Recommend a good Herbie Hancock album.

Karl Hungus

Any youtube clips would be great. Thanks.

Setun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5GcYeh7XA

Get Headhunters for some funky fusion madness.

Rigsby

+1 to the above. While not too well known among Hancock albums, one of my favourites is "Fat Albert Rotunda". It features Joe Henderson on sax and Buster Williams on bass among others.

Another I'd recommend is "Maiden Voyage".


Here's the title track to the first one.


http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=--dWxO8VeIQ

Desmo

All good suggestions; I guess a word of warning is called for. HH had a LOOOONG
career and is still making records. Not all of his records may be suit everyone.
In fact some were not great.
My favourite HH era was his heavy fusion funk one (Daddio suggested Headhunters above which is the classic one from that era). He also
made Manchild and Thrust which are both good. These are big loud electric records that have stood the test of time better than many early 70s records.
Maiden Voyage is accoustic. It is mainstream jazz with piano and bass and drums etc. It is superb. He also made lots of mainstream records in the 60s, many as sideman to e.g. Miles Davis.

In the early 80s, he was one of the first to use digital synths and recording and he made 2 or so albums (Rockit and Future Shock) which now sound a bit dated but were seminal at the time. His least popular phase was a disco one in mid 70s along with a vocoder (voice gadget; very 70s sound).

Overall, he has been involved with many of the most famous jazz musicians on the planet since the early 60s and has been one of the most influential. One cool dude!

dbs_sailor

disgusting solos

herbieflowers

Takin' Off is a stellar album, think it was one of his first for Blue Note. Great line-up: Dexter Gordon, Higgins. Some great melodies, no bad track on it.

Emyrean Isles is also a cool, strange, concept-driven album. But don't let that put you off. Williams on drums is exceptional, and Hubbard's cornet playing on Oliloqui Valley is sweet.

My favourite of his has to be Maiden Voyage. This is one of the greatest jazz albums ever. Really easy mellow jazz, with some standout performances from Hubbard and Carter on bass.

If you like the more fusiony stuff, then go for Headhunters. You might wanna check out the more spacey Mwandishi and Crossings which preceded the more renowned Headhunters.

the lady

i really like his joni mitchell covers album. It may be a bit mainstream considering his massive back catalogue but it's very easy to listen too

mike65

Could recommend a bad one if you like?

Some people don't like Future Shock with its 80s synths, scratching and drum machines. Its quite funky though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr5axMSSOO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7dAxvj2mlU

Setun

This is one of my favourite Miles albums, but Herbie plays some lovely fender rhodes on it aswell: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=10269

Karl Hungus

Alrighty guys, I picked up Headhunters.

Next on the list is some Pat Metheny, John Scofield and maybe something else...

Desmo

Note on Headhunters: there is some fantastic Bass Clarinet on that record. When combined with the synth strings, it produced a killer sound that is deep
and evocative and rich and unique. Fantasic instrument; it looks crazy (like a heap of plumbing) but what a noise ....

Setun

Desmo wrote: »

Note on Headhunters: there is some fantastic Bass Clarinet on that record. When combined with the synth strings, it produced a killer sound that is deep
and evocative and rich and unique. Fantasic instrument; it looks crazy (like a heap of plumbing) but what a noise ....

Are you thinking of Vein Melter? Whoah, what a track. I strongly associate it with summer though, not quite sure why.

Rigsby

Desmo wrote: »

Note on Headhunters: there is some fantastic Bass Clarinet on that record. When combined with the synth strings, it produced a killer sound that is deep
and evocative and rich and unique. Fantasic instrument; it looks crazy (like a heap of plumbing) but what a noise ....

There's also some great bass clarinet (I think it's the same player) on Miles' "Bitches Brew".

Setun

Bennie Maupin does indeed play on both records if I am not mistaken. Love that bit in bitches brew where the bass clarinet plays a fantastic ostinato over Dave Hollands bass solo. /goes to listen again

Desmo

Daddio wrote: »

Are you thinking of Vein Melter? Whoah, what a track. I strongly associate it with summer though, not quite sure why.

Yep; that is a Summer song alright.

d'Oracle

herbieflowers wrote: »

My favourite of his has to be Maiden Voyage. This is one of the greatest jazz albums ever. Really easy mellow jazz, with some standout performances from Hubbard and Carter on bass.

This.

Heinlein

If it hasn't been mentioned so far, Dis Is Da Drum is an excellent electronic album (my fav to be honest) with quality of its sound way ahead of its time, also Future 2 Future is a different kind of electronic jazz, featuring Shorter, DeJohnette and Bill Laswell among others. But no matter how electronic they are, you can still hear Herbie's easily recognizable improvizational phrases.

For advanced jazz lovers a highly recommended one is Nefertiti, which is as usual marketed as Miles' album, but in fact almost all pieces are composed by Shorter and Herbie is on piano there. This is a fantastic album.

Rigsby

Heinlein wrote: »

If it hasn't been mentioned so far, Dis Is Da Drum is an excellent electronic album (my fav to be honest) with quality of its sound way ahead of its time, also Future 2 Future is a different kind of electronic jazz, featuring Shorter, DeJohnette and Bill Laswell among others.

The trouble ( if that's the right word) with Hancock is that you never know what to expect from his albums. I admit that can be a good thing also. After repeated listening I never took to either of the above albums.

Heinlein

Rigsby wrote: »

The trouble ( if that's the right word) with Hancock is that you never know what to expect from his albums.

Agreed, Herbie is omnipotent Anyway, he's one of the most sampled artists in the world, he invented scratch and a lot of sounds now used in various genres. You may or may not like the two albums I mentioned, but they are brilliant in terms of sound. (If you ask me, in terms of music, too, but that's a question of taste of course.)