THE HERBIE HANCOCK GROUP: HEAD HUNTERS

While Herbie Hancock is one of the most talented jazz keyboard players, his fusion, while very popular, leaves much to be desired. Compared to the great fusion bands of the seventies, Return To Forever, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Brand X, to name a few, Hancock's fusion is terribly simplistic and repetitious. The music is much more grounded in straight funk than most fusion. Perhaps that explains the commercial success of this one.

The opening track, Chameleon is essentially one simple funk riff, played repeatedly, with a break at the end of each section. The jam takes off, gets quite good, but never enters into the realm of great. And long before the song's fifteen minute mark, you may find yourself longing for the ending.

Watermelon Man, originally on Hancock's "Takin' Off" album in 1962, was by this time a jazz standard. The version here is slightly funkier, and a bit slower than the original, and to my ears, far inferior.

Sly is more in the line of Miles Davis' brand of fusion, and is in effect, nuch better than the first two tracks. Both the rhythm tracks and the soloing are much more accomplished, and more enjoyable than the first side of the album.

Vein Melter closes the album with a very smooth piece, that almost gets marred by Hancock's string synths, and some just odd sounding patches.

I know this is though of as a classic, but while containing some nice moments, it's really just barely average.