Herbie Hancock for you

Pianist Herbie Hancock was a child prodigy, performing Mozart piano concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. Born Chicago, 1940, he went to New York as a protégé of trumpeter Donald Byrd, and soon established himself as a recording artist for blue Note. His debut album (Takin' Off) with sideman Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon demonstrated his compositional gifts, from the gospel - funk of the hit number, Watermelon Man, to the rhythmically adventurous The Maze. Blind Man, Blind Man proved his talent for catchy tunes (My Point Of View) while a further album without horns spotlighted his keyboard technique (Succotash) which, while owing something to Bill Evans, red garland and Wynton Kelly, showed a graceful balance between single - note runs and texturally thick chord passages.

In the early '60s, Blue Note artists like Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson and Anthony Williams involved themselves in experiments with modes, free rhythms and tone colors, and Hancock proved a useful sideman, shaking rocks in a box for Bobby Hutcherson's The Omen (Happenings) and helping in the arrangements of Anthony William's first album (Life Time) .

His finest work as a composer comes from this fertile period (Maiden Voyage and Empyrean Isles) both using Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Anthony Williams. There is litheness and melodic charm about tunes like Dolphin Dance that is worlds away from Hancock's later output. Miles Davis picked his new quintet from this stable of talent, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Anthony Williams, aiming at a unit capable of great rhythmic mobility and free of harmonic restrictions.

Miles' subsequent elaboration of modes, unison playing, suspended and multiple rhythms were well served by Hancock's and Shorter's writing talents. Sorcerer, Madness and Riot are typical Hancock scalar pieces built on shifting rhythms, while the pianist's role on his own Little One shows how important his atmospheric chording could be for the horns (ESP) . Within the rhythm section, his lightly lyrical lines fit into the intricate web of support from bass drums. Switching to electric piano at Miles' suggestion, Hancock became part of an electric keyboard choir for the trail-blazing jazz - rock album In A Silent Way, a role that continued throughout subsequent releases.

In 1968, Hancock left Miles Davis to form his own band, a sextet with Joe Henderson. Fat Mama, a near R & B original, gives an indication of what was to come (Fat Albert Rotunda) , though the next group with saxophonist Bennie Maupin saw Hancock once more experimenting, this time with percussion and electronic voicings (Crossings) . Ostinato is mainly an exercise in riff, using 15 beats on 4 / 4 and 7 / 8 (Mwandishi) . Hidden Shadows (Sextant) continues this pre-occupation. The commercial turning point came in 1973, thanks to the over whelming bass riff (Headhunters) . Except for the short, sneaky revamp of Watermelon Man, the entire album was dominated by rhythmic riff, Chameleon for example nothing for fifteen minutes with little top-dressing. On a par with Donald Byrd's Black Byrd album for jazz-rock sales, Herbie Hancock was established as a superstar.

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