John Fordham Friday September 28, 2007 The GuardianBuy Takin' off now In the current series of Blue Note classics remastered by the revered jazz producer Rudy van Gelder, this leadership debut by a 22-year-old Herbie Hancock is essential for any collection, and it's also an interesting complement to an imminent new Hancock release. The band is drawn from the premier league of early 1960s jazz, with the grainy sound of Dexter Gordon's tenor sax and the gleaming tone of Freddie Hubbard making a dream horn section, and the lightly dancing cymbals of Billy Higgins driving the grooves. Hancock was already astonishingly sophisticated, both as a player and a composer, and the knack for hooks that made his later work so successful in pop as well as jazz is apparent in the gospelly yet knowing theme of the classic Watermelon Man.
All the pieces here are Hancock originals: Three Bags Full echoes the 1950s Miles band (though Hancock's soul roots show in the fills), The Maze is a twisty disguised blues that gets funky, and Driftin' is such a laidback modern-jazz medium-swinger that you almost feel there's smoke in the room. Hancock's solos glitter with invention all through, and there are three alternate takes in this reissue.
News RSS