Disc: 1
1969 'Fat Albert Rotunda'
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- Quietly, in New York, pianist and composer Herbie Hancock was celebrating his first success. In t6he mail that April, Hancock received a check for $3000 as a royalty payment for his song, “Watermelon Man” for a 22-year –old in 1963, this was a fortune.
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Don Cherry & Herbie Hancock, 'Bemsha Swing' Excellent. Galilei, Il Primo Libbro d'Intavolatura di Liuto; Attention. Happy Birthday, Gilberto; Thank. The Cult, 'Wild Flower' Sturgeon. Jamey Johnson, 'Some Broken Hearts Never Mend' Safely. INXS, 'The Stairs' Paul Weller, 'Come On Let's Go' Dog. Greg Brown, 'Laughing River.
Fat Albert Rotunda is the eighth album by jazzkeyboardistHerbie Hancock, released in 1969. It also was the first album that Hancock had on the Warner Bros. Records label, since leaving Blue Note Records. The music was originally done for the TV special Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, which later inspired

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Herbie Hancock Discography Blogspot
Mwandishi and Crossings was reissued in one set as Mwandishi: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings in 1994.On this album Hancock changes his style radically and takes instrumental soul music rather than jazz as the basis of his compositions. Many songs also hint at his forthcoming jazz-funk style that he fully approached a few years later. A perfect example of classic songs, such as 'Tell Me a Bedtime Story' (which later turned up also on the 1978 Quincy Jones album, Sounds...and Stuff Like That!! in a more funk-esque type song) and 'Jessica' (which later turned up on the 1977 Hancock album, VSOP: The Quintet.)
The jazz world generally looks at Herbie Hancock's 1973 jazz-funk opus Head Hunters as the keyboardist's first foray into combining the world of funk, soul and R&B rhythms with jazz improvisation, but in fact it was four years earlier with Fat Albert Rotunda that Herbie showed how funky jazz music could really be. Fat Albert Rotunda came about when Hancock was tapped to compose some soundtrack music for the 'Fat Albert' television show, after which he ended up with a full album's worth of material. It would be his first of three albums released on Warner Brothers, marking a short stop between his tenure at Blue Note and his longtime home at Columbia Records. There are, of course, major differences between Head Hunters and Fat Albert Rotunda, the main ones being the heavy use of synthesizers and only a single horn player on the former, while Hancock employed the Fender Rhodes and a full horn section on the latter. This gives Fat Albert Rotunda a more Stax/Muscle Shoals feel to the funk than Head Hunters, but there are still the basic sensibilities at work: that jazz and funk could not only co-exist, but also thrive creatively.
And the album is not only a jazz-funk experiment, but also shows that Hancock was still at a creative high point, one he had been riding since his Blue Note debut Takin' Off in 1962. While there are funky tracks like 'Fat Mama,' which must have blown away a certain segment of the jazz community (critics and musicians alike) when it was released, there are also more modern jazz-oriented tunes like the phenomenal 'Tell Me A Bedtime Story,' which other then the funky drum line is more in line with much of the soul jazz happening at the time [listen to both tracks above].
herbie-hancock-fat-albert-rotunda-back-lp
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The line-up for the session is a great one, for most of the record it is a powerhouse septet, with the likes of Johnny Coles, Joe Henderson and Albert 'Tootie' Heath leading the way. For the first and last tracks, the group is expanded into a much larger one - one of the first 'funky orchestras' maybe - with the addition of such soon-to-be '70s jazz funksters as Joe Farrell, Eric Gale and the legendary funky drummer Bernard Purdie. Everyone's playing is on-point, but more importantly it sounds like everyone is having a grand old time playing this music, which is the whole damn point in the end, is it not?
After Fat Albert Rotunda Hancock would form his 'Mwandishi' band - which was first a sextet and then a septet - and would explore a very specific kind of electronic jazz for the first time. The group would appear on Mwandishi and Crossings (on Warner Brothers), as well as on Sextant (his first record for Columbia), and these three records really stand on their own in both Hancock's discography and the history of jazz. They are in a genre all their own. After Sextant, Hancock would enter into a whole new realm of popularity and critical acclaim with Head Hunters, but one listen to Fat Albert Rotunda and you can hear the roots of that music and glimpse the vision of the man who would open up a new realm for musicians to explore and jazz aficionados to enjoy.

1. Wiggle Waggle
2. Fat Mama
Herbie Hancock Rockit
3. Tell Me A Bedtime Story4. Oh! Oh! Here He Comes
5. Jessica
6. Fat Albert Rotunda
7. Lil' Brother
Herbie Hancock Music
8. Wiggle Waggle (Mono)
9. Fat Mama (Mono)
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Personnel:
Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano
Joe Henderson — tenor sax, alto flute
Joe Farrell — tenor sax (uncredited in original LP release)
Garnett Brown — trombone
Johnny Coles — trumpet, flugelhorn
Joe Newman — trumpet (uncredited in original LP release)
Buster Williams — electric & acoustic bass
Albert 'Tootie' Heath, Bernard Purdie — drums (Purdie was uncredited in original LP release)
Eric Gale — guitar (uncredited in original LP release)
Sextant (1973)
Track listing
1. 'Rain Dance' - 9:16
2. 'Hidden Shadows' - 10:11
3. 'Hornets' - 19:35
Personnel
* Herbie Hancock - piano, Fender Rhodes, Hohner D-6 clavinet, mellotron
* Bennie Maupin - soprano sax, bass clarinet, piccolo, afuche, hum-a-zoo
* Dr. Eddie Henderson - trumpet, flugelhorn
* Julian Priester - bass trombone, tenor trombone, alto trombone, cowbell
* Buster Williams - electric bass, acoustic bass
* Billy Hart - drums
* Dr. Patrick Gleeson - ARP 2600 and Pro-Soloist
* Buck Clarke - percussion
Amazon.com essential recording
Recorded with the sly, space-funky band that Herbie Hancock formed as Mwandishi (check out the two-CD Warner Bros. collection), Sextant is one of those cornerstone jazz CDs. It ranks with the best early, electric fusion for its fuzzing of textures, always used as bedrock for killer, roomy solos. A troika of horn greats can take much of the credit for the solos: trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and saxist Bennie Maupin. Each generates great, dense ideas without betraying Hancock's eerie ambience and funky vibe. Yes, this is an aggregation of many 1970s-era ideas: renewed sense of Africanisms (at least in the band's naming), intensified percussive underpinnings, and a heap of rumbly rhythms that give props to everyone in neofunk jazz from Clyde Stubblefield to Funkadelic, albeit in a slowed, methodically rhythmic vein. Hancock's keyboards make fine clouds, as well as slinking shuffles. --Andrew Bartlett
Herbie disbanded his sextet shortly after this recording to form 'Headhunters'. Though I'm a big fan of his funk quartet it's a shame that this line of thought wasn't continued. He himself said that there was nowhere else to go with this music and perhaps he's right. However, Sextant stands as a powerful milestone in the post 'Bitch's Brew' world. Innovative in just about every respect; instrumentation, composition, use of synthesizers and incredible solos from Herbie and Eddie Henderson et al. Though this is unquestionably avant-garde the earthy (and unearthly) grooves makes it accessible to anyone with an open ear and mind. Though recorded in the early seventies this music is still fresh and futuristic. A wonderful artistic highpoint for Herbie Hancock in a career not lacking in creative highpoints. My highest recommendation!
Track listing
1. 'Rain Dance' - 9:16
2. 'Hidden Shadows' - 10:11
3. 'Hornets' - 19:35
Personnel
* Herbie Hancock - piano, Fender Rhodes, Hohner D-6 clavinet, mellotron
* Bennie Maupin - soprano sax, bass clarinet, piccolo, afuche, hum-a-zoo
* Dr. Eddie Henderson - trumpet, flugelhorn
* Julian Priester - bass trombone, tenor trombone, alto trombone, cowbell
* Buster Williams - electric bass, acoustic bass
* Billy Hart - drums
* Dr. Patrick Gleeson - ARP 2600 and Pro-Soloist
* Buck Clarke - percussion
Amazon.com essential recording
Recorded with the sly, space-funky band that Herbie Hancock formed as Mwandishi (check out the two-CD Warner Bros. collection), Sextant is one of those cornerstone jazz CDs. It ranks with the best early, electric fusion for its fuzzing of textures, always used as bedrock for killer, roomy solos. A troika of horn greats can take much of the credit for the solos: trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and saxist Bennie Maupin. Each generates great, dense ideas without betraying Hancock's eerie ambience and funky vibe. Yes, this is an aggregation of many 1970s-era ideas: renewed sense of Africanisms (at least in the band's naming), intensified percussive underpinnings, and a heap of rumbly rhythms that give props to everyone in neofunk jazz from Clyde Stubblefield to Funkadelic, albeit in a slowed, methodically rhythmic vein. Hancock's keyboards make fine clouds, as well as slinking shuffles. --Andrew Bartlett
Herbie disbanded his sextet shortly after this recording to form 'Headhunters'. Though I'm a big fan of his funk quartet it's a shame that this line of thought wasn't continued. He himself said that there was nowhere else to go with this music and perhaps he's right. However, Sextant stands as a powerful milestone in the post 'Bitch's Brew' world. Innovative in just about every respect; instrumentation, composition, use of synthesizers and incredible solos from Herbie and Eddie Henderson et al. Though this is unquestionably avant-garde the earthy (and unearthly) grooves makes it accessible to anyone with an open ear and mind. Though recorded in the early seventies this music is still fresh and futuristic. A wonderful artistic highpoint for Herbie Hancock in a career not lacking in creative highpoints. My highest recommendation!
