The Herbie Hancock
Box
(Continued)
Hancock's Mwandishi sextet (so-called because
each of the musicians took an African name, Mwandishi being
Herbie's) became a pretty avant-garde group, though the
rhythmic basis they always used for their compositions provided
more grounding than the typical free-jazz group. Most of
their output was done on the Warner Brothers label, but
their last,
Sextant, was done for Columbia, and
their song "Rain Dance" leads off the third disc.
It perfectly summarizes the conversation between the earthy
and the abstract, as an initial repetitive synthesizer figure
(along with some handclapping) provides the beat while the
horn players and Hancock improvise freely, both harmonically
and rhythmically. I've always wondered where the Mwandishi
concept might have led had Hancock continued to explore
it. There's also a reworking of Hancock's original groundbreaking
composition "Watermelon Man" which was featured
on the
Headhunters album. "Chameleon"
is here also, sounding every bit as booty-shaking as it
did back in 1973 when it was originally released. At the
time Miles Davis was about to go into five years of semi-retirement
and had not yet made the straight ahead funk album he had
been trying to make. He ended up opening for Hancock's Headhunters
on a series of gigs, which must have been a tough pill to
swallow. Headhunters also marked the start of Hancock's
split personality. From that point on his career would be
split between his straightforward jazz work (with VSOP and
in various quartet, trio, solo, and duo lineups) and his
more pop-oriented work. Unfortunately, jazz musicians and
critics didn't cut him any slack in that area. When asked
why people were accepting of the music of Earth, Wind, and
Fire than with some of Hancock's similar tunes (like "Sun
Touch" and "Come Running to Me", both included
here), his response was telling: "I had built up a
core jazz audience. Maurice White had been the drummer in
the Ramsey Lewis trio; but it had little carry-over when
he started his own band. My jazz history was longer and
stronger…so people will always bring that context
to the music rather than hearing it for what it is. If I
step outside the box, I'm still getting evaluated from inside
the box."
One group of folks who evaluated Herbie from
outside the jazz box were the up-and-coming musicians, producers,
and DJs who would be influential on the electronic music
scene of the '80s and '90s. Just as Miles Davis managed
to influence later musical trends such as ambient or drum
'n' bass, so did Hancock. The work with producer Bill Laswell,
developed over the course of the albums Future Shock,
Sound System, and Perfect Machine is represented
on Disc 4 with the selections "Rockit", "Karabali",
and "Maiden Voyage/P.Bop." "Rockit"
sounds a little dated, with its scratch turntable work and
early hip-hop dynamics, and seems to have been heavily influenced
by Afrikka Bambata's seminal "Planet Rock", which
was recorded the year before. "Karabali", on the
other hand, features Cuban drummer Daniel Ponce and Wayne
Shorter as well as Hancock on acoustic piano, providing
an organic overlay to the techno beats. "Maiden Voyage/P.
Bop" puts a hip-hop spin on one of Hancock's classic
compositions and features bassist Bootsy Collins. Unlike
Miles Davis, Herbie doesn't object to revisiting his earlier
music, but, as he points out "If you're going to do
the older tunes, you want to re-invent them, not re-make
them."
Overall, The Herbie Hancock Box is
a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but I have to wonder
just who the folks are that are going to purchase this collection.
While most of the music is wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable,
it's hard to imagine a lot of fans of Herbie's early Blue
Note work or the VSOP recordings to shell out for two discs
that feature music they aren't too interested in. Similarly,
fans of Hancock's electric work aren't likely to be excited
by the small group post-bop jazz stuff. Let's face it, Hancock
could have made things much easier on himself by either
refusing to revisit his earlier, jazz incarnation or by
going back there and pretending the electronic stuff was
just a stylistic aberration imposed by the times ("hey,
everyone was doing it"). It is to his credit that he
has done neither, creating both fans and detractors in both
camps. Ultimately, the keyboardist has pulled off something
even the great Miles Davis found impossible: he's been able
to reconcile his past, present, and future into one body
of work with which he is completely comfortable. The fact
that others may not be comfortable with it, or that his
record company finds it hard to market his shifting styles
doesn't seem to bother him, and that's as it should be for
a truly creative artist.
