The Herbie Hancock Box

The Herbie Hancock from Maiden Voyage is not the same Herbie from Head Hunters . And he is definitely not the same as the Herbie from Future Shock . And if you got interested in Herbie, or perhaps only re-aquainted, after his very successful album of last year, River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) , then you will be further confused still. That is because no other living artist truly has covered as much ground in the world of music as Mr. Hancock. And when you are a part of the very demanding and sometimes rigid world of Jazz, no artist can be as confusing as Herbie either. For starters, I want to admit that while I own many Herbie Hancock albums I have not collected all the various re-releases of his work as I have with other Jazz artists. That is why so much of this box set was a surprise to me. I was surprised to be reminded that he had composed the theme to the movie Death Wish , and even more surprised by the scratch infused hip-hop and break-dancing anthem Rockit being his as well. In that sense this box set provided some education. And yet the bulk of this box can really be enjoyed on the Maiden Voyage and Head Hunters albums combining live selections from V.S.O.P.: Live Under the Sky and sprinkling in tunes from The Piano and Secrets . So those who already own those albums ( which will probably be 90% of Mr. Hancock's audience ) will find themselves wondering whether this box is worth it for them. For starters, these recordings showcase great musicians. It comes as no surprise that while Herbie has been a leader of many Jazz greats, the majority of this album was recorded with the VSOP cast of all-stars, which is basically the group that formed Miles Davis' second famous quintet: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Ron Carter on bass, Tony Williams on drums along with Herbie on keys. The irony of that is that history would have been forever changed if Miles had joined on with Herbie when he stepped out from the shadow. But it was not in the cards. You must also add in the amazing Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, and he has some nice moments on several tracks. You've also got tracks with Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, and Bobby McFerrin as well. Where this album really shines is in the remastering. I am not a "remastering purist" and many such re-releases are not "must-owns" as far as I'm concerned. But here you can truly re-hear these albums in their full glory. The amount of nuances and clarity that are added here makes listening to this worthwhile. I must say that disk 4 of this set might have been re-thought. Some of the fusion and R&B songs are kind of mixed in with the jazz songs in an ordering that may be logical but does not lend to the best listening experience. Perhaps there were not enough disks to include all his best work, but they seem to have chosen to go for the most known works instead. I think the box is attractive. The product picture makes it look black and white, but it's more purple and white than what it appears. But the box itself, while durable plastic coated cardboard stock, does not seem to be as functional as it could be. No sleeve holds the book inside, and it will slide out easily. This means to protect this over time you will really have to handle it gently. The book itself has a little paragraph about each song, and appears to be in Herbie's voice. I'm not sure if he actually dictated his notes to somebody or wrote them and had them edited and transcribed into the booklet. While the content of the liner book is great, the paper seems somewhat stiff and all the photos are monochrome. I really feel like Herbie deserved perhaps a little bit better packaging of a box set with his name on it! So they may have decided to try to do too much by making a box that's supposed to represent all of Herbie Hancock and yet only including 4 disks. They probably would have done better to create 2 box sets, one jazz only and another with the more experimental fusion works. Or they might have wanted to expand this set out to 5 or 6 disks. Either way, this comes across as an introduction and overview of key albums of his career. It will be most useful for the novice or for those who are not very familiar with Herbie's work. The other thing that is somewhat perplexing is the way some of the live versions on this set are marked as "album" versions because the original live recordings were taken from the album. Live is live. Just listen to "The Eye of the Hurricane" and you'll know what I mean. This is a worthwhile purchase as long as you know what you are looking for. I for one am satisfied. While I thought about docking a star for some of the cons, the quality of the remastered recordings themselves just makes me unable to do that. All I have to do is listen to this and all the shortcomings fade away. In that lies the one thing that should make at least some die-hard fans a little happy with this set. Give it a listen on a very nice headset and you will hear lots to love. And I hope you give this box set a try. Enjoy!

I pretty much own everything every record for sales by Herbie Hancock, but this Box has some of his best stuff, making it a great introduction to newbie and old head fans of jazz.

wonderful!

It's absolutely fine. I loved it. A taste of Hancock's life in music.

If you want a sample of all his work, this is the one to get. I love it and have it copied to my hard drive, and the Box set sets on my display of most prized CD- box sets (in the company of Minie Riperton imports, Vanity 6, Madhouse, Ledisi (first 2 cd's), Hi recoreds box set, What is hip box set, and others) I say that to say this one one to have displayed some place. But you have to have it on your mp3 player! I can list 2 one cd from this set and it will have me grovin for weeks. If you listen to the songs on the cd you will be surpise at how many people have sampled his songs. Pick it up while it's easy to find.

Until now, there really hasn't been a collection that covers the full spectrum of Herbie Hancock's talents. The first two discs of the set give a snapshot of Herbie's strengths in acoustic jazz. Though it is unfortunate that no Blue Note recordings from the 1960s were included, they won't be terribly missed. Instead, the box includes a generous helping of music originally released only in Japan during the 1970s. Some tracks were recorded live with the V.S.O.P. quintet (with Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) while others were recorded as a trio with Carter and Williams, or purely solo. A couple of personal highlights for me were the live V.S.O.P. recording of the Williams composition "Para Oriente" and the trio recording of "Milestones." The rhythms on the latter especially are influenced by the electric music Hancock and Williams were concurrently creating, and make for a very original sounding approach to the jazz trio. This approach is being further explored today by the up-and-coming New York jazz trio The Bad Plus. The other two discs cover Herbie's wide range of electric jazz/funk/dance recordings. Disc three primarily focuses on the much loved "Headhunters" style funk, drawing material from that album as well as "Thrust," "Manchild," "Secrets," the "Death Wish" soundtrack and even a track from 1980's unjustly overlooked "Mr. Hands" featuring Jaco Pastorius on bass. Disc four combines some more material from that period with highlights from his '80s collaborations with Bill Laswell. Overall, this box makes a great case for Herbie Hancock's importance in jazz and pop music. His acoustic work was innovative in its time and is still enjoyed today, while his electric work was sometimes very commercially successful and sometimes widely reviled. The tracks from that period presented here sound amazingly contemporary, and have found an audience in much the same way that Miles Davis' misunderstood '70s recordings are now being praised. As for the packaging, personally I love it. I concur with the reviewer who likened it to a piece of art. It looks really stylish and acts as a great conversation piece, much like the music contained within.

I think this box set is great. Herbie has always wanted to make a point weather it be through his music or in this case the package design of this box set. It sits on my desk and it looks like a piece of art. Everyone that comes over my house looks at it and asks what it is. The Cd's look like they are floating inside the plexi-glass case and the book that comes with the set is really cool too. If you just relax and be patient with opening it there really insn't a problem with getting the Cd's in and out of the case. Yes, it took me about thirty seconds to try to figure out how to "slide" it open, but who cares. I think that it's an interesting and cutting edge design that not only contains great music, but is a conversation piece in itself.

Scelta dei brani per quanto mi riguarda opinabile, pur essendo stato compilato da Hancock stesso. Il cofanetto presenta 4 CD di cui due prevalentemente acustici: da solo, in duo con Chick Corea, con il gruppo VSOP al completo o parte dei componenti dello stesso gruppo (Carter, Williams, Shorter, Hubbard). Brani sia in studio che dal vivo: il tutto attinto da varie incisioni anni '70 e '80. Altri 2 CD sono dedicati al materiale elettronico dello stesso periodo anni '70/'80. Ho trovato di relativamente scarso interesse il materiale con i 4 componenti dello storico secondo quintetto di Davis ai quali si aggiunge Hubbard in sostituzione della tromba di Miles. Conoscendo a menadito il repertorio davisiano in studio e dal vivo non trovo molto di interessante le performance in cui si rifà il repertorio davisiano (senza nulla togliere al bravissimo Hubbard). Per quanto riguarda la parte elettrica ci sono cose per me più interessanti ma intervallate da episodi davvero trascurabili con brani datati e inconsistenti che non avremmo mai voluto considerare parte della discografia di Hancock. La parte più interessante dell'Hancock elettronico è quella dei primissimi anni '70 col gruppo Mwandishi (vedi cofanetto della Warner pubblicato nel 2014...) più il successivo album dello stesso gruppo (pubblicato per la Columbia e di cui qui è presentata solo una traccia...) e gli album della fase inziale degli Headhunters. Qualche altra cosa buona si trova anche nella produzione successiva ma il periodo da metà anni '70 a metà anni '80 è davvero da prendere con le pinze. Comunque per circa 13/14 euro di spesa mi ritengo soddisfatto e dopo 20 e passa anni ad ascoltare questo piansita sia come leader che come parte di varie band in decine e decine di album mi son pure tolto lo sfizio di farmi una panoramica dell'Hancock più trash. Il box non è più l'ingombrante, scomodissimo e costosissimo box di plexiglass che uscì in origine qualche anno fa. Ora è solo scomodissimo, senza avere per questo un prezzo folle e occupare mezzo metro cubo. Il cofanetto è di cartone e identico alle recenti riedizioni dei cofanetti di Miles Davis della Columbia o alla riedizione del purple box di Hendrix. Un appunto a questi box c'è da farlo (e non sono il primo, tutt'altro...): l'alloggiamento dei CD sembra studiato da un designer minus habens perché togliere e mettere i CD in questi cofanetti vuol dire praticamente graffiarli ogni volta pur prestandoci il massimo di attenzione. Tra l'altro gli altri cofanetti citati avevano almeno i CD serigrafati e c'è modo di estrarre e togliere con una certa cautela senza arrecare troppo danno. Questi al contrario non hanno nemmeno la parte superiore serigrafata che permetterebbe di esercitare un po' di pressione senza lasciare ditate sulla superficie. O le ditate o i graffi. A voi la scelta. Oppure togliere i CD e metterli altrove (scelta più consigliabile). Interessante il libretto con introduzioni ai brani dello stesso Hancock. Per farla breve: musicalmente salvo 50% del contenuto e spero in un futuro dove il design sia davvero "design" guidato da un pensiero e non mero styling decerebrato.

A n immaculate overview of an artist who never stood still ,and like Miles ,changed and re wrote jazz idiom. Great price --and no daft box prism this time!

Excelente recopilación de la extensa obre de Mr. Hands en la década de los 70 y 80. Dos CD de música funk/electric y dos de jazz acústico. En el libro aparecen comentarios para cada uno de los temas. El pedido llegó mucho antes de lo previsto, todo bien.

Excellent

Maravilhoso!