

just watched the elvis costello spectacle show w/ herbie. fun stuff! on netflix instant now. for a guy who's over 70, herbie is aging really well--looked younger than elvis anyway. he also seems like a genuinely nice guy -- if anyone in the music world could get away with having a cooler-than-thou attitude, it'd be him. but he comes across as a chill guy who enjoys music, trying different stuff, reaching new audiences, etc.

have loved head hunters forever. just bought maiden voyage at salzer's on the strength of ilm rec's. pretty amazing. it is a weird progression to go head hunters -> maiden voyage, though

every album should prbly have a blue note-esqe commentary on the back btw

I live near the pacific ocean, and the last 2 vinyl purchases are "Fred Neil" and "Maiden Voyage." The sea's influence no doubt

man, is this good. I need to check that ~best jazz albums poll~ thread and see if this made it. was distracted over crimbus break by all that back and forth over 'spiritual hat'

Anyone pick up the book by Bob Gluck about the Mwandishi era? Bout a third of the way through and it's pretty great so far...

(crickets)

anyway it's really good

I liked that book. I was surprised how fast the Mwandishi thing happened and how quickly it was over. Gluck is good on the music and also on the (somewhat depressing) business side.

must give endless thanks to tylerw for pointing me in the direction of inventions and dimensions some time ago, have been really quite obsessed with it ever since

Btw I just happened to read this about Round Midnight recently, a blog from Kirk Lightsey, who played piano for Dexter Gordon for a number of years:

Back in New York when Dexter was working on the movie “Round Midnight,” he didn’t call me for the gig. There was a pecking order and a placement in NY at the time. There were people in line for that gig before me. Herbie Hancock and Cedar Walton . . .. So many fingers. For the movie, of course, I had been playing for five years with Dexter, so I was on the list. But I wasn’t high enough up in the pecking order. For the movie or the pecking order.
https://www.coming-and-going.com/post/how-it-all-ended-with-dexter

His performance at Big Ears was full of energy and the band killed it (esp Lionel Loueke on guitar). The set was on the 70s fusion-y side. He even played "Come Running to Me"!

I can definitely see why some might find the Headhunters era sound offputting. There's something a bit shrill or nasal bout it btw the soprano sax and wah guitar and clavinet type tones. I'm only in the right mood for it sometimes.

In my experience Headhunters is one of those recs that ppl with no jazz experience REALLY enjoy (as opposed to say Kind of Blue where the response is much more dutiful). It’s got some bangin’ tunes and is v funky, I can understand why it’s a hit, I love it too.

it's news to me that anybody doesn't like the Head Hunters LP

seriously

It's definitely news to me that anyone doesn't like that record but likes Thrust and Man-Child. A take I haven't heard.

Hip-hop songs that sample tracks from Head Hunters > Head Hunters

smdh

some of you do not own any corduroy sportscoats and it shows

xps My partner's in grad school and sometimes gets student discount offers for various events around NYC. Hancock's Lincoln Center/David Geffen Hall show popped up as one last fall. I almost forgot about it until this past week when it showed up on our calendar and I forgot we maximized the deal by getting front row seats. I've never seen Hancock this close and it was REALLY close - the guy next to me joked it was like sitting in coach on an airplane because the stage was inches from our feet. So good - the only downside was they were allotted just 90 minutes and they've been playing a full two hours everywhere else, so the set did feel a bit truncated. (Hancock actually wrapped up the penultimate number after checking his watch and telling us through his vocoder that "I'm sorry but we only have five minutes left!") Regardless, if you've never seen them before (and my partner hadn't) definitely go, but FWIW, the setlist covers a lot of the same ground as their recent tours. At this point, I'd love to see an all-acoustic show partly to change things up.

synth tones are nearly as bad as Zawinul's

You should ask yourself if this is the genre for you tbh

Came across this brutal takedown by Peter Margasak🕸.

synth tones are nearly as bad as Zawinul's

You should ask yourself if this is the genre for you tbh

I'd venture that all the big fusion keyboard players sounded better on organs and electric pianos than synths, at least for a few years, which is one reason why I like the Mwandishi stuff best.
I don't feel the same about the big name prog keyboardists, who tended to be equally tasteful or tasteless whatever instrument they played.