This is the only Hancock album I own but being intrested in all styles of music I wanted to give this a try.
Hancock is a very talented keyboard player, who with his very tight 4 piece band and his large bank of synthesisers and electric keyboards creates all sorts of radical and new sounds in jazz that shook the jazz world in 1973.
First track chameleon is based on a low analog synth riff and off beat drum rythm, that starts the album off on a very rythmic and slightly minimal note. This is then followed by the eerie 'watermelon man', starting off with an amazing african percussion section by Bill summers, and gradually a jazzy bass line creaps in, leading the way to another great slice of jazz fusion, complete with sax solos and funky harmonies. 'sly' is essentially a tribute to the music of sly stone, the famous funk musician, and is a long jam full of trademark clavicords, complex rythms and a very free funky style.
The album ends on a more chilled out note, with 'vein melter', Hancock using his synthesiser to create a very dense string section against the ever virtuoso backing of his percussion section and solo wizzadry of Bennie Maupin's woodwind.
This is a must for all fans of funk, fusion and quality modern jazz. Never mind what the traditionalists say!
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Outstanding
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album. Hancock's already-storied career had included an extended tenure with Miles Davis as a member of both the classic quintet of the 1960s and the trumpeter's groun...
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