Epitome Of Jazz Funk

A real period piece from the decade that taste forgot, Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock is one of the best selling jazz albums of all time ( if you consider it to be a jazz album ) Fusion, or jazz funk, the disk is redolent of massive afros, wide collars, high waisted flares and platform shoes. Of course, Miles Davis had been experimenting with electric keyboards and bass with the band that Hancock was a part of and various offshoots like the Mahavishnu Orchestra were also around but Head Hunters was the most overt attempt at danceable funk and making a direct appeal to contemporary black audiences. It's still a reasonable listen and easy to move around to but I'm not convinced of the lasting value of the album over and above superior dance music. it has had a wide influence but more in the contemporary r 'n' b and hip hop field than in jazz. Built largely around riffs culled from the likes of Sly Stone and James Brown as well as a drastic reworking of Hancock's own Watermelon Man, there isn't a great deal of virtuoso soloing, the aim being more that of producing a tight ensemble sound, again like a soul band. Apart from Hancock himself on a number of electric keyboards and synths, any soloing that there is comes courtesy of Bennie Maupin. Maybe I've been a little too dismissive, as far as the field of jazz funk goes, this is just about the archetypal album.