everybodydigs#67 Herbie Hancock - My Point of View

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

In this 1963 recording session, pianist Herbie Hancock had a chance to work with a septet that could highlight his burgeoning skills as an arranger and composer. With Hancock’s inventive sense of voicings already defined, it’s a happy mix of inspired charts and spirited blowing that fuses the hard bop of trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley with the bluesy approach of guitarist Grant Green and Hancock’s own fluent soloing and incisive comping. Also notable is the explosive young drummer Tony Williams, who was already showing the distinctive fire that would soon ignite Miles Davis’s band. The track “Blind Man, Blind Man” is a funky romp that clearly builds on Hancock’s remarkable success with the earlier “Watermelon Man” and is a harbinger of the pop success he’d later enjoy with the Headhunters. –Stuart Broomer

Personnel: Herbie Hancock (vocals, piano); Grant Green (guitar); Hank Mobley (tenor saxophone); Donald Byrd (trumpet); Grachan Moncur III (trombone); Tony Williams (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Blue Note seldom ventured far from the spontaneity of small-group jazz, but they put special resources into this 1963 project, letting trumpeter Donald Byrd and arranger Duke Pearson achieve some stunning results with a septet and the voices of the Coleridge Perkinson Choir. Gospel and blues influences had become more prominent in jazz through the work of Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderley, but Byrd explored the connection further here, combining the rich and wordless voices with a potent rhythm section, fluent soloists, and his own brassily declarative trumpet in an authentic and compelling way. Donald Best’s bell-like vibraphone and Kenny Burrell’s soulful guitar further emphasize the music’s wealth of associations. The moods vary from the declamatory power of “Elijah” to the deep blues of “Beast of Burden” and the luminous hymn of Pearson’s celebrated “Cristo Redentor” (a little-recognized master of jazz composition, Pearson also wrote “Idle Moments” for a Grant Green session), but the tunes are all realized with energy and feeling. The band seems to take special inspiration from the choir’s carpet of sound, and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and pianist Herbie Hancock also make substantial contributions. The session has always sounded fantastic, but Rudy Van Gelder’s remastering has added even greater luster. –Stuart Broomer

Rappamelo’s favorite track: