MAIDEN VOYAGE

Smells good; is it fusion yet? No, not by a stretch - electric instruments haven't come out to play yet, the rock and funk influences of Herbie's 1970s output aren't yet in evidence, and by and large the music here is rooted in the post-bop genre. But the same time, I detect in Herbie's subtle piano tones here a foretaste of the sort of dreamy electric piano textures which he and Chick Corea would conjure up at the behest of Miles Davis four years later on In a Silent Way. On top of that, Maiden Voyage is a perfectly strong album in its own right, offering a relaxing journey on the oceans of post-bop.