Post by erik on Apr 20, 2024 17:22:17 GMT -5
A landmark album in the realms of jazz, R&B, and rock is in this week's Pop Music Album Spotlight, via the great jazz master Herbie Hancock.
HEAD HUNTERS—Herbie Hancock (CBS; 1973)
Born in Chicago in 1940, and beginning with his 1962 album Takin’ Off, Herbie Hancock has been one of the greatest exponents of jazz in American history. He had been part of Miles Davis’ Second Quartet from 1963 to 1968, before expanding his mentor’s explorations into the worlds of rock, funk, and emerging electronic music, which exploded in popularity during the 1970’s. While this would engender a fair amount of scorn and invective among jazz purists, Hancock’s approach in truth helped to spread the popularity of jazz out into mainstream popular music during what was arguably the most musically diverse decade of popular music in America. The biggest proof of that was with his landmark 1973 album Head Hunters..
Recorded in fairly quick order in September 1973 and released by CBS Records only a few weeks later, Head Hunters proved to be wildly popular, as Hancock experimented with lush, funk-based keyboards and traditional jazz elements. In line with the trend towards expansiveness, the album had only four tracks on it: “Chameleon”; “Watermelon Man” (a reworking of his 1962 composition that was a hit for Mongo Santamaria in 1963); “Sly” (dedicated to Sly Stone, or Sly and the Family Stone fame); and “Vein Melter”. But it was at the very least in part because of that that the album became such a huge hit among rock, pop, jazz, and R&B fans alike. An abridged version of “Chameleon” managed to reach #42 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart, and #18 on that same publication’s R&B singles chart. Most importantly, however, with sales of two million copies, it was the biggest selling jazz album of its time, surpassed three years later by jazz guitarist/vocalist George Benson’s 1976 opus Breezin’; and it reached #13 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart.
Hancock would continue to have mass successes well into the 21st century, winning (as of 2024) fourteen Grammy Awards. At present, he also serves as the principal advisor of the jazz series that is part of the summer concert season at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
HEAD HUNTERS—Herbie Hancock (CBS; 1973)
Born in Chicago in 1940, and beginning with his 1962 album Takin’ Off, Herbie Hancock has been one of the greatest exponents of jazz in American history. He had been part of Miles Davis’ Second Quartet from 1963 to 1968, before expanding his mentor’s explorations into the worlds of rock, funk, and emerging electronic music, which exploded in popularity during the 1970’s. While this would engender a fair amount of scorn and invective among jazz purists, Hancock’s approach in truth helped to spread the popularity of jazz out into mainstream popular music during what was arguably the most musically diverse decade of popular music in America. The biggest proof of that was with his landmark 1973 album Head Hunters..
Recorded in fairly quick order in September 1973 and released by CBS Records only a few weeks later, Head Hunters proved to be wildly popular, as Hancock experimented with lush, funk-based keyboards and traditional jazz elements. In line with the trend towards expansiveness, the album had only four tracks on it: “Chameleon”; “Watermelon Man” (a reworking of his 1962 composition that was a hit for Mongo Santamaria in 1963); “Sly” (dedicated to Sly Stone, or Sly and the Family Stone fame); and “Vein Melter”. But it was at the very least in part because of that that the album became such a huge hit among rock, pop, jazz, and R&B fans alike. An abridged version of “Chameleon” managed to reach #42 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart, and #18 on that same publication’s R&B singles chart. Most importantly, however, with sales of two million copies, it was the biggest selling jazz album of its time, surpassed three years later by jazz guitarist/vocalist George Benson’s 1976 opus Breezin’; and it reached #13 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart.
Hancock would continue to have mass successes well into the 21st century, winning (as of 2024) fourteen Grammy Awards. At present, he also serves as the principal advisor of the jazz series that is part of the summer concert season at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.