Herbie
Hancock’s The Complete Columbia Album
Collection 1972-1988 brings together, for the first time, Hancock’s complete
Columbia Records and CBS/Sony Japan catalog. This deluxe 34-CD box set will
be released on November 12, 2013, just in time for the holiday season.
Hancock's
catalog on Columbia and CBS/Sony Japan is a microcosm of musical development in
the 1970s and '80s, and an uncannily accurate forecast of many trends that
would follow. Those developments played out over the course of 31 albums,
of which 8 have never been issued in the U.S. (or outside of Japan), 3 others
have never been issued on CD in the U.S. (Sunlight, Magic Windows, Lite Me Up),
and some that were issued on CD have been out of print for years. Most
importantly, all of them have never been gathered in one box set collection
before.
This incredible box set is a includes 28 single albums and three
double-CD albums (for a total of 34 discs). Each album will be packaged in a
mini-LP CD cardboard replica of the original jacket, with original artwork
including gatefold jackets where applicable.
Accompanying
the discs will be a 200-page book, published exclusively for this
collection. In addition to dozens of rare photographs, the book will
contain several sections, starting with a comprehensive 5,500-word historical
essay written by Bob Belden. Belden has won three Grammy Awards for his
work with Columbia/Legacy on The Miles Davis Series, including album notes
(twice) and compilation producer. An accomplished jazz composer,
arranger, bandleader, and recording artist in his own right, Belden has served
as CD reissue producer at Legacy for the Hancock albums Head Hunters, Sextant,
Thrust, The Piano, V.S.O.P.: Live Under the Sky, Future
Shock, Sound-System, and Perfect Machine.
Also
included in the book will be sidebars on Hancock as pianist, composer and
synthesist, written by Belden. Schlueter has written a sidebar on noted
record producer David Rubinson, who produced all but six of the albums in the
box set, and is also known for his productions of Santana, Taj Mahal, the
Pointer Sisters and the Chambers Brothers. A special sidebar is devoted
to Hancock's late sister Jean Hancock, who contributed lyrics to many of his
songs. And another unique feature of the book is a glossary of the more
than 60 different electronic instruments played by Hancock and the other
musicians over the course of the recordings.
The book
will also contain individual commentaries on all 31 albums by Hancock
discographer/historian Max Schlueter. The third major element of the book is
one of the most detailed discographies ever included in a Legacy box set,
assembled by box producer Richard Seidel.
Included are full musician lineups and instrumentation, recording data
(dates, producers, engineers, mixers, studios, etc.), exact original release
dates in both the U.S. and Japan, cross references for additional appearances
of various songs elsewhere in the box, Billboard chart information, R.I.A.A.
certifications, and a short-form discography of Hancock's solo recording career
before and after his Columbia years.
In the
stream of modern jazz during the last decades of the 20th century, the imprint
left by pianist, keyboardist, synthesist, composer, arranger, producer, and
bandleader Herbie Hancock on jazz, fusion, pop music, R&B, disco, hip-hop,
electronica and more – including his beloved traditional post-bop – spans
generations. (His pioneering use of the Vocoder – precursor to T-Pain's
use of Auto-tune – is just the tip of the iceberg.) His 14 Grammy Awards
and one Oscar are emblematic of the Buddhist principles of inclusion and
collaboration that course through the ebb and flow of his career.
At the
heart of that career are his 16 productive years as a Columbia and CBS/Sony
(Japan) recording artist from 1972 to 1988, by far his longest, most prolific
association with any record label. Those 16 years encompassed the
evolution from the "Mwandishi" Sextet, to the Head Hunters to the
Herbie Hancock Group. The breakthrough of the V.S.O.P. recording and
touring groups with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony
Williams ignited the traditional jazz revival of the 1980s. Along with
the Herbie Hancock Trio and Quartet lineups, he is also heard on a landmark
solo electric keyboard/acoustic piano project in 1974, a full album solo
acoustic piano project in 1978, and the memorable duet concert project with
Chick Corea (also 1978). And along the way: Hancock's first digital and
direct-disc records in Japan; his MTV-pioneering downtown New York
"Rockit" breakthrough with Bill Laswell and Material; and the Death
Wish and Oscar-winning Round Midnight original motion picture soundtracks.
Each of
the eight CBS/Sony Japan albums was a unique addition to his discography:
Dedication (solo, both acoustic and electric, live in the studio, without
overdubs, 1974); Flood (the Head Hunters Band live, 1975); The Herbie Hancock
Trio (with Carter and Williams, studio, 1977, one of only two piano-trio
records Hancock has ever made, along with the 1981 set below); Tempest In The
Colosseum (V.S.O.P. with Hubbard, Shorter, Carter, and Williams, live, 1977);
Directstep (full band, studio, direct-to-disc, 1978); Five Stars (same
V.S.O.P. lineup, their only studio album, direct-to-disc, 1979); Butterfly
(full electric band with singer Kimiko Kasai, studio, 1979); and Herbie Hancock
Trio With Ron Carter + Tony Williams (studio, 1981).
Of
special note in this collection are the eight albums that were released only in
Japan, and are released now in the U.S. for the first time. They are comprised of acoustic and electric,
studio and live recordings, and several of them were notable for their
deployment of advanced audio technologies in early development in Japan, such
as digital recording and direct-to-disc. Aside from those eight albums, there
were two albums recorded and released in Japan, which were subsequently issued
in 2004 by Columbia/Legacy for the first time on CD in the U.S. (both with
bonus tracks): The Piano (solo, acoustic piano, direct-to-disc, 1978, recorded
one week after Directstep); and V.S.O.P. / Live Under The Sky (1979).
Because
of its proliferation of live concert albums, The Complete Columbia Album
Collection 1972-1988 allows the perspective of hearing and contrasting many
songs (originals as well as jazz standards) in multiple versions. For
example, "Watermelon Man" (Hancock's first "hit" record for
Mongo Santamaria back in 1963), was re-grooved by the Head Hunters on their
self-titled 1973 LP, the lineup that included Bennie Maupin (reeds), bassist
Paul Jackson, drummer Harvey Mason, and percussionist Bill Summers.
Compare it to the live concert version on Flood (CBS/Sony Japan) two summers
later in Tokyo, when guitarist Blackbyrd McKnight was on-board, and Mason had
been replaced by Mike Clark. Similarly, studio and live versions of
"Chameleon" are also heard on both albums, respectively.
Throughout
this collection, in addition to "Watermelon Man" and
"Chameleon," there are multiple versions or re-imagined, updated
versions to be discovered of "Maiden Voyage," "Canteloupe
Island," "Dolphin Dance," "Eye Of The Hurricane,"
"Speak Like A Child," "Tell Me A Bedtime Story,"
"Butterfly," "Sunlight," "I Thought It Was You,"
"Hang Up Your Hang Ups," "Rockit," and others.
A unique
personality in jazz history, Hancock has been as musically controversial as his
mentor Miles Davis – with whom he played in the "second great
quintet" from 1963 to '68 (with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony
Williams). Throughout that period, Hancock maintained a presence
recording LPs under his own name as a leader on Blue Note Records. He
also lent his talent to Blue Note sessions led by Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard,
Wayne Shorter, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson,
Stanley Turrentine, Tony Williams, and Jackie McLean, to name a few.
When
Hancock left Miles in 1968, he carved out one of the most diverse careers ever
encountered in jazz or pop. He satisfied both the artistic and the
commercial sides of his craft with acoustic and electric music made in the
studio and on tour, music that often transcended categorization.
Recording 31 albums in 16 years averages two per year – but there were years
when he released as many as four albums in one year's time (1977). Fully
half the albums in this box set collection made the Billboard Top 200 albums
chart, most of those reaching the Top 100, a rare achievement for a jazz
musician.
Along
the way, countless names passed through the tidal wave of music Hancock
created: Eddie Henderson, Buster Williams and Billy Hart in the
"Mwandishi" era; Bennie Maupin from the "Mwandishi"
era through most of the 1970s; Hubbard and Shorter as perennial members of
V.S.O.P. (with Carter and Williams); plus (to name a few) Wah Wah Watson, Ray
Parker Jr. (of "Ghostbusters" fame), Jaco Pastorius, synthesist
Patrick Gleeson, Carlos Santana, Alphonse Mouzon, Sheila E., the Brothers
Johnson, Adrian Belew, Rod Temperton of Heatwave and "Thriller"
renown, Narada Michael Walden, and, in the quartet in the summer of 1981, 19-year
old Wynton Marsalis.
In the
"Rockit" period when Hancock worked with Bill Laswell and Material,
collaborators included Michael Beinhorn, Bernard Fowler, turntablist Grand
Mixer D.ST, Anton Fier, Nicky Skopelitis, Bootsy Collins, Leroy 'Sugarfoot'
Bonner, and Ghanaian kora player Foday Musa Suso, with whom Hancock recorded an
entire duet album later in 1984. On the Round Midnight soundtrack
recorded in 1985, in addition to Carter, Williams and Shorter, players included
Bobby McFerrin, Dexter Gordon, John McLaughlin, Chet Baker, Bobby Hutcherson,
Lonette McKee, Cedar Walton, and Billy Higgins.
Herbie
Hancock: The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988 was produced for
reissue by Grammy®-winning producer Richard Seidel. Seidel's box set
credits for Legacy include the four most recent Miles Davis box sets, all of
which won several awards and polls around the world, among them the 70CD + DVD
The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection (2009) and this year's Miles
Davis Live In Europe 1969, The Bootleg Series Vol. 2. Since 2011, Seidel
has also produced for Legacy sixteen other Complete Album Collections including
titles by Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Weather Report, The Mahavishnu
Orchestra, Return To Forever, The Brecker Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz,
Paul Desmond, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, and Etta James, as well as the
Grammy®-nominated To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story box set (2008).
Herbie
Hancock: The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988 was mastered to 24/96
at Battery Studios by Mark Wilder (who has won multiple Grammy Awards for Best
Historical Album box sets on Columbia/Legacy by Miles Davis & Gil Evans,
Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday) and Maria Triana.
"Taken
in its entirety," writes Belden, "The Complete Columbia Album
Collection 1972-1988 gives the listener and reader a glimpse into the internal
philosophy of life of Herbie Hancock contained in these CDs. Rarely does
a collection of sound contain so much of a human being's revelatory
process. Within these CDs you can listen to a musician reinvent himself
time and time again, all at his terms."
Herbie
Hancock: The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988
01. Sextant (1973)
02. Head
Hunters (1973)
03. Dedication (1974)
04. Thrust (1974)
05. Death
Wish original soundtrack (1974)
06. Flood (1975)
07. Man-Child (1975)
08. Secrets (1976)09
09. V.S.O.P.
((1976)
10. The Herbie Hancock Trio (1977)
11. V.S.O.P.
/ The Quintet (1977)
12. V.S.O.P.
The Quintet: Tempest In The Colosseum (1977)
13. An
Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea In Concert (1978)
14. Sunlight (1978)
15. Feets
Don't Fail Me Now (1979)
16. Directstep (1979)
17. The
Piano (1979)
18. V.S.O.P.
The Quintet: Live Under The Sky (1979)
19. V.S.O.P.
The Quintet: Five Stars (1979)
20. Kimiko
Kasai w/ Herbie Hancock: Butterfly (1979)
21. Monster (1980)
22. Mr.
Hands (1980)
23. Magic
Windows (1981)
24. Herbie
Hancock Trio With Ron Carter + Tony Williams (1981)
25. Lite Me Up (1982)
26. Quartet
(1983)
27. Future
Shock (1983)
28. Sound-System
(1984)
29. Herbie
Hancock And Foday Musa Suso: Village Life (1985)
30. Round
Midnight Original Soundtrack (1986)
31. Perfect
Machine (1988)
