Sextant

Album review

When Herbie Hancock left Warner Bros. in 1971 after releasing three musically sound but critically and commercially underappreciated albums -- Crossings, Mwandishi, and Fat Albert Rotunda -- he was struggling. At odds with a jazz establishment that longed for a return to his Blue Note sound, and possessing a fierce consciousness struggle with free music and the full-on embrace of electricity after his tenure with Miles Davis, Hancock was clearly looking for a sound. Before diving into the funky waters of Headhunters in 1973, Hancock and his tough group (including drummer Billy Hart, trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, saxophonist Bennie Maupin, and bassist Buster Williams) cut this gem as Hancock's debut for Columbia. Like its Warner predecessors, the album features a kind of post-modal, free impressionism that traces the edges of funk. Its three long tracks are exploratory investigations into the nature of how mode and interval can be boiled down into a minimal stew, then extrapolated upon for soloing and "riffing." In fact, in many cases, the interval is the riff, evidenced by "Rain Dance." The piece that revealed the true funk direction, however, was "Hidden Shadows," with its choppy basslines and heavy percussion -- aided by the inclusion of Dr. Patrick Gleeson and Buck Clarke. Dave Rubinson's production brought Hancock's piano more into line with the rhythm section, allowing for a unified front in the more abstract sections of these tunes. The true masterpiece on the album, though, is "Hornets," an eclectic, electric ride through both the dark modal ambience of Miles' In a Silent Way and post-Coltrane harmonic aesthetics. The groove is in place, but it gets turned inside out by Priester and Maupin on more than one occasion and Hancock just bleats with the synth in sections. Over 19 minutes in length, it can be brutally intense, but is more often than not stunningly beautiful. It provides a glimpse into the music that became Headhunters, but doesn't fully explain it, making this disc, like its Warner predecessors, true and welcome mysteries in Hancock's long career.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo