Herbie Hancock - Herbie Hancock: Hits & Rarities '2022

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Overture (Fascinating Rhythm)
02. Blueberry Rhyme
03. What Is This Thing Called Love?
04. Hale-Bopp, Hip-Hop
05. Ostinato (Live/1978)
06. Here Come De Honey Man
07. All I Want
08. Berangere's Nightmare #2
09. Manhattan (Island Of Lights And Love)
10. It's About That Time (Live At Carnegie Hall/1994)
11. Riot (Remastered)
12. The Pleasure Is Mine (Remastered)
13. Embraceable You
14. Prelude In C# Minor
15. Miyako
16. All Apologies
17. Summertime
18. Cotton Tail
19. The Jungle Line
20. Tea For Two (Live At Carnegie Hall/1994)
21. Your Gold Teeth II
22. River
23. Joanna's Theme
24. Go
25. Cantaloupe Island
26. The Sorcerer (Remastered)
27. Three Bags Full (Remastered)
28. Diana
29. The Man I Love
30. Toys (Remastered)
31. First Trip (Remastered)
32. Solitude
33. Jack Rabbit (Remastered)
34. St. Louis Blues
35. Turn Out The Stars (Live At Carnegie Hall/1994)
36. The Eye Of The Hurricane (Remastered)
37. Aung San Suu Kyi (Album Version)
38. Memory Of Enchantment
39. Etcetera
40. Meridianne - A Wood Sylph
41. Call Sheet Blues
42. Empty Pockets (Remastered)
43. When Can I See You
44. Playground
45. Tom Thumb
46. Sonrisa
47. The Maze (Remastered)
48. He Who Lives In Fear (Remastered)
49. Alone And I
50. Kumbasora (Live At The Wiltern Theatre/1986)
51. Kryptonite
52. The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)
53. And What If I Don't Know (Remastered)
54. Edith And The Kingpin
55. The Poet (Live At Massey Hall / 2001)
56. Penelope
57. You've Got It Bad Girl
58. King Cobra (Remastered)
59. Driftin' (Remastered)
60. Don't Even Go There
61. Seven Teens
62. Watermelon Man (Remastered)
63. Goodbye To Childhood (Remastered)
64. Schizophrenia
65. It's Only A Paper Moon
66. Toy Tune
67. Succotash (Remastered)
68. Both Sides Now
69. Amelia
70. Firewater (Remastered)
71. Court And Spark
72. Nefertiti
73. Naima (Live At Massey Hall / 2001)
74. A Case Of You (Short Version)
75. Manhatten Lorelei
76. One Finger Snap
77. Blind Man, Blind Man (Remastered)
78. Little B's Poem (Live At Town Hall, New York/1985)
79. Yams
80. Harlem In Havana
81. Jimbasing (Live At The Wiltern Theatre/1986)
82. Visitor From Nowhere
83. The Prisoner (Remastered)
84. Sweet Bird
85. Promise Of The Sun (Remastered)
86. Norwegian Wood
87. Speak Like A Child (Remastered 2004)


 moreHaving taken up the piano at age seven, Hancock quickly became known as
a prodigy, soloing in the first movement of a Mozart piano concerto with the
Chicago Symphony at the age of 11. After studies at Grinnell College, Hancock
was invited by Donald Byrd in 1961 to join his group in New York City, and
before long, Blue Note offered him a solo contract. His debut album, Takin' Off,
took off after Mongo Santamaria covered one of the album's songs, "Watermelon
Man." In May 1963, Miles Davis asked him to join his band in time for the Seven
Steps to Heaven sessions, and he remained with him for five years, greatly
influencing Davis' evolving direction, loosening up his own style, and, upon
Davis' suggestion, converting to the Rhodes electric piano. During that time,
Hancock's solo career blossomed on Blue Note, as he poured forth increasingly
sophisticated compositions like "Maiden Voyage," "Cantaloupe Island," "Goodbye
to Childhood," and the exquisite "Speak Like a Child." He also played on many
East Coast recording sessions for producer Creed Taylor and provided a
groundbreaking score to Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up, which gradually
led to further movie assignments.

Having left the Davis band in 1968, Hancock recorded an elegant funk album, Fat
Albert Rotunda, and in 1969 formed a sextet that evolved into one of the most
exciting, forward-looking jazz-rock groups of the era. By then deeply immersed
in electronics, Hancock added Patrick Gleeson's synthesizer to his Echoplexed,
fuzz-wah-pedaled electric piano and clavinet, and the recordings became spacier
and more complex rhythmically and structurally, creating their own corner of the
avant-garde. By 1970, all of the musicians used both English and African names
(Herbie's was Mwandishi). Alas, Hancock had to break up the band in 1973 when it
ran out of money, and having studied Buddhism, he concluded that his ultimate
goal should be to make his audiences happy.

The next step, then, was a terrific funk group whose first album, Head Hunters,
with its Sly Stone-influenced hit single, "Chameleon," became the
biggest-selling jazz LP up to that time. Handling all of the synthesizers
himself, Hancock's heavily rhythmic comping often became part of the rhythm
section, leavened by interludes of the old urbane harmonies. Hancock recorded
several electric albums of mostly superior quality in the '70s, followed by a
turn into disco around the decade's end. In the meantime, Hancock refused to
abandon acoustic jazz. After a one-shot reunion of the 1965 Miles Davis Quintet
(Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Freddie Hubbard sitting
in for Miles) at New York's 1976 Newport Jazz Festival, they went on tour the
following year as V.S.O.P. The near-universal acclaim of the reunions proved
that Hancock was still a whale of a pianist; that Miles' loose mid-'60s post-bop
direction was far from spent; and that the time for a neo-traditional revival
was near, finally bearing fruit in the '80s with Wynton Marsalis and his ilk.
V.S.O.P. continued to hold sporadic reunions through 1992, though the death of
the indispensable Williams in 1997 cast much doubt as to whether these
gatherings would continue.

Hancock continued his chameleonic ways in the '80s: scoring an MTV hit in 1983
with the scratch-driven, electro-influenced single "Rockit" (accompanied by a
striking video); launching an exciting partnership with Gambian kora virtuoso
Foday Musa Suso that culminated in the swinging 1986 live album Jazz Africa;
doing film scores, and playing festivals and tours with the Marsalis brothers,
George Benson, Michael Brecker, and many others. After his 1988 techno-pop
album, Perfect Machine, Hancock left Columbia (his label since 1973), signed a
contract with Qwest that came to virtually nothing (save for A Tribute to Miles
in 1992), and finally made a deal with Polygram in 1994 to record jazz for Verve
and release pop albums on Mercury.

Well into a youthful middle age, Hancock's curiosity, versatility, and capacity
for growth showed no signs of fading, and in 1998 he issued Gershwin's World.
His curiosity with the fusion of electronic music and jazz continued with 2001's
Future 2 Future, but he also continued to explore the future of straight-ahead
contemporary jazz with 2005's Possibilities. An intriguing album of jazz
treatments of Joni Mitchell compositions called River: The Joni Letters was
released in 2007 and won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2008. Two years
later, Hancock released his The Imagine Project album, recorded in seven
countries with a host of collaborators including Dave Matthews, Juanes, and
Wayne Shorter. He was also named Creative Chair for the New Los Angeles
Philharmonic. In 2013, he was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors award,
acknowledged for his contribution to American performing arts. An expanded tenth
anniversary edition of River: The Joni Letters was released in 2017, and he
continues to perform regularly. ~ Richard S. Ginell
Related Releases:
Bill Evans: Hits and Rarities
Chet Baker: Hits and Rarities
Miles Davis: Hits and Rarities

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