Herbie Hancock appreciation thread

[Deleted]

Great Interview.

Herbie Hancock also played on Jack Johnson. I believe he walked into the studio straight from doing his shopping and sat down at the "keyboard" brown paper bag on his lap and played a chord that became central to the vamp.

What amazes me about a musician like Hancock is how humble he is compared to the art-rockers......

But maybe that's just the media...

[fange]

Oh yeah, his demeanor is incredibly humble in interviews; when i consider how many DOZENS of great albums he has under his own name, let alone his playing with others, the self-aggrandizing of some rock stars with much less to crow about is hilarious.

[fange]

'Toys'

[fange]

Just bought a ticket to see Herbie Hancock on the HK leg of his current world tour, and I am over the moon; one of my favourite musicians of all time. There aren't many 84-year-olds I would be willing to pay good money to see live, but Herbie is one for sure.

Can't wait until the end of October!

[loveless]

I only really started digging into his catalog in the past year, but...how quickly that lead to a state of a) "I need everything he ever played/released/played on in the 690s/early to mid 70s", and b) "How did I ever live without all of these records?".

Even my recent immersion in mid/late 60s Miles Davis (which keeps spreading outwards in both directions) has its basis 100% in stumbling upon the tidbit that Davis had introduced Hancock to the electric piano during the Miles in the Sky sessions.

But, yeah - the 60s stuff is fantastic (I mean, Jesus, including Blow Up and Fat Albert Rotunda, he's got 9 albums as bandleader, all incredible...to say nothing of his work with Davis, Byrd, and...well, who else?)...all of these sort of classic, stirring, gentle melodies...but...I resisted the 70s for reasons that I can't really reconstruct at this point (maybe an irrational fear of some workmanlike funk, which...so clearly not the case). More fool me, cause...something like Mwandishi I could listen to every day, and Crossings, Head Hunters, and Sextant aren't anything short of fantastic.

I'm stunned that he's still out here doing it onstage, and...well, I suppose I'd better go see him if I get the chance.

[fange]

Sept 4, 2024 12:57:10 GMT loveless said:

But, yeah - the 60s stuff is fantastic (I mean, Jesus, including Blow Up and Fat Albert Rotunda, he's got 9 albums as bandleader, all incredible...to say nothing of his work with Davis, Byrd, and...well, who else?)

Oh man, it's mind-blowing just how many great sessions he plays on in the 60s for Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Grant Green, Kenny Dorham, Bobby Hutcherson, Roy Ayers... and as you say that's not even counting Miles' groups! Amazing. And he would often contribute tunes to those artists/sessions, I'm sure much to the delight of the guy whose name was on the session box, because a Herbie tune is pretty much guaranteed to be top shelf shiz.

Here's a personal fave from the Jackie McLean Vertigo sessions, the deeply soulful, swinging blues 'Yams'...



So damn beautiful.

[fange]

And this is from Byrd's Royal Flush album, written and recorded in '61 when Herbie was 21.

'Requiem'

[loveless]

So, this is my jam at the moment (both song and album).

Now, I'd just been enjoying it at full strength when, at some point I looked up at the Now Playing rack and started reading the list of names on the album cover...Tony Williams, Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Donald Byrd...like...how the hell is that even a thing?

In "rock and roll"/guitar era based music/pop/etc., almost always the idea of an all star lineup, supergroup, collaboration gives me "the ick". You just picture all of these people blanding out (at best) at full strength to WORSE than no apparent effect. Things like Travelling Wilburys or HSAS (don't look it up) or Asia or GTR, the Firm, Audioslave, Chickenfoot, Whitesnake, Bad English, Damn Yankees, Golden Smog, Velvet Revolver, Super Heavy, Oysterhead, these awful charity records (I mean, I hope to die before ever hearing The Smokin' Mojo Filters).

Somehow in jazz...I dunno...generally, the reverse is true (not to "jazzsplain" to anyone who knows this shit way better than I do)...you don't see a whole murderer's row of bandleaders on a session and think "Dear God, no!". Most of the best Miles Davis and Coltrane bands were FULL of people who could write or had already been writing their own ticket.

[fange]

Excellent stuff. And totally agree on the all-star lineup thing in jazz (at least in the 50s-70s) vs. rock (60s onwards), but similarly find it hard to explain. Was it that their relatively stronger playing skills, in general, made their ability to mesh almost immediately easier? Flocked if i know; I just savour the many, many fruits left to us to enjoy.