HERBIE HANCOCK - THE COMPLETE BLUE NOTE SIXTIES SESSIONS - 6 CD BOX [BLUE NOTE, 1998, USA]

This spectacular six-CD box set contains pianist-composer Herbie Hancock's entire recorded output as a leader for the Blue Note label from 1962 to 1969. This period parallels Hancock's legendary work in Miles Davis's band and documents his incorporation of Davis's concepts into his own ground-breaking brand of group improvisation.

Hancock's first recording, Takin' Off, with tenor master Dexter Gordon, yielded his first pop hit, the danceable "Watermelon Man." The next album, My Point of View, produced its similarly grooved follow-up, "Blind Man, Blind Man." Inventions and Dimensions--an underrated session--features Hancock and bassist Paul Chambers with Afro-Cuban percussion masters Osvaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez and Willie Bobo, who marvelously marry the montuno to modal scales. Hancock's percussive pianistics pepper the anthemic, Afro-Hispanic rhythms on "Succotash," and on "Triangle," Hancock and his compadres draw a melodic sketch that moves from a 4/4 blues statement, to a Latin-tinged midsection, to the blues restatement. The bolero-ballad "Mimosa" highlights Hancock's chordal approach.

Hancock's Bill Evans/Bud Powell piano synergism emerges with his impressionistic compositional style on Empyrean Isles, which is backed by the deep-toned bass lines and cyclonic drumming of fellow Miles Davis bandmates Ron Carter and Tony Williams. The turbo-charged "One Finger Snap," the melodic musings of "The Egg," and the Motown-motored "Cantaloupe Island" are brilliantly navigated by Freddie Hubbard, on cornet, and the rhythm section. On Maiden Voyage, Hubbard switched to his customary clarion trumpet, with the towering, ex-Miles tenor saxophonist George Coleman completing the frontline. With the aquamarine imagery of the sea, Hancock and crew carve their signatures into jazz immortality on the hypnotically pointed title cut, the postbop swing of "Eye of the Hurricane" and the moving midtempo "Dolphin Dance."

Speak Like a Child features Hancock with Carter, drummer Mickey Roker, and some of finest players of the day, including trumpeter Thad Jones, flutist Hubert Laws, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson. Inspired by Gil Evans's ethereal horn arrangements, Hancock goes on an inventive improvisational magic carpet ride, from the bossa-nova-breezed title track to the subdued swing of "Toys." Hancock's last session, The Prisoner, continues the horn ensemble configuration with Buster Williams on bass and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums in a darker, somber tone that echoed the turbulent times of 1969, as evidenced by "He Who Lives in Fear," and the Latinesque Martin Luther King tribute, "I Have a Dream."

Along with 12 alternate takes, the set also includes Hancock's recordings with other Blue Note artists, including mentor Donald Byrd on the hard bop waltz "Three Wishes"; alto and tenor sax greats Jackie McLean and Wayne Shorter on the blues-baked and elliptical "Yams" and "The Collector"; and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson on a straight-ahead rendition of the "Theme from Blow Up." A track from a failed 1966 R&B date, aptly entitled "Don't Even Go There," provides a forecast of Hancock's future forays in pop music. But for those who grew up on Herbie Hancock's funk-fusion offerings in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, this monumental collection is the treasure chest of his true jazz genius.

--Eugene Holley Jr.

TRACKS:

Disc: 1 [Here]

01. Three Wishes
02. Empty Pockets
03. Empty Pockets (Alt Tk)
04. Three Bags Full
05. Three Bags Full (Alt Tk)
06. Watermelon Man
07. Watermelon Man (Alt Tk)
08. The Maze
09. Driftin'
10. Alone And I
11. Yams

Disc: 2 [Part 1] [Part 2]

01. A Tribute To Someone
02. King Cobra
03. Blind Man, Blind Man
04. Blind Man, Blind Man (Alt Tk)
05. The Pleasure Is Mine
06. And What If I Don't
07. Succotash
08. Triangle
09. Mimosa (Alt Tk)

Disc: 3 [Part 1] [Part 2]

01. Mimosa
02. A Jump Ahead
03. Jack Rabbit
04. Oliloqui Valley (Alt Tk)
05. One Finger Snap
06. Canteloupe Island
07. The Egg
08. One Finger Snap (Alt Tk)
09. Oliloqui Valley

Disc: 4 [Here]

01. Maiden Voyage
02. The Eye Of The Hurricane
03. Dolphin Dance
04. Survival Of The Fittest
05. Little One
06. The Collector
07. Maiden Voyage
08. Theme From Blow Up

Disc: 5 [Here]

01. Riot (Alt Tk I)
02. Riot (Alt Tk II)
03. Riot
04. Speak Like A Child
05. First Trip
06. Goodbye To Childhood (Alt Tk)
07. Goodbye To Childhood
08. The Sorcerer
09. Toys

Disc: 6 [Here]

01. The Prisoner (Alt Tk)
02. The Prisoner
03. He Who Lives In Fear
04. I Have A Dream
05. Firewater
06. Firewater (Alt Tk)
07. Promise Of The Sun
08. Don't Even Go There