almost okay

In honor of his appearance at the 2007 Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Five Star spotlight today falls on jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock...

Looking back over his career it seems a shame that Herbie is better known for his 1983 Funk/Fusion/Hip-Hop hit 'Rockit' than he is for this LP, his first as a leader on Blue Note. It was 1962, and the young pianist had only been on the jazz scene for a couple of years when he was invited into the studio for 'Takin' Off'. Recorded when he was a mere twenty-three years old, the album features six muscular tunes, all Hancock originals, including one of his most enduring compositions - 'Watermelon Man', which went on to be a top ten hit for Mongo Santamaria the following year, and made the charts again in 1965 when Gloria Lynne added lyrics and took it to #62.

But there's lots more than Pop to this LP. It's got Bop, too - the best kind of Bop, the Post-Bop, Hard Bop kind of Bop. The Bop that causes the slow head nod with the loose neck, eyes closed... the finger snaps... the toe tapping on the twos. Ya know? It's got a lot to do with the lineup here, which includes heavy hitters like Dexter Gordon on tenor, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Butch Warren on bass and Billy Higgins on skins. Gordon's blowing propels the mood - especially on side two's 'Maze' and 'Driftin'', and Hubbard's solo on the finale 'Alone And I' will jerk a tear if you let it.

Hancock's first few outings (including stellar LPs 'Maiden Voyage' and 'Empyrean Isles') garnered him a lot of attention in the jazz world, and it wasn't long before he found himself playing in one of THE best groups Miles ever put together, a group that included bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter on tenor sax. Aside from Coltrane's quartet from the early-to-mid-sixties, there wasn't another jazz group that could touch them, and Herbie was a big part of the sound that dominated the music throughout the entire decade.

You can blame Miles for introducing Herbie to the electronic sound, too, getting him all juiced about Fusion music, the Moog and assorted synthesizers. Hancock had classical training, had played with the Chicago Symphony before he was even a teenager, and rumor has it he was reluctant to embrace the non-acoustic sound. But before he knew what had hit him Miles had dragged him along for 'In A Silent Way' and 'A Tribute To Jock Johnson'. Herbie was hooked.

His experimentation with electronic instruments and Fusion eventually led to the formation of his group The Head Hunters in 1973, along with some long-overdue financial success though album sales. Ten years later, 'Rockit' won a Grammy and a slew of MTV Video Music Awards in the very first year they started doling those things out. Ten years after that, the group US3 practically made their careers by cleverly looping Hancock's piano vamp from 'Cantaloupe Island' (from 'Empyrean Isles') into their Jazz/Rap hit 'Cantaloop'.

More than just a pianist and jazz composer, Hancock also had a tremendously successful second career penning scores for motion pictures and television, including his Oscar winner for the critically acclaimed 'Round Midnight' in 1986, in which he also appears alongside the film's star Dexter Gordon (Yes, the same dude who blew so much life into today's featured LP!). In it, Gordon - an ex-patriot himself living in Europe at the time, plays a part based on the tragically short life of pianist Bud Powell, who spent the majority of his last years in Paris playing to a much more appreciative crowd than he could attract in the States.

Hancock's list of film scores also includes Michelangelo Antonioni's 'Blowup' (1966), 'Death Wish' (1974) and 'The Spook Who Sat By The Door' (1973), a film by 'Hogan's Heroes' cast member Ivan Dixon based on the 1966 novel by Sam Greenlee. Herbie also wrote music for Bill Cosby's 'Fat Albert' animated television show from 1969.

My copy of 'Takin' Off' is a reissue from the eighties, but if you're lucky enough to own an original in good shape it could be worth as much as forty or fifty bucks. Cover design and photo here is by the always-right-on Reid Miles, and the recording engineer is none other than Rudy 'The Genius' Van Gelder. Add liner notes by the author of 'The Encyclopedia of Jazz', Mr. Leonard Feather himself, and you have one classic jazz package that I'm sure you can't live without.

As far as his appearance here in Detroit at the Jazz Fest... well, it was a bit of a disappointment to me. Not so much because of what Herbie did or played, but because of the venue - a packed, closed stage area crawling with people on a warm Friday night downtown. It was like a freaking ant farm. I didn't get down early enough to be inside with the cool folks, so all I could see of the performance were live shots fed to large LED displays to the right and left of the stage, which left me completely at the mercy of the cameramen for visuals. I couldn't hear it very well, either, the music blasting through the speakers and mixing mercilessly with other tunes being played on the street and in booths along the strip. It was a lot more 'Rockit' than 'Watermelon Man', too, and I decided to head home after just a few tunes. But the crowd who was inside seemed to dig it, so don't mind me. My experience was also colored by the fact that a twelve-ounce Budweiser cost eight tickets, which amounted to $6.66! Not only is that the Mark of the Beast, but it's damn unfair.