"The Prisoner" has got to be the most overlooked recording in Herbie Hancock's catalog. This gem is blessed with great music and some intense solos - especially from saxophonist Joe Henderson and trombonist Garnett Brown. I love the way the bass clarinets and trombones make this music float and swing without getting too heavy. Buster Williams (Bass) and Albert Heath (Drums) provide the perfect rhythm section for Herbie to dance and dazzle while Hubert laws and Jerome Richardson provide some colorful Flute to give these compositions added beauty. As a group, this band is tight and one the mark. Beautiful compositions plus intense group chemistry equals five stars for this well polished recording. Check it out!!!

The unbearable Dave Matthews band gets so much attention, while this beautiful work of art is ignored? The music here is like a romantic walk through Central Park on a cool, crisp day in October. It's got the great, late Joe Henderson doing some fine work and Gil Evans trumpet player Johnny Coles laying down some melodic sounds. In fact, the album was influenced primarily by Evans. If you want some soothing sonic brilliance to keep you company, give this a try.

This is the time when Herbie is drifting slowly towards the funk session. The numbers from this album will make you feel the same. A solid lineup with Al Tootie Heath on drums accompanied by Joe Henderson is quite a unique masterpiece.

Big Thanks to Mr. Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio who has recorded some everlasting Jazz classics and this is one of them.

Herbie Hancock's "The Prisoner" has been locked up for more than ten years. It was first released on CD in the late 80s only to be deleted a few years later. Then it was paroled in the mid-90s, but only available in limited numbers through the Collector's Choice program. At long last, justice has been served, and "The Prisoner" has been pardoned by Governor Rudy Van Gelder. While I am glad it has been made available (I wish everything could be in print), I have always found "The Prisoner" do be a disappointing, lackluster effort. Here Hancock builds on the larger group stylings of "Speak Like A Child," and employs a band that includes the wonderful, underrated trumpeter Johnny Coles. But the sound is more commercial than any of Hancock's other six Blue Note albums. Of course, Hancock would continue to produce financially successful mainstream jazz, most notably with "Headhunters," but the music is much more realized and enjoyable than it is on this transitional session. Personally, I would give this disc only three stars, but I know there are people out there who will enjoy this title, so I'll give it four stars to avoid any unnecessary confrontations. But I think it boils down to this, if your favorite Hancock CDs are the inventive and exploratory "Empyrean Isles" and "Maiden Voyage," then you may want to pass on this disc. But if you love the Complete Warner Brothers recordings or Herbie's 70s material, "The Prisoner" is yours.

This is my beloved Herbie right after he left Miles and right before becoming an herb in the fussion stew. This is probably the most dense music he ever made--all those years at Blue Note and he never used horns with this thickness.


Nothing really stands out in the band, but that is the point. The music on Prisonor is about layers and layers of clouds. The horns and the panio mesh completely, and you really have to listen, many times. Over these listens, the Prisonor penatrates.

This is also Herbie's darkest. Martan Luther King had just been killed, and no one had the race tiger by the tail. Things were getting increasing militant--understandably so.

It was pretty dark out there in 1969, and the music here personifies this.

After this, Herbie moved to the jubulant funk of Fat Albert Rotunda. As if to prove even potential insurrection would not keep this happy master worried for too long.