In terms of musical revolutions, Herbie Hancock going electric rivals Bob Dylan at Newport and Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ for the title of most controversial industry moment.
On Santana’s ‘Love Theme From “Spartacus”’ we heard Herbie with Wayne Shorter, Harvey Mason and producer David Rubinson, all of whom worked on Hancock’s 1975 album Man-Child, the last outing for the “Headhunters” band – and featuring a certain Stevie Wonder on harmonica.
Head Hunters was Hancock’s 1973 transition into jazz-funk territory, an audacious album rejected at the time by the “jazz community”, whose very existence seems antithetical to the enterprise. Surely if you oppose experimentation in jazz you oppose jazz full stop.
In any case, Herbie had always been commercial and funky (two of his most popular hits in the early ’60s were ‘Watermelon Man’ and ‘Cantaloupe Island’), before pushing the boundaries of jazz on his highly experimental ’70s “Mwandishi”-era albums (on Warner Bros. of all places).
Herbie performed another musical revolution at the 1984 Grammys when he played his hit ‘Rockit’ with a keytar, breakdancers and Grand Mixer D.ST on decks, marking the first time a general audience had seen anyone scratch records (to say nothing of the disembodied robot legs).
But the roots of hip-hop date back to the Headhunters era, which culminated in Man-Child, with its gorgeous album artwork and sharply titled opener ‘Hang Up Your Hang Ups’ – a buoyant funk workout characterised by bouncy guitars, greasy chords and stabbing horns. And if the jazz purists remain unconvinced, listen to Herbie’s solo 5 minutes in. If there’s such thing as the Funk Community, this could well be their anthem.
I’ll leave you with that iconic Grammys performance – and pop your body over to our ‘Kings Of The Keys’ playlist for more from this living legend.
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