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Herbie Hancock Album - V.S.O.P., Vol. 1
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Release Date:1997-09-29
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Type:Unknown
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Genre:Fusion, Modern Jazz, Funk
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Label:Sony Jazz
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Explicit Lyrics:Yes
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UPC:5099748656926
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Review :
{^V.S.O.P.} is a landmark album in the history of {\jazz}, though not at all in the way it was intended. {$George Wein} organized a {$Herbie Hancock} retrospective concert at the 1977 {~Newport Jazz Festival} in New York where three bands from {$Hancock}'s past and present -- the 1965-1968 {$Miles Davis Quintet} with {$Freddie Hubbard} deputizing for the indisposed {$Miles}, the 1969-1973 sextet, and {$Hancock}'s then-current {\jazz-funk} outfit -- would share the stage. As things turned out, it was the {$Miles} band reunion that grabbed most of the attention, leading to several tours which in turn inspired a whole generation of young musicians (led by {$Wynton Marsalis}) to turn their backs upon electronics and make {\bop}-grounded acoustic {\jazz} the lingua franca of {\jazz} for the rest of the 20th century. This is not the outcome the forward-looking {$Hancock} would have preferred, but you cannot deny that he, {$Hubbard}, {$Wayne Shorter}, {$Ron Carter} and {$Tony Williams} sound marvelously in sync with each other, playing in a free-flowing, {\post-bop} style none of them had touched in years. ({$Hancock} is actually playing a Yamaha electric grand piano, not an acoustic grand -- there's a substantial sonic difference, yet one that went unremarked upon by otherwise-watchful purists at the time). The concert also turned out to be a farewell to the great {$Hancock Sextet} (which has yet to reunite on records); this group actually made the most absorbing, adventurous music of that evening, with trumpeter {$Eddie Henderson} laying a more credible claim to {$Miles}' pithy idiom than {$Hubbard} had earlier. The sextet plays only two numbers: {&"Toys"} and {&"You'll Know When You Get There."} It's a pity there isn't more. The two-LP set concludes with a somewhat disappointing {\jazz-funk} set from a post-{$Headhunters} edition band with {$Bennie Maupin} and {$Paul Jackson} as holdovers. They don't quite raise the temperature, or the complexity level as high as earlier {$Hancock} {\jazz-funk} outfits. The contrast between {$Hancock}'s present on this given day and his illustrious past was no doubt used as ammunition by the back-to-{\bop} crowd to proclaim that "{\fusion}" has got to go, which was unfair. The reverberations from this concert continue to this day. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
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