Hancock electrifies

From the Vault

The release of Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters album literally and figuratively electrified the music scene of 1974. Hancock, a bebop jazz pianist and composer since the early '60s, temporarily abandoned traditional jazz styles to compose one of the most creative and innovative recordings, utilizing the greatest electronic sounds technology had to offer, including the Hohner Clavinet and the Fender Rhodes electric piano. With only four tracks, some lasting nearly 20 minutes, Hancock showed his audience the beauty of funky music in these stunningly simple yet stunningly complex pieces. This paradox was the reason that Head Hunters rose to the legendary status of such canonical jazz recordings as Coltrane's Giant Steps or Davis' Kind of Blue in an age where electronics were just beginning to be recognized as real musical instruments instead of gimmicky toys.

On this album one of Hancock's most renown compositions, "Chameleon" snags its listeners with a pulsating, penetrating synth-bass line, whose flanged "ow-ow" sound conveys the tune's sense of hardcore funkiness from the start. Harvey Mason's syncopated drum kit work becomes a frame over which "Chameleon" develops, letting several layers, including riffs of gritty Clavinet, increase the suspense. The repetitive groove progresses throughout nearly the whole piece, while Hancock and his players expand musically into wild realms beyond what had ever been heard before.

"Watermelon Man" is a reinterpretation of Hancock's old jazz standard. It is a relaxed take on the very traditional standard, framed by a curious ballad of beer bottle blowing. "Sly" is an upbeat whirlwind of grooving bass, wild saxophone and Hancock's magic Clavinet fingers. Inspired by the groundbreaking styles of Sly Stone, "Sly" is a canvas onto which Hancock and soprano saxophonist Benny Maupin splash their colors. "Vein Melter" is a musical acid trip which ventures into spacey stratospheres using a chilling bass clarinet and a militaristic drum part to create to its trancelike sound, letting the album settle down from the frantic fury of the previous track, allowing listeners to fully enjoy the scope of Hancock's brilliance on the keyboard.