The Herbie Hancock Box

I pretty much own everything every record for sales by Herbie Hancock, but this Box has some of his best stuff, making it a great introduction to newbie and old head fans of jazz.

When I read some of the comments here about the weird translucent cube in which these CDs are packaged, I thought the criticism might be a bit over the top. But nooo! This box set package has got to be one of the all-time worst marketing devices in the history of recorded music. The music, of course, is great, and the delivery was super. But this big plastic cube is somebody's weird idea about what constitutes "cool," and it ain't. But don't let this comment direct you away from the music.

wonderful!

It's absolutely fine. I loved it. A taste of Hancock's life in music.

Don't wait. Buy this box set now !!! To much music to digest ,but what a pleasure trying.

Herbie's career spans over four decades. Two of them are captured in this box.Disc 1 contains 9 excellent acoustic jazz tracks from the late 1970s and early 1980s, featuring VSOP, Herbie's quartet with Wynton Marsalis (one track only), a solo piano track, and a nice track with Bobby McFerrin + jazz trio. One of the VSOP cuts is a live performance of Maiden Voyage, which is probably the best version I've ever heard - high energy, superb solos, great arrangement. Several of these tracks are previously unreleased (including Maiden Voyage) or available only on pricey imports.Disc 2 also focuses on acoustic jazz, featuring tracks by VSOP, the Chick Corea/Herbie Hancock duets, and a jazz trio with Tony Williams and Ron Carter, all recorded in the late 70s or early 80s. Again, several of these tracks are previously unissued or on hard-to-find imports.Disc 3 contains 9 electric funk tracks, mainly from the Headhunters era (Thrust, Sextant, Headhunters, Secrets). One of these tracks, Actual Proof, is from an excellent live double-cd import set called Flood, which you should grab if you can find a copy. Disc 3 also includes two tracks from solo albums, the 1978 release "Sunlight" and the 1980 disc "Mr. Hands", both of which should be in your collection if you're into Herbie's 1970s/80s electric jazz period.Disc 4 contains a few more Headhunters-era tracks (including the hit Chameleon), plus some newer stuff (tracks from Monster, Future Shock, Magic Windows, Sound System, and Perfect Machine). Of course, the mega-hit Rockit is included.Suspiciously absent from the Box is anything from 1977's "Feets Don't Fail Me Now," a disco album with Herbie singing corny pop tunes through a vocoder, a device that combines the shape of his voice with the tone of a synthesizer. (This Box does include one track - "Come Running To Me" - that features Herbie singing through a vocoder; it's a beautiful piece of music, though people disagree about his vocals.)Some will disagree, but I find the post Mr Hands stuff (only a few tracks in this otherwise great set) disappointing. Herbie just couldn't accept that he couldn't make great pop music the way he made great jazz music, and he kept on trying and trying with pop. By 1990 or so, I think he realized that he was doomed to be forever remembered merely as one of the best and most innovative jazz and funk pianists, composers, arrangers and band-leaders of all time, as he seems to have given up the quest for pop stardom. (However, he still flirts with pop music on occasion - check out his 1996 CD "The New Standard", which contains nice jazz versions of pop tunes by Sade, Peter Gabriel, the Beatles, and Nirvana!!!)That said, there is more than enough in this box to make it a worthwhile purchase and valuable addition to your collection. The set contains quite a few great tracks that are otherwise unavailable or hard to find. I'm pretty familiar with Herbie's entire career, and I think his acoustic jazz playing in the years covered by this set are his very best. The pre-1981 electric jazz-funk stuff is top notch. Despite my comments about the post-1981 electric stuff above, the tunes here are the best from that period, and worth having.The booklet contains a long interview with Herbie, it's mostly just Herbie talking about the various tunes in the box, and contains some interesting tidbits. It's worth reading. It also has pretty complete information about each track.Herbie did a lot of great things before any of the recordings in this box. Most notably, he played with one of Miles Davis' most famous bands, the quintet of the mid 1960s, and these recordings are captured in the excellent 4-CD set "Miles Davis Quintet: 1965-1968." Herbie also won well-deserved accolades for his solo recordings, many of which can be found in the 6-CD set "The Complete Blue Note '60s Sessions".When browsing over the various user reviews here, you will surely notice that many of them comment on the packaging. You might be shocked by this. Jazz fans, after all, normally care only about the quality of the music.Let me tell you, the packaging SUCKS. It LOOKS cool - it looks like 4 blank CDs floating in a crystal clear acrylic box. You almost want to display it in your curio or on your coffee table. But opening and closing the box is awkward. Putting the CDs back in the box and closing it is VERY difficult. The guides that hold the CDs in place are very flimsy plastic, and prone to going out of shape. Plus, the box takes up the shelf space of 12 CDs. If you buy this box, invest an extra few bucks in some jewel cases to store the CDs in, then toss the original packaging. It is far more trouble than its worth.

A word about the packaging (just to get it out of the way): I get the complaints. Wildly inefficient, in terms of use of space. But clearly it appeals to some, and if you really don't like it, you can discard it and put the CDs in thin cases. (That's what I did, largely to save space.)I used this box set as a way of catching up on music that I had missed. I've got Herbie's 60s Blue Note stuff, and I had heard Headhunters, of course (who hasn't?), but other than that, I had never really checked out what Herbie was doing in the 70s and 80s. What little I had heard led me to believe that I wouldn't be much interested. I'm pleased to learn that I was wrong. Herbie produced a lot of interesting music during those decades, and this box set gives a nice sampling of those years. (It also does a good and necessary job of avoiding missteps like "Feets Don't Fail Me Now.")

Until now, there really hasn't been a collection that covers the full spectrum of Herbie Hancock's talents.The first two discs of the set give a snapshot of Herbie's strengths in acoustic jazz. Though it is unfortunate that no Blue Note recordings from the 1960s were included, they won't be terribly missed. Instead, the box includes a generous helping of music originally released only in Japan during the 1970s. Some tracks were recorded live with the V.S.O.P. quintet (with Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) while others were recorded as a trio with Carter and Williams, or purely solo. A couple of personal highlights for me were the live V.S.O.P. recording of the Williams composition "Para Oriente" and the trio recording of "Milestones." The rhythms on the latter especially are influenced by the electric music Hancock and Williams were concurrently creating, and make for a very original sounding approach to the jazz trio. This approach is being further explored today by the up-and-coming New York jazz trio The Bad Plus.The other two discs cover Herbie's wide range of electric jazz/funk/dance recordings. Disc three primarily focuses on the much loved "Headhunters" style funk, drawing material from that album as well as "Thrust," "Manchild," "Secrets," the "Death Wish" soundtrack and even a track from 1980's unjustly overlooked "Mr. Hands" featuring Jaco Pastorius on bass. Disc four combines some more material from that period with highlights from his '80s collaborations with Bill Laswell.Overall, this box makes a great case for Herbie Hancock's importance in jazz and pop music. His acoustic work was innovative in its time and is still enjoyed today, while his electric work was sometimes very commercially successful and sometimes widely reviled. The tracks from that period presented here sound amazingly contemporary, and have found an audience in much the same way that Miles Davis' misunderstood '70s recordings are now being praised.As for the packaging, personally I love it. I concur with the reviewer who likened it to a piece of art. It looks really stylish and acts as a great conversation piece, much like the music contained within.

A great intro package at a great price to the great man covering some of his more lesser known eclectic tracks.For those brave enough to venture into more uncharted territory, the complete box set of Herbie's albums for 1972-1998 is a must.

Excellent

Scelta dei brani per quanto mi riguarda opinabile, pur essendo stato compilato da Hancock stesso.Il cofanetto presenta 4 CD di cui due prevalentemente acustici: da solo, in duo con Chick Corea, con il gruppo VSOP al completo o parte dei componenti dello stesso gruppo (Carter, Williams, Shorter, Hubbard). Brani sia in studio che dal vivo: il tutto attinto da varie incisioni anni '70 e '80.Altri 2 CD sono dedicati al materiale elettronico dello stesso periodo anni '70/'80.Ho trovato di relativamente scarso interesse il materiale con i 4 componenti dello storico secondo quintetto di Davis ai quali si aggiunge Hubbard in sostituzione della tromba di Miles. Conoscendo a menadito il repertorio davisiano in studio e dal vivo non trovo molto di interessante le performance in cui si rifà il repertorio davisiano (senza nulla togliere al bravissimo Hubbard).Per quanto riguarda la parte elettrica ci sono cose per me più interessanti ma intervallate da episodi davvero trascurabili con brani datati e inconsistenti che non avremmo mai voluto considerare parte della discografia di Hancock.La parte più interessante dell'Hancock elettronico è quella dei primissimi anni '70 col gruppo Mwandishi (vedi cofanetto della Warner pubblicato nel 2014...) più il successivo album dello stesso gruppo (pubblicato per la Columbia e di cui qui è presentata solo una traccia...) e gli album della fase inziale degli Headhunters. Qualche altra cosa buona si trova anche nella produzione successiva ma il periodo da metà anni '70 a metà anni '80 è davvero da prendere con le pinze.Comunque per circa 13/14 euro di spesa mi ritengo soddisfatto e dopo 20 e passa anni ad ascoltare questo piansita sia come leader che come parte di varie band in decine e decine di album mi son pure tolto lo sfizio di farmi una panoramica dell'Hancock più trash.Il box non è più l'ingombrante, scomodissimo e costosissimo box di plexiglass che uscì in origine qualche anno fa. Ora è solo scomodissimo, senza avere per questo un prezzo folle e occupare mezzo metro cubo. Il cofanetto è di cartone e identico alle recenti riedizioni dei cofanetti di Miles Davis della Columbia o alla riedizione del purple box di Hendrix.Un appunto a questi box c'è da farlo (e non sono il primo, tutt'altro...): l'alloggiamento dei CD sembra studiato da un designer minus habens perché togliere e mettere i CD in questi cofanetti vuol dire praticamente graffiarli ogni volta pur prestandoci il massimo di attenzione. Tra l'altro gli altri cofanetti citati avevano almeno i CD serigrafati e c'è modo di estrarre e togliere con una certa cautela senza arrecare troppo danno. Questi al contrario non hanno nemmeno la parte superiore serigrafata che permetterebbe di esercitare un po' di pressione senza lasciare ditate sulla superficie.O le ditate o i graffi. A voi la scelta. Oppure togliere i CD e metterli altrove (scelta più consigliabile).Interessante il libretto con introduzioni ai brani dello stesso Hancock.Per farla breve: musicalmente salvo 50% del contenuto e spero in un futuro dove il design sia davvero "design" guidato da un pensiero e non mero styling decerebrato.

Excelente recopilación de la extensa obre de Mr. Hands en la década de los 70 y 80. Dos CD de música funk/electric y dos de jazz acústico. En el libro aparecen comentarios para cada uno de los temas. El pedido llegó mucho antes de lo previsto, todo bien.

A n immaculate overview of an artist who never stood still ,and like Miles ,changed and re wrote jazz idiom. Great price --and no daft box prism this time!