Released in 1973, Sextant was Herbie Hancock’s first album on Columbia Records. It was, and remains extremely complex, and a harmonically and rhythmically challenging musical statement. Hancock was no stranger to electronic music, having used synthesisers extensively during his short time with Warner Bros. Records, but Sextant took his sound to a new level, and arguably pushed the boundaries of the growing jazz-fusion movement further than any of his contemporaries.

Sextant was by far the furthest Herbie Hancock ever pushed himself musically. While a select few were collectively wowed by his new approach, Hancock alienated the bulk of his audience, who found his sound extremely inaccessible. Made up of just three tracks, the album recalls many of Hancock’s critically acclaimed Blue Note recordings, but also points toward the commercial success he would enjoy in the 80s with Future Shock and Sound-System, among others. However, with Sextant, commercial success would have seemed a long way away.

Ironically, Hancock’s first recording on Columbia would be his last recording with his Mwandishi-era group, with Sextant’s poor album sales forcing him into the mainstream with Head Hunters.

During late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his “V.S.O.P.” quintet, which featured all the members of the 1960s Miles Davis quintet except Davis, who was replaced by trumpet giant Freddie Hubbard. There was constant speculation that one day Davis would reunite with his classic band, but never did. VSOP recorded several live albums in the late 1970s, including VSOP (1976), and VSOP: The Quintet (1977).

In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who had replaced him in the Miles Davis band a decade earlier. He also released a solo acoustic piano album titled The Piano (1978), which, like so many Hancock albums at the time, was initially released only in Japan. (It was finally released in the US in 2004.) Several other Japan-only releases have yet to surface in the US, such as Dedication (1974), VSOP: Tempest at the Colosseum (1977), and Direct Step (1978). Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004, and included an entire second concert from the July 1979 tour.

From 1978-1982, Hancock recorded many albums consisting of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians like Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on the last track) (1978). Singing through a vocoder, he earned a British hit, “I Thought It Was You”, although critics were unimpressed. [1]. This led to more vocoder on the 1979 follow-up, Feets, Don’t Fail Me Now, which gave him another UK hit in “You Bet Your Love.” Albums such as Monster (1980), Magic Windows (1981), and Lite Me Up (1982) were some of Hancock’s most criticized and unwelcomed albums, the market at the time being somewhat saturated with similar pop-jazz hybrids from the likes of former bandmate Freddie Hubbard. Hancock himself had quite a limited role in some of those albums, leaving singing, composing and even producing to others. Mr. Hands (1980) is perhaps the one album during this period that was critically acclaimed. To the delight of many fans, there were no vocals on the album, and one track featured Jaco Pastorius on bass. The album contains a wide variety of different styles, including a disco instrumental song, a Latin-jazz number and an electronic piece in which Hancock plays alone with the help of computers.

Hancock also found time to record more traditional jazz whilst creating more commercially-oriented music. He toured with Tony Williams and Ron Carter in 1981, recording Herbie Hancock Trio, a five-track live album released only in Japan. A month later, he recorded Quartet with Wynton Marsalis, released in the US the following year.

After leaving Columbia, Hancock took a break. In 1991, three years after Perfect Machine was released, his mentor Miles Davis, died. Along with friends Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, they recorded A Tribute to Miles which was released in 1994. The album contained two live recordings and studio recording classics with Roney playing Davis’s part as trumpet player. The album won a Grammy for best group album. He also toured with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny in 1990 on their Parallel Realities tour, which included a memorable performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1990.

Hancock’s next album, Dis Is Da Drum released in 1994 saw him return to Acid Jazz. 1995’s The New Standard found him and an all-star band including John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette and Michael Brecker interpreting pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and others. A 1997 duet album with Wayne Shorter titled 1 + 1 was successful, the song “Aung San Suu Kyi” winning the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and Hancock also achieved great success in 1998 with his album Gershwin’s World which featured inventive readings of George & Ira Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars including Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Shorter.

In 2001, Hancock recorded Future2Future, which reunited Hancock with Bill Laswell and featured doses of electronica as well as turntablist Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. Hancock later toured with the band, and released a live concert DVD with a different lineup which also included the “Rockit” music video. Also in 2001, Hancock partnered with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane called Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall recorded live in Toronto. The threesome then toured together, and have toured on and off through 2005.

After the sometimes “airy” and decidedly experimental “Mwandishi” albums, Hancock was eager to perform more “earthy” and “funky” music. The Mwandishi albums — though these days seen as respected early fusion recordings — had seen mixed reviews and poor sales, so it is probable that Hancock was motivated by financial concerns as well as artistic restlessness. Hancock was also bothered by the fact that many people did not understand avant-garde music. He explained that he loved funk music, especially Sly Stone’s music, so he wanted to try to make funk himself.

He gathered a new band, which he called The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason. The album Head Hunters, released in 1973, was a major hit and crossed over to pop audiences, though it prompted criticism from some jazz fans. The album splintered barriers between jazz and popular movement, and was instrumental in molding the ‘jazz-funk’ sound.

Despite charges of “selling out”, later ears have regarded the album well: “Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital three decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop.” Allmusic.com entry

Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, Thrust, the following year. (A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first two Head Hunters releases was released in 1975 as Flood. The record has since been released on CD in Japan.) This was almost as well-received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album (called “Survival of the Fittest”) without Hancock, while Hancock himself started to make even more commercial albums, often featuring members of the band, but no longer billed as The Headhunters. The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for Return of the Headhunters, and a version of the band (featuring Jackson and Clark) continues to play live and record.

In 1973, Hancock composed his second masterful soundtrack to the controversial film The Spook Who Sat By The Door. Then in 1974, Hancock also composed the soundtrack to the film Death Wish. One of his memorable songs, Joanna’s Theme, would later be re-recorded in 1997 on his Wayne Shorter duet album 1 + 1.

Hancock’s next jazz-funk albums of the 1970s were Man-Child (1975), and Secrets (1976), which point toward the more commercial direction Hancock would take over the next decade. These albums feature the members of the “Headhunters” band, but also a variety of other musicians in important roles.

Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education; Hancock studied from age seven. His talent was recognized early, and he played the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in D Major at a young people’s concert with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.

Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher. Instead, around high school age, Hancock grew to like jazz after hearing some Oscar Peterson and George Shearing recordings, which he transcribed on his own time, and which developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo’s:

...by the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo’s, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that’s when I really learned some much farther-out voicings -like the harmonies I used on ‘Speak Like a Child’ -just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer’s arrangements for the Hi-Lo’s. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept… He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that’s where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.

Hancock also listened to other pianists, including Don Goldberg (also a prodigy and a Hyde Park High School classmate), McCoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans, and studied recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Lee Morgan.

Hancock began his studies as an engineering major at Grinnell College but switched to music after two years. He left Grinnell one course short of graduation in 1961, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. (Grinnell awarded Hancock an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972). The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin’ Off for Blue Note Records in 1962. “Watermelon Man” (from Takin’ Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaria with a hit single, but crucially Takin’ Off was to catch the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.

1. “Watermelon Man” – 7:09
2. “Three Bags Full” – 5:27
3. “Empty Pockets” – 6:09
4. “The Maze” – 6:45
5. “Driftin’” – 6:58
6. “Alone And I” – 6:25
7. “Watermelon Man” (alternate take) – 6:33 (not on original album)
8. “Three Bags Full” (alternate take) – 5:31 (not on original album)
9. “Empty Pockets” (alternate take) – 6:27 (not on original album)
   
   Herbie Hancock — piano
   Freddie Hubbard — trumpet
   Dexter Gordon — tenor saxophone
   Butch Warren — bass
   Billy Higgins — drums

1. “Blind Man, Blind Man” – 8:15
2. “A Tribute To Someone” – 8:40
3. “King Cobra” – 6:51
4. “The Pleasure Is Mine” – 4:00 (incorrectly labelled as 8:00 on the CD reissue)
5. “And What If I Don’t” – 6:30
6. “Blind Man, Blind Man” (alternate take) – 8:21 (re-release only)
   
   Herbie Hancock – piano
   Donald Byrd – trumpet
   Grachan Moncur III – trombone
   Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone
   Grant Green – guitar
   Chuck Israels – bass
   Tony Williams – drums
   

1. “Palm Grease” (Herbie Hancock) – 10:38
2. “Actual Proof” (Herbie Hancock) – 9:42
3. “Butterfly” (Herbie Hancock) – 11:17
4. “Spank-A-Lee” (Herbie Hancock/Mike Clark/Paul Jackson) – 7:12

• Herbie Hancock
  • Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, Hohner D-6 Clavinet, Arp Odyssey Sythesizer, Arp Soloist Sythesizer, Arp 2600 Sythesizer, Arp String Sythesizer
• Bennie Maupin
  • Soprano & Tenor Saxophone, Saxello, Bass Clarinet, Alto Flute
• Paul Jackson
  • Electric Bass
• Mike Clark
  • Drums
• Bill Summers
  • Percussion
    

1. “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” — 7:27
2. “Sun Touch” — 5:09
3. “Traitor” — 9:36
4. “Bubbles” — 8:59
5. “Steppin’ in It” — 8:36
6. “Heartbeat”— 5:15

• Herbie Hancock
  • synthesizer, piano, electric piano, Arp Odyssey, Arp Pro Soloist, Oberheim, Fender Rhodes (piano), Clavinet
• Harvey Mason – drums
• Dewayne McKnight – electric guitar
• Ernie Watts – flute and saxophone
• Wah Wah Watson
  • synthesizer, voice bag, and electric guitar
• Stevie Wonder – harmonica, piano
• Dick Hyde – tuba, bass trombone
• Henry E. Davis – electric bass
• Mike Clark – drums
• Bill Summers – percussion
• David T. Walker – electric guitar
• Bud Brisbois – trumpet
• Garnett Brown – trombone
• Jay DaVersa – trumpet
• James Gadson – drums
• Jim Horn – flute and saxophone
• Richard Hyde – trombone
• Paul Jackson – electric bass
• Louis Johnson – electric bass
• Bennie Maupin
  • bass clarinet, alto flute, saxello, bass flute, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, and percussion
• Wayne Shorter – alto and soprano saxophones

1. Watch It
2. Speak Like a Child
3. Watcha Waitin’ For
4. Look
5. Milestones

1. “Rain Dance” – 9:16
2. “Hidden Shadows” – 10:11
3. “Hornets” – 19:35
   
   Herbie Hancock – piano, Fender Rhodes, Hohner D-6 clavinet, mellotron
   Bennie Maupin – soprano sax, bass clarinet, piccolo, afuche, hum-a-zoo
   Dr. Eddie Henderson – trumpet, flugelhorn
   Julian Priester – bass trombone, tenor trombone, alto trombone, cowbell
   Buster Williams – electric bass, acoustic bass
   Billy Hart – drums
   Dr. Patrick Gleeson – ARP 2600 and soloist
   Buck Clarke – percussion

1. “Ostinato (Suite For Angela)” – 13:10
2. “You’ll Know When You Get There” – 10:22
3. “Wandering Spirit Song” – 21:26
   
   Mwandishi / Herbie Hancock – Fender Rhodes piano
   Mchezaji / Buster Williams – Bass
   Jabali / Billy Hart – Drums
   Mganga / Eddie Henderson – Trumpet, flugelhorn
   Mwile / Bennie Maupin – Bass clarinet, alto flute, piccolo
   Pepo Mtoto / Julian Priester – tenor trombone,bass trombone
   

Mwandishi is the eleventh album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1970. It is one of Hancock’s first departures from the traditional idioms of jazz as well as the onset of a style aimed to capture wider audiences and produced for mass-appeal, similar to his 1973 album, Head Hunters. In addition, Mwandishi was Hancock’s attempt at continuing the musical principles and styles he began playing with Miles Davis on In A Silent Way. Hancock’s previous attempts at jazz-rock fusion included Fat Albert Rotunda, an album conceived solely for Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

Mwandishi was principally recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey between October 4 and December 8, 1969, and Wally Heider Recording Studios, San Francisco, California on December 31, 1969. It was originally recorded by the Mwandishi Sextet that was built around Herbie Hancock and progressive notions of funk, jazz, and rock during this time period.

The tracks on Mwandishi are “Ostinato,” which is in 15/4 rhythm, “You’ll Know When You Get There”, and “Wandering Spirit Song”. “Wandering Spirit Song” features Hancock’s extensive use of tension and release, whereby he builds the tension of the song by increasing the amount of musical voices and increasing crescendos, only to release the tension with long held out chords on his synthesizer.

Mwandishi is a Swahili name Hancock adopted during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The members of the Sextet each adopted a Swahili name: Mchezaji/Buster Williams, Jabali/Billy Hart, Mganga/Eddie Henderson, Mwile/Bennie Maupin, Pepo Mtoto/Julian Priester, and Ndugu/Leon Chancler.

1. “Wiggle-Waggle” – 5:51
2. “Fat Mama” – 3:49
3. “Tell Me a Bedtime Story” – 5:01
4. “Oh! Oh! Here He Comes” – 4:08
5. “Jessica” – 4:13
6. “Fat Albert Rotunda” – 6:29
7. “Lil’ Brother” – 4:26
   
   Herbie Hancock – keyboards, piano
   Johnny Coles – trumpet, flugelhorn
   Billy Hart – drums, percussion
   Joe Henderson – alto saxophone, flute
   Garnett Brown – trombone
   Albert “Tootie” Heath – drums
   Buster Williams – bass, percussion

1. Main Title (Blow Up) – 1:32
2. Verushka (Part One Version) – 2:43
3. Verushka (Part Two Version) – 2:11
4. Butchie’s Tune (LP Version) The Lovin’ Spoonful – 2:45
5. Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind (LP Version) The Lovin’ Spoonful – 2:01
6. The Naked Camera (LP Version) – 1:46
7. Bring Down The Birds (Outtake) – 3:24
8. Jane’s Theme (LP Version) – 5:05
9. The Thief (LP Version) – 3:13
10. The Kiss (LP Version) The Yardbirds – 4:16
11. Curiosity (LP Version) – 1:30
12. Thomas Studies Photos (LP Version) – 1:12
13. The Bed (LP Version) – 2:36
14. Stroll On (LP Version) The Yardbirds – 2:46
15. End Title (Blow Up) (LP Version) – 0:51
16. Am I Glad To See You (Outtake) Tomorrow – 4:27
17. Blow Up (Outtake) – 1:53
    
    Herbie Hancock -piano
    Jim Hall – guitar
    Joe Newman, Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
    Phil Woods – alto saxophone
    Joe Henderson – tenor saxophone
    Paul Griffin – organ
    Ron Carter – bass
    Jack DeJohnette – drums

1. Revolution – 01:39
2. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Reprise) – 04:10
3. Revenge – 01:43
4. At the Lounge – 01:28
5. Training Day – 02:30
6. The Stick Up – 01:56
7. Main Theme – 01:24
8. Underground – 02:03
9. The Spook Who Sat by the Door – 02:52
10. The Big Rip Off – 04:25
11. Recruiting – 00:50
12. The Pick Up – 02:04
13. It Begins – 00:36
14. Dialog (The Plan/CIA Spook/Best of the Best/Step Outside/Junkie/Man & Machine/Bad Move/I’m Black/Network) – 02:27

1. “Maiden Voyage” – 7:53
2. “The Eye of the Hurricane” – 5:57
3. “Little One” – 8:43
4. “Survival of the Fittest” – 9:59
5. “Dolphin Dance” – 9:16
   
   Herbie Hancock — Piano
   Freddie Hubbard — Trumpet
   George Coleman — Tenor saxophone
   Ron Carter — Bass
   Tony Williams — Drums
   

1. “Well You Needn’t”
2. ”’Round Midnight”
3. “Clear Ways”
4. “A Quick Sketch”
5. “The Eye Of The Hurricane”
6. “Parade”
7. “The Sorcerer”
8. “Pee Wee”
9. “I Fall In Love Too Easily”

Herbie proves he’s still got it!!

Herbie Hancock – piano
Ron Carter – bass
Tony Williams – drums
Wynton Marsalis – trumpet (“he had a big, brassy tone…”)

Originally being centered on soundtrack music that Hancock wrote for the Bill Cosby Saturday morning cartoon show, It became the turning point for Hancock to move towards the Jazz-funk style. A perfect example of classic songs, such as “Tell Me a Bedtime Story” (which later turned up also on the 1978 Quincy Jones album, “Sounds…and Stuff Like That” in a more funk-esque type song) and “Jessica” (which later turned up on the 1977 Hancock album, VSOP: The Quintet.)

1. “Magic Number”
2. “Tonight’s the Night”
3. “Everybody’s Broke”
4. “Help Yourself”
5. “Satisfied With Love”
6. “Twilight Clone”

Cool cover, not cool album. Why do I own this? Like I said, cool cover, and just for completion’s sake.

1. Saturday Night (Cohen, Hancock, Rubinson) – 7:15
2. Stars in Your Eyes (Capuano, Christopher, Hancock, Parker) – 7:07
3. Go for It (Cohen, Hancock, Mouzon, Rubinson) – 7:36
4. Don’t Hold It In (Cohen, Ragin) – 8:00
5. Making Love (Hancock, Mouzon) – 6:24
6. It All Comes Around (Cohen, Ragin, Rubinson) – 5:49
   
   Sad to say, but this album… not very good!

Head Hunters is an album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 on Columbia Records. The album is a key release in Hancock’s career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz fusion.

Head Hunters followed a series of experimental albums by Hancock’s sextet: Mwandishi (1970), Crossings (1971), and Sextant (1972), released at a time when Hancock was looking for a new direction in which to take his music:

“I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth….I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.” (Hancock’s sleeve notes: 1997 CD reissue)

For the new album, Hancock assembled a new band, The Headhunters, of whom only Bennie Maupin had been a sextet member. Hancock handled all synthesizer parts himself (having previously shared these duties with Patrick Gleeson) and he decided against the use of guitar altogether, favouring instead the clavinet, one of the defining sounds on the album. The new band featured a tight rhythm and blues-oriented rhythm section, and the album has a relaxed, funky groove that gave the album an appeal to a far wider audience. Perhaps the defining moment of the jazz-fusion movement (or perhaps even the spearhead of the Jazz-funk style of the fusion genre), the album made jazz listeners out of rhythm and blues fans, and vice versa. The album mixes funk rhythms, like the busy high hats in 16th notes on the opening track “Chameleon”, with the jazz AABA form and extended soloing.

Of the four tracks on the album “Watermelon Man” was the only one not written for the album. A hit from Hancock’s hard bop days, originally appearing on his first album Takin’ Off, it was reworked by Hancock and Mason and has an instantly recognisable intro featuring Bill Summers blowing into a beer bottle, an imitation of the hindewho, an instrument of the Mbuti Pygmies of Northeastern Zaire. The track features heavy use of African percussion. “Sly” was dedicated to pioneering funk musician Sly Stone, leader of Sly & the Family Stone. “Chameleon”” (the opening track) is another track with an instantly recognisable intro, the very funky bassline being played on an ARP Odyssey synth. “Vein Melter” is a slow-burner, predominantly featuring Hancock and Maupin, with Hancock mostly playing Fender Rhodes electric piano, but occasionally bringing in some heavily effected synth parts.

Heavily edited versions of “Chameleon” and “Vein Melter” were released as a 45 rpm single.

After its initial release, the album was also mixed into Quadraphonic (4-channel sound) and released by Columbia in 1974 in the vinyl and 8-track tape formats. The quad mixes features audio elements not heard in the stereo version, including a 2-second keyboard melody at the beginning of “Sly” that was edited out. It was released digitally on the hybrid SACD edition for the album (Columbia/Legacy CS 65123).

At the time of the 1992 CD reissue it was the largest-selling jazz album of all time, and has been an inspiration not only for jazz musicians, but also to funk, soul music, jazz funk and hip hop artists.

The HeadHunters band worked with Hancock on a number of other albums, including Thrust (1974), Man-Child (1975), Flood (live in Japan, 1975), Secrets (1976) and Sunlight (1977), and themselves produced a couple of fine funk albums, Survival of the Fittest (1975) and Straight from the Gate (1978), the first of which was produced by Hancock and featured the big hit “God Made me Funky”.

In 1983, Hancock had a mainstream hit with the Grammy-award winning instrumental single “Rockit” from the album Future Shock. It was perhaps the first mainstream single to feature scratching, and also featured an innovative animated music video which was directed by Godley and Creme and showed several robot-like artworks by Jim Whiting. The video was a hit on MTV. Regardless of any controversy, the video won 5 different categories at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, including the category for Video Of The Year. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell: Future Shock (1983), Sound-System (1984) and Perfect Machine (1988). Despite the success of “Rockit,” Hancock’s trio of Laswell-produced albums (particularly the latter two) are among the most critically derided of his entire career, perhaps even more so than his erstwhile pop-jazz experiments. Hancock’s level of actual contribution to these albums was also questioned, with some critics contending that the Laswell albums should have been labelled “Bill Laswell featuring Herbie Hancock.”

During this period, he appeared onstage at the Grammy awards with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, and Thomas Dolby, in a famous synthesizer jam. Lesser known works from the 80s are the live album Jazz Africa and the studio album Village Life (1984) which were recorded with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso. [2] Also, in 1985 he performed as a guest on the album So Red The Rose by the Duran Duran shoot off group Arcadia. He also provided introductory and closing comments for the PBS rebroadcast in the United States of the BBC educational series from the mid-1980s, Rock School (not to be confused with the most recent Gene Simmons’ Rock School series).

In 1986, Hancock performed and acted in the film ‘Round Midnight. He also wrote the score/soundtrack, for which he won an Academy Award for Original Music Score. Often he would write music for TV commercials. “Maiden Voyage”, in fact, started out as a cologne advertisement. At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship.

As of June 2005, almost half of his Columbia recordings have been remastered. The first three US releases, Sextant, Head Hunters and Thrust as well as the last four releases Future Shock, Sound-System, the soundtrack to Round Midnight and Perfect Machine. Everything released in America from Man-Child to Quartet has yet to be remastered. Some albums, made and initially released in the US, were remastered between 1999 and 2001 in other countries such as Magic Windows and Monster. Hancock also re-released some of his Japan-only releases in the West, such as The Piano.

2005 saw the release of a duet album called Possibilities. It features duets with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others. In 2006, Possibilities was nominated for Grammy awards in two categories: “A Song For You,” featuring Christina Aguilera was nominated in the Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals category, and “Gelo No Montanha,” featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar was nominated in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category. Neither nomination resulted in an award.

Also in 2005, Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that included Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and explored textures ranging from ambient to straight jazz to African music. Plus, during the Summer of 2005, Hancock re-staffed the famous Head Hunters and went on tour with them, including a performance at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.

However, this lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group included Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Lionel Loueke and John Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence for Bonnaroo that summer.

Also in 2006, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock’s old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospective The Essential Herbie Hancock. This two-disc set is the first compilation of Herbie’s work at Warner Bros. Records, Blue Note Records, Columbia and at Verve/Polygram. This became Hancock’s second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-only “The Herbie Hancock Box” which was released at first in a plastic 4×4 cube then re-released in 2004 in a long box set. Hancock also in 2006, recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest) titled “Machine”. It is featured on Josh Groban’s CD “Awake.” Hancock also recorded and improvised with guitarist Lionel Loueke on Loueke’s debut album Virgin Forest on the ObliqSound label in 2006, resulting in two improvisational tracks “Le Réveil des Agneaux (The Awakening of the Lambs)” and “La Poursuite du lion (The Lion’s Pursuit)”.

Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Joni Mitchell released a 2007 album, River: The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work. Norah Jones and Tina Turner recorded vocals, as did Corinne Bailey Rae, and Leonard Cohen contributed a spoken piece set to Hancock’s piano. Mitchell herself also made an appearance. The album was released on September 25, simultaneously with the release of Mitchell’s album Shine. “River” was nominated for a 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award, only the second jazz album ever to receive that honor, and is also up for awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Jazz Solo.

1. “I Have a Dream” – 10:58
2. “The Prisoner” – 7:57
3. “Firewater” (Buster Williams) – 7:33
4. “He Who Lives in Fear” – 6:52
5. “Promise of the Sun” – 7:53
6. “The Prisoner” (alternate take) – 5:48 (not on original album)
7. “Firewater” (Buster Williams) (alternate take) – 8:39 (not on original album)
   
   Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano
   Johnny Coles — fluegelhorn
   Garnett Brown — trombone
   Joe Henderson — tenor saxophone, flute
   Tony Studd — bass trombone (1,2,4)
   Jack Jeffers — bass trombone (3,5)
   Hubert Laws — flute (1,2,4)
   Jerome Richardson — bass clarinet (1,2,4), flute (3,5)
   Romeo Penque — bass clarinet (3,5)
   Buster Williams — bass
   Albert “Tootie” Heath — drums

1. “Maiden Voyage” – 7:44
2. “Dolphin Dance” – 11:18
3. “Nobu” – 7:39
4. “Cantaloupe Island” – 13:57

1. “One Finger Snap” –7:17
2. “Oliloqui Valley” –8:27
3. “Cantaloupe Island” –5:30
4. “The Egg” –13:57
5. “One Finger Snap” (alternative take) –7:33
6. “Oliloqui Valley” (alternative take) –10:45
   
   Herbie Hancock — Piano
   Freddie Hubbard — Cornet
   Ron Carter — Bass
   Anthony Williams — Drums
   

1. “Succotash” – 7:40
2. “Triangle” – 11:01
3. “Jack Rabbit” – 5:57
4. “Mimosa” – 8:38
5. “A Jump Ahead” – 6:33
6. “Mimosa” (alternate take) – 10:06 (re-release only)
   
   Herbie Hancock – piano
   Paul Chambers – bass
   Willie Bobo – drums and timbales
   Osvaldo “Chihuahau” Martinez – percussion

1. “Chameleon” 15:41 (Hancock/Jackson/Mason/Maupin)
2. “Watermelon Man” 6:29 (Hancock)
3. “Sly” 10:15 (Hancock)
4. “Vein Melter” 9:09 (Hancock)
   

• Herbie Hancock
  • Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hohner D6 clavinet, ARP Odyssey synthesizer, ARP Soloist synthesizer
• Bennie Maupin
  • Soprano and tenor saxophones, Saxello, Bass clarinet, Alto flute
• Paul Jackson
  • Electric bass, Marimbula
• Bill Summers
  • Congas, Shekere, Balafon, Agogo, Cabasa, Hindewho, Tambourine, Log drum, Surdo, Gankogui, Beer Bottle
• Harvey Mason
  • Yamaha drums

Thrust is a Herbie Hancock fusion album released in 1974. It served as a follow up to Herbie’s 1973 album Head Hunters, and achieved similar commercial success, as the album reached as high as number 13 on the Billboard Hot 200 LP listing. The lineup for Thrust is Herbie Hancock on keys, Bennie Maupin on reeds, Paul Jackson on the electric bass, Bill Summers on percussion, and Mike Clark on drums. This is the same lineup as on Head Hunters, except Mike Clark replaced Harvey Mason on drums.

“Butterfly” would subsequently be performed on a live album (Flood), and two more studio releases (Direct Step and Dis Is Da Drum).

“Thrust” and “Head Hunters” were recorded at Wally Heider’s Studios in San Francisco, now called Hyde Street Studios, where I’ve recorded on several occasions!

1. Death Wish (Main Title)
2. Joann’s Theme
3. Do A Thing
4. Paint Her Mouth
5. Rich Country
6. Suite Revenge: A. Striking Back/B. Riverside Park/C. The Alley/D. Last Stop/E. 8th Avenue Station
7. Ochoa Knose
8. Party People
9. Fill Your Hand

1. Sleeping Giant – 24:50
2. Quasar – 7:27
3. Water Torture – 14:04
   
   Herbie Hancock – Fender Rhodes piano
   Buster Williams – Bass
   Billy Hart – Drums
   Eddie Henderson – Trumpet, flugelhorn
   Bennie Maupin – Bass clarinet, alto flute, piccolo
   Julian Priester – tenor trombone,bass trombone
   

1. “Riot” – 4:40
2. “Speak Like a Child” – 7:51
3. “First Trip” (Ron Carter) – 6:02
4. “Toys” – 5:53
5. “Goodbye To Childhood” – 7:07
6. “The Sorcerer” – 5:37
7. “Riot” (1st alternate take) – 4:55 (not on original album)
8. “Riot” (2nd alternate take) – 4:40 (not on original album)
9. “Goodbye To Childhood” (alternate take) – 5:50 (not on original album)
   
   Herbie Hancock — piano
   Thad Jones — fluegelhorn (not on track 3)
   Jerry Dodgion — alto flute (not on track 3)
   Peter Philips — bass trombone (not on track 3)
   Ron Carter — bass
   Mickey Roker — drums
   

Empyrean Isles (1964) is the fourth album by jazz musician Herbie Hancock. It features the debut of two of his most popular compositions, “One Finger Snap” and “Cantaloupe Island”.

From the original liner notes by Nora Kelly: “This is a quartet album for trumpet and rhythm section. In this circumstance, a problem was created for the composer-arranger, in that the lack of another instrument supporting the lower, richer register, such as a tenor saxophone, might result in a shallow sound. With this problem in mind, Herbie Hancock, who composed and arranged all the tunes, wrote them to sound more like improvisations than ensemble melodies, so that the warmth and fullness of a supporting melody would not be missed. Free sketches were written in such a way that each instrument is allowed great flexibility of interpretation. In many cases, no melodic line was laid out over the chords nor atonal clusters written, so that the trumpeter could supply any melody he wished.”

From the 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal: “If someone had ordered up a program that explored four distinct areas of jazz expression with equal brilliance, they could not have done better than Empyrean Isles. It is as if Hancock had set out to present ‘changes,’ modal, funk and free playing and delivered each at its apex.”

The album was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.

1. Moon/Light (7:57)
2. Ndan Ndan Nyaria (9:50)
3. Early Warning (2:52)
4. Kanatente (19:59)

The album clearly followed from its predecessor Man-Child. As ever, Paul Jackson’s basslines were critical, and the other regular member Bennie Maupin continued to provide most of the solos alongside Hancock. Man-Child had seen the addition of electric guitar to Hancock’s sound, and Secrets saw the guitar’s place in the arrangements rise to crucial importance throughout. The flamboyant rhythm guitar contributions of top Motown session musician Wah Wah Watson are a particularly notable feature of the album.

Where Man-Child was evenly divided between up-tempo and laid-back tracks, Secrets emphasised the more mellow, softly rounded mood. Even the more up-tempo tracks, “Doin’ It” and “Cantelope Island”, are suffused with a relaxed Caribbean influence, and overall the album tends towards restrained, rolling grooves rather than overtly high-energy funk. Appropriately, Hancock spent much of his time using the mellow tones of the Rhodes piano, and took advantage of the new polyphonic synthesizers to contribute thick pads, foreshadowing ambient music.

Although summery and mellow, the album was far from lounge music, with some extremely abstract and intense sections, particular in the latter half; it is also entirely instrumental beside the “Jus’ keep on doin’ it” chants of the opening track. Subsequent Hancock albums saw the addition of more vocoded lead vocals and disco influences.

The Secrets line-up performed “Spider” (from this LP) and “Hang Up Your Hang-Ups” (from Man-Child) at the V.S.O.P. concert in the summer of 1976.

1. “Doin’ It” (Melvin Ragin/Ray Parker, Jr.) – 8:03
2. “People Music” (Herbie Hancock/Melvin Ragin/Paul Jackson) – 7:11
3. “Cantaloupe Island” (Herbie Hancock) – 7:06
4. “Spider” (Melvin Ragin/Herbie Hancock/Paul Jackson) – 7:21
5. “Gentle Thoughts” (Herbie Hancock/Melvin Ragin) – 7:05
6. “Swamp Rat” (Paul Jackson/Herbie Hancock/Melvin Ragin) – 6:26
7. “Sansho Shima” (Bennie Maupin) – 4:50

• Herbie Hancock: piano, Rhodes electric piano, electric grand piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP String Ensemble, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Micromoog, Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesiser, Echoplex
• Bennie Maupin: soprano sax, tenor sax, saxello, lyricon, bass clarinet
• Wah Wah Watson: guitar, Maestro universal synthesiser system / sample and hold unit, voice bag; vocals & bass on Doin’ It
• Ray Parker: guitar; backing vocals on Doin’ It
• James Levi: drums
• Paul Jackson: bass
• Kenneth Nash: percussion
• James Gadson: drums on Doin’ It

1. “Court And Spark” – (with Norah Jones)
2. “Edith And The Kingpin” – (with Tina Turner)
3. “Both Sides Now”
4. “River” – (with Corinne Bailey Rae)
5. “Sweet Bird”
6. “The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)” – (with Joni Mitchell)
7. “Solitude” (Ellington)
8. “Amelia” – (with Luciana Souza)
9. “Nefertiti” (Shorter)
10. “The Jungle Line” – (with Leonard Cohen)

Herbie Hancock – piano
Tina Turner – vocals
Wayne Shorter – soprano and tenor saxophone
Dave Holland – bass
Lionel Loueke – guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums

1. Kebero Part I
2. Wisdom
3. The Essence (feat Chaka Khan)
4. This Is Rob Swift
5. Black Gravity
6. Tony Williams
7. Be Still
8. Ionosphere
9. Kebero Part II
10. Alphabeta
11. Virtual Hornets

Herbie Hancock, all keyboards
Wayne Shorter, tenor and soprano saxophones
Bill Laswell, electric bass
Charnett Moffett, acoustic bass
Jack DeJohnette, drums (4, 8, 9, 10)
Tony Williams, drums (6)
Karsh Kale, drums (3, 7)

Future2Future is the forty-third album by Herbie Hancock. Hancock reunited with Bill Laswell (who worked on Future Shock, Sound-System and Perfect Machine) and the two of them tried to recapture the success of the three previous albums.

This group of artists (minus Tony Williams, due to his death four years prior) would go on tour, and produce a live concert that would eventually go on DVD (which features live versions of his songs “Rockit” and “Chameleon”).

1. “Hardrock” (Hancock/Laswell/Showard) – 6:10
2. “Metal Beat” (Hancock/Laswell) – 4:56
3. “Karabali” (Hancock/Poncé) – 5:17
4. “Junku” (Hancock/Laswell/Suso/Dieng) – 5:32
5. “People are Changing” (Thomas) – 6:05
6. “Sound System” (Hancock/Laswell/Suso) – 5:55

Herbie Hancock: Piano, synthesizer, keyboards
Bill Laswell: Electric bass, drum programming, tapes
D.S.T.: Turntables, “FX”
Nicky Skopelitis: Guitar, electric drums
Henry Kaiser: Guitar
Bernard Fowler: Vocals, vocal arrangements
Wayne Shorter: Lyricon
Toshinori Kondo: Trumpet
Anton Fier: Drums, percussion
Daniel Poncé: Percussion
Foday Musa Suso: Percussion, guitar, various instruments
Aiyb Dieng: Percussion
Hamid Drake: Cymbals
Will Alexander: Fairlight programming
Rob Stevens: Programming

1. “So What (Live)”
2. “RJ”
3. “Little One”
4. “Pinocchio”
5. “Elegy”
6. “Eighty One”
7. “All Blues (Live)”
8. “E.S.P.” (bonus track)
9. “Riot” (bonus track)
10. “Calliope” (bonus track)

Herbie Hancock – piano
Ron Carter – bass
Tony Williams – drums
Wayne Shorter – saxophones
Wallace Roney – trumpet

A Tribute to Miles is a tribute album by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter. This was the tribute album to pay homage to the then recently departed mentor of the above men, Miles Davis who died in September 1991. Playing the part of Davis, was young trumpet player Wallace Roney.

This album won all five men, a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group. This marked Hancock’s third overall Grammy award.

Two of the songs were recorded live, on their national tour honoring their fallen mentor.

1. “Someday My Prince Will Come” (Churchill, Morey) – 12:39
2. “Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away)” (Gershwin, Kahn) – 9:00
3. “Button Up” (Corea, Hancock) – 17:37
4. “Introduction of Herbie Hancock by Chick Corea” (Chick Corea) – 0:41
5. “February Moment” (Hancock) – 15:47
6. “Maiden Voyage” (Hancock) – 13:31
7. “La Fiesta” (Corea) – 22:02

Herbie Hancock – Piano
Chick Corea – Piano

1. “Piano Introduction” – 4:32
2. “Maiden Voyage” (Hancock) – 13:18
3. “Nefertiti” (Shorter) – 5:17
4. “Introduction of Players/Eye of the Hurricane” (Hancock) – 18:35
5. “Toys” (Hancock) – 14:00
6. “Introductions” – 1:47
7. “You’ll Know When You Get There” (Hancock) – 7:00
8. “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” (Hancock, Jackson, Ragin) – 11:54
9. “Spider” (Hancock, Jackson, Ragin) -10:12
   
   Herbie Hancock – piano, keyboards
   Ron Carter – bass
   Tony Williams – drums
   Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
   Wayne Shorter – saxophones

1. “One of a Kind”
2. “Jessica”
3. “Lawra”
4. “Dolores”
5. “Third Plane”
6. “Byrdlike”
7. “Darts”
8. “Little Waltz”
   
   Herbie Hancock – piano, keyboards
   Ron Carter – bass
   Tony Williams – drums
   Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
   Wayne Shorter – saxophones

1. “Perfect Machine” (Hancock/Laswell/Skopelitis) – 6:35
2. “Obsession” – 5:20
3. “Vibe Alive” (Hancock/Laswell/Collins/Bonner/Micro Wave) – 5:26
4. “Beat Wise” – 5:52
5. “Maiden Voyage/B. Bop” – 6:34
6. “Chemical Residue” (Hancock) – 6:01
7. “Vibe Alive” (Extended Dance Mix)* – 8:13
8. “Beat Wise” (12-Inch Edit)* – 6:28
   

• Herbie Hancock: Piano, Fairlight CMI series I & II, Rhodes Chroma, Apple/Mac Plus, Yamaha Dx-1, Yamaha DX7 and DX7-IIFD, Kurzweil K-250, Yamaha TX 8/16, Oberheim Matrix-12, Akai 900-S, Vocorder
  
• Jeff Bova: Synth Programming
  
• William “Bootsy” Collins: Electric bass, Vocorder
  
• Sugarfoot: Vocals
  
• Nicky Skopelitis: Fairlight drums
  
• Micro Wave: Minimoog bass, Talk box, Vocorder
  
• D.S.T.: Turntables, “FX”

The second of the three Rockit band albums, Sound-System was another smash for Herbie Hancock.

Winning his second Grammy award for Best R&B Performance (his second-straight award), this album tried to capture the success of the previous Future Shock, with some more twists and turns.

“Junku” for instance, featured Foday Musa Suso and also was written for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. It also was used during Hancock’s appearance on the long-running NBC Saturday Night Live.

“Sound System” sounded like “Junku” in many ways, while “Karabali” featured Wayne Shorter (playing a lyricon, instead of a traditional saxophone) and went back to the days of Hancock’s African themed Mwandishi band.

1. “Call It ‘95”
2. “Dis Is da Drum”
3. “Shooz”
4. “Melody (On the Deuce by 44)”
5. “Mojuba”
6. “Butterfly”
7. “Ju Ju”
8. “Hump”
9. “Come and See Me”
10. “Rubber Soul”
11. “Bo Ba Be Da”

1. “Meridianne – A Wood Sylph”
2. “Aung San Suu Kyi”
3. “Sonrisa”
4. “Memory Of Enchantment”
5. “Visitor From Nowhere”
6. “Joanna’s Theme”
7. “Diana”
8. “Visitor From Somewhere”
9. “Manhattan Lorelei”
10. “Hale Bopp, Hip-Hop”

Herbie Hancock – piano
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone