Takin' Off Edition. Cover Art by Jean-Pierre Leloir.

Fantastic record my favourite Jaz record so far would recommend

Excellent quality vinyl and great cover and inside photographs of a young Hancock in S. France. Brilliant music, great band.

Excellent

an excellent cd

A young Mr Herbie Hancock in the beginning of his carrier with well known friends who helped him to lead his music over the rainbow. A nice laid back record who still fits in the modern jazzera.

Takin' Off was Herbie Hancock's first recording as leader at the age of twenty two. The story was that he wanted to record a trio album (by the way a message for Mr Cross, another reviewer on this site: the original album was "short" because vinyl LPs had a running time of up to 40 minutes, not the eighty of modern CDs...and some CDs are definitely too long containing too much "filling"...quantity is not necessarily better than quality) but Blue Note insisted that he recorded as a quintet with two "names"; hence the presence of Dexter Gordon and Freddie Hubbard.There are six tracks (plus on the CD three "alternate takes") starting with the masterpiece "Watermelon Man", a piece of jazz-funk that has become synonymous with Herbie Hancock. Blue Note were probably right to insist on the addition of tenor and trumpet since the tunes work better in quintet being essentially hard bop tunes which were in vogue during 1962 (think Adderley or Silver).Needless to say the musicianship of Gordon and Hubbard is outstanding, but young Hancock meets them on equal terms despite his inexperience.Many think that one would have this in their collection as an historical "document"; I disagree. This is a fine album under any circumstances that maintains a high standard throughout.

This was pianist/composer Herbie Hancock's debut as leader recorded for BLUE NOTE in New Jersey on May 28, 1962 with a quintet including Dexter Gordon(tenor sax); Freddie Hubbard(trumpet & flugelhorn); Butch Warren(bass) & Billy Higgins(drums).Everyone is in superb form on six varied Hancock originals(plus three alternative takes) and the highlights include the original version of Watermelon Man(2 takes), the ballad 'Alone and I' and 'The Maze'.'Takin' Off' is one of Herbie Hancock's finest albums containing almost an hour of inventive hard bop which still sounds fresh over 50 years later.

This is the RVG remaster of Herbies debut album as bandleader - at the age of 22 !!The album opens with arguably the most famous of the great mans recordings and there is also an alternate take for real afficiandos !By any standards this is a classic album with Freddie Hubbard on sparkling form, Dexter Gordon on tenor sax, a great rhythm section and brilliant arrangements.The remarkable thing about this debut recording is the story behind it - Hancock grew up in Chicago where his extraordinary talent was recognised with a performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11 - his first paid gig was with Coleman Hawkins in Chicago and his second was with Donald Byrd in New York and at the time of this recording Herbie was still at college !!Perhaps that explains why at less than 40 minutes the original album was a bit brief - Herbie had to get his homework done !3 alternate takes - remarkably similar to the originals stretch this recording out to 57 minutes - but every moment is a landmark in jazz and launched the career of one of the all time greats.

Some great jazz playing

Great music etc. However, in my Amazon account, it says "Package was left inside the residence’s mailbox".No. The package was left lying flat on the sidewalk outside of my building, where someone could step on it or steal it. Try writing fiction somewhere else.

ok

Hervorragende Pressung

Fantàstic treball d'aquest disc. A part, l'audio és boníssim.