Thrust - Herbie Hancock (1974)
ideated from: 1974 was a great year for jazz
Here’s the deal: I’ll stop talking about Hancock when people outside the jazz world start talking more about how foundational he was to American music in the second half of the 20th century.
OK, no I probably won’t.
The 70s saw him switch from bop and post-bop to much bolder funk. By 1974 he was out in front of the pack, leading modern fusion bands through some great music–still jazz, for sure, but with the popping, snaking, whirling rhythms of the funk being played by James Brown and Parliament.
If you want to argue with me that Hancock’s version of funk is more restrained and cerebral than Parliament’s jam band mentality or Brown’s rolling party machine, I’ll understand. But that doesn’t make it any less effective, or any less fun.
Here he plays electric piano, clavinet, and a handful of wickedly cheesy blasts of ARP synth
I’ll grant you that there might very well have been edits done after the recording, but I think it’s a fun little nod to what a businesslike professional mind Hancock had in addition to being a visionary musician. You got about 20 minutes on a side of vinyl, so Hancock crafted four songs that took up almost exactly 20 minutes on each side, with no fade-outs at the end. For as inventive as the man was, he seldom just let the tape roll without a plan.
