CON GAMES: Back In The Day With Herbie Hancock

June 21st, 2007 at 04:57am Michael Conniff 2

Buried deep in the bowels of my musical archives are a set of live tapes recorded at the Jazz Workshop and Paul's Mall in Boston in the Year of our Lord 1973. A local radio station played the sets live, and when I went to the shows myself I smuggled in a tape recorder that captured equal parts mud and magic. Everyone seemed to come through that year: Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, George Benson, Mose Allison, Return To Forever, McCoy Tyner in his "Sahara" moment--and, twice, Herbie Hancock.

Herbie Hancock before and after, that is.

The Herbie Hancock "before" was "Mwandishi." The "after" was a phenomenon known as "Headhunters."

It all happened, more or less, within a year: Hancock went from the way-way-out tribal madness of "Mwandishi" to the blockbuster funkadelic success of "Headhunters." And here's the amazing thing: they were both out of sight, the monster at his most masterful, and my guess is tonight when he plays under the tent in Rio Grande Park at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June hoedown that we will hear smidges of both.

Hancock was already in the Hall of Fame before Mwandhishi with his break-the-bank work as a sideman when Miles Davis plugged in. Everyone has their favorites, but his organ solo on "Right Off," a whole-side cut of "A Tribute to Jack Johnson" by Miles Davis, is one of the great moments in musical history for me and always will be--I've listened to it at least five hundred times. Long before that, he was already in the books as a more traditional jazz composer and pianist of the first rank.

One of his early compositions, "Watermelon Man," became a classic jazz standard and, later, the engine that drove "Headhunters." Without question, his move from chaos to funk was driven by commercial considerations, but what always amazed me about the "Headhunters" phase is Herbie Hancock never missed a beat: he wore both hats with a snazzy, jazzy tilt.

These memories from 33 years ago remind me of something my older brother the musician once quoted: "To play outside, you have to be able to play inside."

Herbie Hancock can play anywhere he wants, including right here in Aspen, and in any style. It just doesn't get any better than him. 

Entry Filed under: Music, Aspen, Colorado, Con Games, Stars, Pitkin County, Jazz, Pop, United Post