While Miles Davis is often lauded for being the first jazzman to dare to explore funk madness, one of his protégés, pianist Herbie Hancock, is the one who truly stepped into the breach opened by Sly Stone and hit the jackpot. After six years spent in the trumpeter’s second quintet, Hancock, at not yet 30, had already made a name for himself, signed a contract with Blue Note and produced six excellent solo albums. Despite his classical training, the pianist, who graduated from an engineering school, has always been fascinated with new technologies. Converted to electric piano by Miles, Hancock was, with good reasons, hypnotised by the way Sly used it. By listening to There’s A Riot Going On, he was driven to rethink and reinvent his music. He delivered a seventh and last album to Blue Note (The Prisoner, 1969), in which he experimented on the electric keyboard in homeopathic doses.
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