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
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