He is one of those musicians that wants to have tried out about everything before he dies. As a funkateer, what I'm interested in specifically is his funk period : 1973-1978 in which the man made (some of) the best music I've ever, ever heard. Mindblowing.

Everything pointed out that one day or another, Herbie Hancock would make some of the freshest music ever. When he was just a little baby, his parents noticed that he would stop crying if music was played ! If he was already selective at that age, is not known. From 1963 on, he played in the jazz quintet of His Jazzines Miles Davis. He wrote the score for a lot of movies, including Blow Up (he was getting fresher and fresher...) and after he wrote a song to a Special Bill Cosby Show called 'Hey Hey Hey, it's Fat Albert' (some sleazy title alright)...it was finally bingo. After easy conventional jazz, experimental free-form stuff, African roots rythms with his band Mwandishi, Herbie Hancock finally arrived at his destiny : smokin' jazz-funk with inventive melodies, fat bass, creative manipulation of electronics and unexpected experiments with unexpected experimentals by unexpected experimentalists. Just keep on doin' it.

Records like the million-seller HeadHunters, the out-of-this-world-and-not-coming-back-for-another-11-minutes-18-seconds Thrust and the F.A.T. Man-Child are essential to any record collection from jazz to r 'n b to funk to ambient and back to jazz again. Legendary tracks like 'Sly' with its jungle-like percussion, 'Palm Grease' that is maybe the best track of the best artist that jazzfunk has ever known and fatness itself : 'The Trailor' with a slammin' bass guitar, is music from a cutting edge that is so sharp you could shape a 50-carat diamond with it. It is no understatement to say that Herbie Hancock was the first to display creativity in music using electronics. And honestly, who doesn't uses electronics in nowadays music ? When we add 'in a creative way', we can drop 90% of it of course. But just remember today's music wouldn't have sounded the same if it weren't for Herbert Jeffrey Hancock. And that's the biggest compliment one can ever give to a musician. Apart from mentioning his name on this page, of course.

The band that backed Herbie Hancock during that period and recently released an album of their own, deserves to be mentioned too, because perfect music is only possible through perfect synergy of the Master with... Bennie Maupin (on sax and related things to blow with), Bill Summers (percussion), Paul Jackson (Bass with a big B) and Mike Clark (drums). Together they form the HeadHunters and you better remember that name.

But it would be a shame to shed the light only on his funk period : Herbie Hancock is a role-model for any musician who dares to go further than the audience expects, time and time again. Not only trying out new styles, but also not being scared from a little succes and at the same time -no matter the fact that he made Number One hits ('Rockit') or received MTV-awards- still staying true to fresh, fat'n funky music. Amen. And who can explain the philosophy of Herbie Hancock better than the man himself ? :

"Over the years I've made decisions about things, especially music, and have been scoffed at and ridiculed and opposed, but I knew I had to do these things." (Ebony, 1987)
"Sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn't, but I had to stand up for all of it or else I couldn't play any of it. I learned how to be courageous from that experience." (People, 1987)

Actually, I just found a guy who can explain the philosophy of Herbie Hancock better than the man himself :

"In playing acoustic bebop jazz as well as electronic fusion, in composing sweeping film scores alongside playful advertising jingles, Hancock knowingly risks disappointing those camps that wish to claim him as their darling. But only by straddling so many styles and interests can Hancock tap his copious talent for versatility and allow his moods and feelings to find their truest expression in music."

Nice going Isaac, now give me another blow and put that spaced out track on, will you - what was it again? Yeah right : 'Sun Touch', Herbie Hancock 1975, extra-strong stuff for extra-fresh people.

(text by Outspan, 1998)
(pics by say vegin)

Herbie Hancock in Concert, read our review and have a look at the pictures.