Degiorgio

the Downbeat issue is early 1971 - so I would guess the Cellar Door gigs and the interview took place in 1970 as Downbeat usually had a delay in getting articles to copy. The article mentions Dizzy Gillespie sitting in the aisle and Bill Cosby at the bottom of some stairs as the club was so packed! KD

more up today! KD

completely undocumented by recordings is the transition from this line-up to the early Mwandishi Band before they got into the space-age stuff. DownBeat interviewed Herbie after a week long stint at the Cellar Door and the line-up is: Eddie Henderson, Julian Priester, Bennie Maupin, Buster Williams & Billy Hart... but they only mention material from FAT ALBERT ROTUNDA - and they are listed under their regular names - without the Swahili prefixes. The jump from stuff like Wiggle Waggle to Wandering Spirit Song is mind-boggling. KD

I have been searching for evidence of an official commercial release of The Spook from 1973 since I first heard about this film. Not any of my usual record dealers in Europe or Japan have ever turned one up for me. I was told many times it doesn't exist. Rod is the first person who I've come across who seems to have an original...

my error - i was referring to Crossings 7" being made up from material from Crossings LP... hehe... how confusing can this get?? its not a HUGELY different mix but worth having.. I can see why they planned to release it as a single - its the funkiest most accessible section of the album... kind of like that MILES DAVIS: "Holly-wuud" 7" promo from the same year... (similar in concept for a single - not in sound) KD

Hi Mike let me clarify the 7" thang... the only 7" promo I have from this period is CROSSINGS. I am now aware thx to you that there is also another promo 7" with OSTINATO/YOU'll KNOW WHEN YOU GET THERE. CROSSINGS was included on the TREASURE CHEST comp. CROSSINGS is not just an edit of a longer track. Remember there is no actual track called CROSSINGS on the CROSSINGS LP. It is actually a section of SLEEPING GIANT but a different mix. Check the drums - they are different from the SLEEPING GIANT segment. Also - there are synth overdubs that are new too... SO - I has hoping the versions of OSTINATO and YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU GET THERE were also different mixes from the album versions... I've seen a couple for sale on the 'net so I'll be finding out shortly... I didn't realise Warner's were planning to do a multi-disc edition. This is the project I presented to Warner Jazz UK but they declined and preferred to just go with the straight re-issue digi-pak idea. (They probably wouldn't have been able to do it from the UK anyway but it was worth a try). KD

Hi Rod thx for that... this album is a real headf*ck... it was bootlegged last year... I haven't heard it as I read so many bad stories regarding the sound quality that I left it alone. I have never seen an original copy and it never shows up in any Herbie Discographies... there are no reviews of the album in any magazines from around 72/73 either - certainly Downbeat would have reviewed it? But it seems like you have run into at least 2 original issues (I'm sure it wasn't bootlegged back then)... I've tried all angles on getting somebody to try and unearth the original masters... no luck... does it say who engineered the session? Fred Catero? maybe he'd know where the tapes ended up? anybody know Dave Rubinson...? somebody must remember dammit!

"Following are excerpts that feature mostly music. There's lots of dialogue in the other tracks. I didn't take any of the pops and clicks out - this is just straight off of the LP, so excuse the quality - it's from 32 years ago, so..." Rod - thx for doing this... but I'm a bit confused... are you saying you have an original copy of this LP from 1973? I was under the impression that this album was never commercially available and that the recent bootleg was just audio taken off the video - hence the dialogue and background noise, etc. Does ANYBODY know any inside info on whether the original master tapes for this soundtrack still exist and who has them? Where was it recorded? Different Fur, SF? The music can't be evaluated properly IMO cos the tracks have the film audio track on them and they also sound sped up. KD

cool - aside from the Mwandishi works I really like what Gleeson did on Lenny White's BIG CITY and VENUSIAN SUMMER (somewhat patchy albums), JOE HENDERSON's later version of Black Narcissus and also Charles Earland's DYNAMITE BROTHERS. I think his peak is that version of QUASAR on the Maupin album... stunning use of synthesized strings. http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/synapse...=jan1977&pic=22 (haven't heard his solo synth projects mentioned here.... and wasn't feeling the Driving While Black project) KD

thx Mike - that's a shame... I was hoping they would be different mixes like the Crossings 7" (which I also think is on Treasure Chest?) - which has more of Gleesons eerie synth overdubs and focuses on that mad space-age boogie woogie section of Sleeping Giant.

btw - one of the Downbeat interviews with Herbie catches him after a solo keyboard performance at the Newport Jazz Festival '74. He mentions that he debuted a digital sequencer and ARP 2600 at this performance... anybody a). go to this performance? b). have a recording of it? If its anything like his solo work on DEDICATION then I'd love to hear it... KD

I would personally give Maupin's SLOW TRAFFIC TO THE RIGHT another 2 stars just for the astonishing version of Herbie's QUASAR - the change-up towards the end with the string crescendo always sends shivers down my spine... I think the post 73 albums should be viewed as 'related' in a loose sense as the Mwandishi concept really was abandoned after Sextant. In the sleevenotes for the new HEADUNTERS Herbie gives the 'too far outta space' reasoning for abandoning the Mwandishi concept - and in a 1974 Downbeat he mentions he ran out of money to keep the band touring. I would still like to see these sessions revisited by somebody like Michael Cuscuna. I would love to hear the takes as they were recorded - and without the rather dated editing and 'segueing' found on Crossings for example - rather like they presented some of the In A Silent Way material on the Legacy box set. KD

are the 7" versions of Ostinato/You'll Know... just edited versions of the LP tracks or are they different mixes like the Crossings promo 7".? never seen a copy... KD

Hi Rod I would agree with that assessment of the 2 Connors albums.... and Rooster - as you like the Eddie Henderson's so much I think you would like Connors' 3rd album LOVE FROM THE SUN too. I've only ever seen this on Buddah actually - not Cobblestone like I first thought... it has another version of Herbie's track Revelation which is on REALIZATION. The version on the Connors album is beautiful... lush intro featuring some great Herbie echoplex note-bending effects on the rhodes and wordless Jean Carn vocals.... Rod - I licensed the flexi-disc version of The Spook theme for a compilation I put together for BMG a few years back... but they messed up the transfer I'm still really desperate to find out if the original tapes to that soundtrack still exist. The flexi-version is so funky isn't it?! That shuffle funk intro is killer Apologies to Chuck for the qualified nature of some of this post... KD

if it was just a few years earlier maybe 1 covered V.S.O.P. and the other covered the commercial albums?

this interview doesn't talk about HEADHUNTERS but Herbie goes into a little detail about how they approached CROSSINGS and SEXTANT: http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/synapse...=may1977&pic=24

wow - indeed.. don't recall much 'straight jazz' material coming from Herbie on Columbia after 81... I just remember some disco hits like Magic Number & Motor Mouth - then it was into Rockit and the Laswell thing.

I like the one that played with Miles... the one that made Maiden Voyage the one that made Wiggle Waggle the one that called himself Mwandishi the one that made Headhunters the one that sang using a vocoder on You Bet Your Love the one that made Rockit not so much the one who has made some albums for Verve...

I like Herbie Hancock

Try and grab the recent Sony/Legacy remaster of HEADHUNTERS and read Herbie's sleevenotes - he goes into detail about how and why the whole Mwandishi thing got stale for him... (basically he says they went so far into outer-space with that stuff that he could no longer relate to it and needed to get back in touch with the earth - which he did via Sly Stone and the result was the new stripped down funk of HEADHUNTERS). KD

oops - posted that without seeing the above posts... I LOVE the Norman Connors albums... don't get the nasty Buddah re-issues of the first 2 - get the nice laminated Cobblestone gatefold originals with beautiful session photo's on the inside. I guess its rather pointless saying whether this is music is good or not - its all personal right? I love this period in jazz. I also realise it will always divide jazz fans who did not like the move into electronic recording, the focus on exotic modes and afro-centric spirituality on these albums. Reading old issues of DownBeat I can see just how some of these albums were truly hated by critics brought up on the bop/blues tradition. I can respect that opinion but they should also respect the opinion that for some this music was more interesting than hearing more "improv' over the changes". KD

DARK OF LIGHT / DANCE OF MAGIC / LOVE FROM THE SUN: pretty much the same personnel as the Herbie/Henderson dates - including both of those, Billy Hart, Buster Williams plus non-Mwandishi members Stanley Clarke, Gary Bartz, Carlos Garnett, Dee Dee Bridgewater, etc. Less electronics (no Pat Gleeson) but plenty of Herbie's spacey-rhodes playing and afro-percussion... (Buddy Terry pulled a similar line-up for his "Pure Dynamite" set for Mainstream around the same time so that's kinda Mwandishi-related too although Kenny Barron is on keys not Herbie). I guess the Henderson albums are more focused - but I think that's because they are not 15-20 minute side long compositions like much of Mwandishi, Crossings, Sextant, Love Love. Sleeping Giant and Wandering Spirit Song are heavy going but they don't sound like a ramblng mess - Herbie lets them stretch out over 20 minutes but they are still tightly arranged and focused IMO. (The Mwandishi live dates I've heard do sound more 'rambling' I admit). KD

that's cool... I was 4-6 yrs old when these came out so its interesting for me to see how jazz fans received these albums at the time. KD

Chuck - do you mean all of Herbie's 70's output or just the funky Headhunters and onwards stuff? There is a world of difference between the Mwandishi band material (71-73) and the later albums. Not so much funk - but more a serious and highly evolved usage of electronics combined with world percussion and pretty avant-garde jazz. Its a unique period - documented on other albums such as Eddie Henderson's 'Realization' and 'Inside Out' sessions for Capricorn, Julien Priester's ECM album 'Love Love', Bennie Maupin's ECM album 'Jewel and the Lotus' and Norman Connors first 3 albums for Cobblestone. Very far removed from the fusion-funk of the mid-70's - this is ethereal stuff - a heady mixture of free-jazz, afro-centrism, new electronic musical technology and recording techniques. The whole Mwandishi vibe lasted just 2 years - the reasons for Herbie abandoning it are told in his sleevenotes to the recent Headhunters CD remaster. KD

Love the track proto-E,W & Fire track "Uhuru" from that ANOTHER VOYAGE album - nice kalimba... and the typically grand Charles Stepney track "Opus No.5" KD