MAN-CHILD

I like jazz-fusion generally and some early Hancock work ("Sextant" time) as well. But "Headhunters" story is different thing. Starting from very commercially successful "Head Hunters"album Hancock change his dirrection to funk-fusion. And if in "Head Hunters"album there were just first steps ( but with bigger variety of songs), "Man -Child " is top-point.

It means, that Hancock and co. modernised their music till highest technique in funk-fusion. If you like accent on musicanship technique ( in funk-jazz,anyway) ,possibly you will like this album.

I affraid, that high technique showed another problem : style limited musical abilities. As a result ,you hear here 6 absolutely similar musical pieces, all with pulsating funk rhythm, precision musicianship, and ... boring. Same rhythm and structure hypnotyze you to death!

After few first songs I got a feeling I'm on James Brown concert ( only charismatic figure of late James was a reason why this music still was listenable). But as usual with pure funk, very soon you understand that all the time you're listening one very long song. In fact, there is no melody, just concentration on specific rhythm.

Big advance is that the music is performed by great musicians. But even that can't save you from boredom during listening.