Head Hunters

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Head Hunters
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released	October 13, 1973
Recorded	San Francisco, California September 1973
Genre	Jazz fusion, Jazz-funk
Length	41:34
Label	Columbia
Producer	Dave Rubinson Herbie Hancock
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone (favorable) link
Herbie Hancock chronology
Sextant (1972) Head Hunters (1973) Thrust (1974)

Head Hunters is the twelfth album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 on Columbia Records. The album is a key release in Hancock's career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz fusion. It was ranked as number 498 in the book version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2007, the Library of Congress added Head Hunters to the National Recording Registry, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.

Structure and release

Head Hunters followed a series of experimental albums by Hancock's sextet: Mwandishi (1970), Crossings (1971), and Sextant (1972), released at a time when Hancock was looking for a new direction in which to take his music:

"I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth....I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter." (Hancock's sleeve notes: 1997 CD reissue)

For the new album, Hancock assembled a new band, The Headhunters, of whom only Bennie Maupin had been a sextet member. Hancock handled all synthesizer parts himself (having previously shared these duties with Patrick Gleeson) and he decided against the use of guitar altogether, favouring instead the clavinet, one of the defining sounds on the album. The new band featured a tight rhythm and blues-oriented rhythm section, and the album has a relaxed, funky groove that gave the album an appeal to a far wider audience. Perhaps the defining moment of the jazz-fusion movement (or perhaps even the spearhead of the Jazz-funk style of the fusion genre), the album made jazz listeners out of rhythm and blues fans, and vice versa. The album mixes funk rhythms, like the busy high hats in 16th notes on the opening track "Chameleon", with the jazz AABA form and extended soloing.

Of the four tracks on the album "Watermelon Man" was the only one not written for the album. A hit from Hancock's hard bop days, originally appearing on his first album Takin' Off, it was reworked by Hancock and Mason and has an instantly recognisable intro featuring Bill Summers blowing into a beer bottle, an imitation of the hindewho, an instrument of the Mbuti Pygmies of Northeastern Zaire. The track features heavy use of African percussion. "Sly" was dedicated to pioneering funk musician Sly Stone, leader of Sly & the Family Stone. "Chameleon" (the opening track) is another track with an instantly recognisable intro, the very funky bassline being played on an ARP Odyssey synth. "Vein Melter" is a slow-burner, predominantly featuring Hancock and Maupin, with Hancock mostly playing Fender Rhodes electric piano, but occasionally bringing in some heavily effected synth parts.

Heavily edited versions of "Chameleon" and "Vein Melter" were released as a 45 rpm single.

After its initial release, the album was also mixed into Quadraphonic (4-channel sound) and released by Columbia in 1974 in the vinyl and 8-track tape formats. The quad mixes features audio elements not heard in the stereo version, including a 2-second keyboard melody at the beginning of "Sly" that was edited out. It was released digitally on the hybrid SACD edition for the album (Columbia/Legacy CS 65123).

At the time of the 1992 CD reissue it was the largest-selling jazz album of all time, and has been an inspiration not only for jazz musicians, but also to funk, soul music, jazz funk and hip hop artists.

The HeadHunters band worked with Hancock on a number of other albums, including Thrust (1974), Man-Child (1975), Flood (recorded live in Japan, 1975), Secrets (1976) and Sunlight (1977), and themselves produced a couple of fine funk albums, Survival of the Fittest (1975) and Straight from the Gate (1978), the first of which was produced by Hancock and featured the big hit "God Make me Funky".

Track listing

Side A

1. "Chameleon" (Hancock/Jackson/Mason/Maupin) – 15:41
2. "Watermelon Man" (Hancock) – 6:29

Side B

1. "Sly" (Hancock) – 10:15
2. "Vein Melter" (Hancock) – 9:09

Single

• "Chameleon" (2:50)/"Vein Melter" (4:00) - Columbia 4-46002 (U.S.); released 1974

Neither edits on the single have been released on CD.

Trivia

• "Chameleon" is quoted in the Frank Zappa song "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" from the album Studio Tan (1978).

• The image on the album cover is based on an African mask that is associated with the Baoulé tribe from Côte d'Ivoire. They have various types of masks known as Goli that have to be considered a family. Their presence is called upon in times of danger, during epidemics or at funeral ceremonies.

Credits

Musicians

• Herbie Hancock
  • Fender Rhodes electric piano
  • Hohner D6 clavinet
  • ARP Odyssey synthesizer
  • ARP Soloist synthesizer
• Bennie Maupin
  • Soprano and tenor saxophones
  • Saxello
  • Bass Clarinet
  • Alto flute
• Paul Jackson
  • Electric bass
  • Marímbula
• Bill Summers
  • Congas
  • Shekere
  • Balafon
  • Agogo
  • Cabasa
  • Hindewho
  • Tambourine
  • Log drum
  • Surdo
  • Gankogui
  • Beer Bottle
• Harvey Mason
  • Yamaha drums

Production

• Produced by Herbie Hancock and David Rubinson.
• Recorded at
  • Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California
    • Recording engineers: Fred Catero, Jeremy Aztkin
  • Different Fur Trading, San Francisco
    • Recording engineers: Dane Butcher, John Vieira
  • A product of Catero Sound Co., San Francisco
• Artist management: Adamsdad Management Co., San Francisco
• Cover design: Victor Moscoso
• Photos: Waldo Bascom

Later Samples

• "Chameleon"
  • "If My Homie Calls" by 2Pac from the album 2Pacalypse Now
  • "Dr. Knockboot" by Nas from the album I Am...
  • "Safe From Harm" by Massive Attack from the album Blue Lines
  • "Get Up, Get Down" by Coolio from the album Gangsta's Paradise
  • "Underwater Rimes" by Digital Underground from the album Sex Packets -- this song mashes up "Chameleon"'s immediately recognizable bassline with "Aqua Boogie" by Parliament
• "Sly"
  • "You Can't Kill Me" by Nas from the album Hip Hop Is Dead
• "Watermelon Man"
  • "I Hate 2 Brag" by Shaquille O'Neal from the album "Shaq Diesel"
  • "Sanctuary" by Madonna from the album "Bedtime Stories"
  • "Escapism (Gettin' Free)" by Digable Planets from the album "Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)"