Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles
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CD Details
Artist: Herbie HancockEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1999-03-23
Music Label: Blue Note Records
Soundtracks:
- One Finger Snap
- Ololoqui Valley
- Cantaloupe Island
- The Egg
- One Finger Snap (Alternative Take)
- Oliloqui Valley (Alternative Take)
Music reviews of Empyrean Isles
Music Review: Challenging explorations
Rating: 5 Stars
Listeners mainly familiar with Hancock'spost-"Headhunters" work will be surprised by thefree-flowing, challenging compositions the pianist took on with a stripped-down unit on "Empyrean Isles." The work on this release represents some of the best music from the cauldron of change that was jazz in the '60s. When he released "Empyrean Isles," Hancock had been with Miles Davis a year, and his work on the album shows how fully he had taken advantage of the freedom that Miles offered him. Pulling his rhythm mates, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, with him into the studio, Hancock added Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. The result is a record that sounds nothing like a Miles Davis album. Instead, the pianist was able to fully satisfy his penchant for light, shimmering, ethereal melodies and tones and complex compositions. Not that he ignores catchy rhythms; "Cantalope Island," is one of the most infectious tunes in jazz. But on "The Egg," Hancock stretches out with a long, challenging composition that features lots of space and freedom. It's a great cut, one that fully challenges and engages each of the top-flight members of the quartet. A great quartet it is. You'd expect Hancock, Williams and Carter to have no trouble meshing, and they are superb together. Freddie Hubbard, given the unenviable job of replacing Miles' trumpet, takes on the task fearlessly and turns in a great overall performance on the album. He showed his success was no fluke, by the way, on Hancock's follow-up, the equally successful and enjoyable "Maiden Voyage." "Empyrean Isles" is on the short list of great Blue Note albums, which puts it in very select company indeed. Take "Chameleon," "Palm Grease," and "Rock It" off the play rotation for a while and give a listen to what Hancock sounded like when he was taking composition and jazz utterly seriously. The results were impressive.
Description of Empyrean Isles
Herbie Hancock's fourth Blue Note album with Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams defined the sound that his jazz work would carry to this day: funk, delicate harmonies and experimental improvisation all somehow working together. "One Finger Snap" and, of course, "Cantaloupe Island" have become jazz classics.Includes two bonus tracks.
Pianist and composer Herbie Hancock has had a long and varied career, during which he's enjoyed both creative and commercial success, though seldom at the same time. For many listeners, his creative peak came early, on two stunning Blue Note recordings, Maiden Voyage and the less celebrated Empyrean Isles. Recorded in 1964, Empyrean Isles is the earlier of the two and also the most radical. Hancock's quartet features Freddie Hubbard substituting a cornet for his usual trumpet, and getting a more burnished, slightly warmer sound. Without the jazz-typical saxophone present, Hancock's is almost a naked band, and the single horn blurs the lines between the pianist's mood-rich compositions and improvisation. The group uses the increased sense of space for intense collective creation, with Hancock and drummer Tony Williams pressing far beyond their instruments' usual roles and engaging Hubbard in edgy, complex dialogue, while bassist Ron Carter anchors the performances. Hubbard rises to the occasion with brilliance, responding to the stimulus with a fluency of thought and execution--a daring that built on his avant-garde experience with musicians like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. From the breezy "Oliloqui Valley" to the funky "Cantaloupe Island" and on to the dissonance of the extended "Egg," this is one of the most significant documents of the Blue Note style that emerged in the mid-'60s. It's music that tests the balance of control and risk, and Hubbard's is also one of the great performances by a trumpeter in modern jazz. --Stuart Broomer
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