Herbie Hancock

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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.

tylerw, Monday, 11 February 2008 20:56 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

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.

Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 15 March 2008 05:04 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

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.

Tuomas, Thursday, 22 October 2009 14:09 (fourteen years ago) link

four months pass...

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

Touch! Generations (stevie), Wednesday, 3 March 2010 14:23 (fourteen years ago) link

Mr. Hands is really amazing.

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

Adam Bruneau, Wednesday, 3 March 2010 18:56 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

seandalai, Thursday, 4 March 2010 01:31 (fourteen years ago) link

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

fart and crazy swag (The Reverend), Thursday, 4 March 2010 03:43 (fourteen years ago) link

tenuous connections are the basis for artmaking
(xpost)

Death Wish SNDTRK rules, no doubt
(xxxpost)

WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 4 March 2010 08:01 (fourteen years ago) link

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.

Tuomas, Thursday, 4 March 2010 14:44 (fourteen years ago) link

"my favourite album of all time"

Tuomas, Thursday, 4 March 2010 14:44 (fourteen years ago) link

three months pass...

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"

tylerw, Monday, 21 June 2010 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link

That sounds made up.

_Rudipherous_, Monday, 21 June 2010 19:58 (thirteen years ago) link

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...

Tuomas, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:08 (thirteen years ago) link

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"?

tylerw, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:16 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Tuomas, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:16 (thirteen years ago) link

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

tylerw, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link

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?

Tuomas, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:27 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

tylerw, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:30 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Tuomas, Monday, 21 June 2010 20:33 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Worth waiting for the fannypunch at 4.02 (stevie), Monday, 21 June 2010 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link

That sounds made up.

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

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

hills like white people (Hurting 2), Monday, 21 June 2010 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Born In A Test Tube, Raised In A Cage (unperson), Monday, 21 June 2010 23:07 (thirteen years ago) link

one month passes...

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

tylerw, Tuesday, 17 August 2010 16:18 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

seandalai, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link

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.

Theodore "Thee Diddy" Roosevelt (Hurting 2), Thursday, 19 August 2010 00:02 (thirteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

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)

russ conway's game of life (a passing spacecadet), Sunday, 1 May 2011 12:30 (twelve years ago) link

so awesome, both those videos

banjee trillness (The Reverend), Monday, 2 May 2011 00:39 (twelve years ago) link

"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"

iglu ferrignu, Monday, 2 May 2011 07:03 (twelve years ago) link

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".

Tuomas, Monday, 2 May 2011 08:34 (twelve years ago) link

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.

iglu ferrignu, Monday, 2 May 2011 09:22 (twelve years ago) link

one month passes...

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.

tylerw, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:18 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

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

Binder, Binder & (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 6 January 2013 07:28 (eleven years ago) link

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

Binder, Binder & (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 6 January 2013 07:31 (eleven years ago) link

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

Binder, Binder & (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 6 January 2013 07:35 (eleven years ago) link

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'

Binder, Binder & (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 6 January 2013 07:45 (eleven years ago) link

five months pass...

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...

Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Thursday, 6 June 2013 04:43 (ten years ago) link

(crickets)

anyway it's really good

Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Friday, 7 June 2013 07:53 (ten years ago) link

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.

Brad C., Friday, 7 June 2013 22:30 (ten years ago) link

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

r|t|c, Friday, 7 June 2013 22:46 (ten years ago) link

Oh weird, Gluck teaches at the school literally one block away from me. I've seen him play a few times, really good stuff. I'll have to check out that book.

Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 7 June 2013 23:54 (ten years ago) link

hmm, it'd have to be damn well-written for me to want to read an entire book on mwandishi

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Saturday, 8 June 2013 02:11 (ten years ago) link

izzat warner brothers (incl fat albert), as on the album-threefer for that era, or just mwandishi?

j., Saturday, 8 June 2013 03:13 (ten years ago) link

Hurting - it covers quite a bit of ground, including Herbie's involvement with Donald Byrd and Miles, and touches on stuff that led up to the Mwandishi era like Maiden Voyage (which I actually prefer to anything he did with the Mwandishi band). Some deep analysis of a lot of (pre-Mwandishi) tunes and Herbie's general style, very thorough, if a tad academic in places. Sorta like a less intimidating version of the Robin Kelly book on Monk in that its very short on anything resembling gossip, but long on analysis (and hyperbole, natch). I'm a little over halfway through and I've been sorta savoring it at this point.

Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 8 June 2013 03:54 (ten years ago) link

three months pass...

Inventions and Dimensions is such a neat record.

#fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Sunday, 15 September 2013 01:18 (ten years ago) link

it is expensive

tylerw, Sunday, 15 September 2013 01:53 (ten years ago) link

It's definitely not as cheap as some of the complete album collections coming out, but this does look like a great collection of music.

I've got most of the earlier funky Hancock records on Colombia. The thing that catches my eye is the eight Japanese releases, some of which are some more traditional jazz group setups. The trio record with Ron Carter and Tony Williams is one I would definitely like to hear.

earlnash, Sunday, 15 September 2013 09:08 (ten years ago) link

The Japan only-album with the Kimiko Kasai is very cool, nice to see that it's included. It has some nice & soulful vocal arrangements of Herbie's 70s jazz-funk tunes, and Kasai is a surprisingly good in interpreting those. The price for the comp is awfully steep though, especially considering that nowadays you can buy most of Herbie's Columbia albums like 5 bucks a piece (i.e. for less than their price-per-disc is on the compilation).

Tuomas, Sunday, 15 September 2013 20:56 (ten years ago) link

one year passes...

read herbie's autobio a couple weekends back -- pretty good stuff, though there were definitely parts i wish were longer (and other parts I wish were shorter).
*spoiler*
the period where he's addicted to crack in the 90s is bizarre! and a bummer! just really at odds w/ pretty much everything else in the book... but i'm glad he seems to have made it out of all that intact.

tylerw, Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:19 (nine years ago) link

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.

birdistheword, Friday, 29 March 2024 19:47 (three weeks ago) link

synth tones are nearly as bad as Zawinul's

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

Rich E. (Eric H.), Friday, 29 March 2024 20:40 (three weeks ago) link

Came across this brutal takedown by Peter Margasak🕸.


They were all brutal takedowns around then.

I’ve said this before, I just don’t think Herbie’s career was especially well understood for a long time, particularly by jazz critics who basically thought he just completely sold out and ditched jazz. I actually wrote a letter to The Wire that got published after 1+1 came out – not because I thought it was particularly brilliant but rather because I thought it drew conclusions about his career while ignoring the records that were only released in Japan. For instance, on Spotify you can now hear how Dedication and Directstep show him continuing to explore electronics, trio records with Carter and Williams show he hadn’t really abandoned jazz and with Flood how Herbie clearly viewed it all part of some continuum.

While I wouldn’t say any of those records are on par with his best work for Blue Note, they’re way more interesting than he was given usually credit for at that point in his career. It’s less that there was some “dramatic drop-off” than he was just pursuing a number of paths and threads simultaneously – some commercial, some experimental and some straight ahead. Which I completely respect.

Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 30 March 2024 20:18 (two weeks ago) link

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.

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 1 April 2024 02:53 (two weeks ago) link


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