Herbie Hancock Headhunters (CD, Columbia Records, 1973) ****
Genre: Piano jazz (because he's a pianist but these two could easily fit into the jazz fusion category as well)
Places I remember: Virgin Megastore (Dubai)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Water Torture (Crossings)
Gear costume: Vein Melter (Headhunters)
Active compensatory factors: First track of Crossings, Sleeping Giant, is a beast - 24 minutes of intense jazz fusion which twists and turns during its forward moving evolution. After 13 full on minutes Herbie plays some groovy electric piano before launching headfirst into the rest of the song. It's all pretty jaw dropping.
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Water Torture (Crossings)
Gear costume: Vein Melter (Headhunters)
Generally, Herbie Hancock's career has been pretty amazing - from Blue Note sessions to Miles Davis' band to these albums and onwards - he's still active at age 82.
He epitomises that restless jazz pursuit of new sounds, with a long list of collaborators. These two albums from the early seventies see him combining feverish rhythms with meditative calm. Sometimes (like in Water Torture on Crossings) all in the same track.
Headhunters is slightly funkier, slightly more commercial sounding, than Crossings but still at the cutting edge.
Where do they all belong? As I said - they are found in my piano jazz section, which comes after the jazz fusion section. Just a very thin cardboard marker card between them.
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