Herbie Hancock Sextet ( part 2, conclusion )
Saturday 15th February, 17:00 – House of Hard Bop.
You will hear two remaining pieces from Speak Like a Child.*) Then the complete album The Prisoner, from 1969. This concept album, dedicated to Martin Luther King who was assassinated in 1968, goes a few steps further than its predecessor, Speak Like a Child. The horn section has been expanded, and is not limited to an ensemble on the sidelines of the pieces. The arrangements are more complex, and some horns make themselves heard individually in boiling solo work.
In The Prisoner – his last recording for Blue Note Records – Hancock has raised his ambitions to great heights, and given them shape. He calls this work a “social statement written in music.” The cycle opens in a calm tempo with I have a Dream. The title is a well-known quote from a speech by Martin Luther King. After the intro, the wind ensemble is given plenty of space. Solos by piano and flugelhorn follow. Bass and drums provide intensive accompaniment. The third solo, by tenorist Henderson, further increases the tension created. The final panel is a broadly fanned-out ensemble.
The tension rises, and the atmosphere bends towards negatively charged emotion in The Prisoner. The repeated, dissonant wind chords bore in compellingly. Another form of repetition sounds in the bass – a short ostinato motif in five-quarter time. Various, broadly developed episodes alternate, without loss of intensity. The axis Williams (bass) and Heath (drums) whip things up considerably.
Bassist Buster Williams is the composer of Firewater. Hancock arranged it. In terms of theme, tension and form, this piece is somewhat calmer, but the successive solos – sax, flugelhorn, trombone, piano, bass – raise the temperature.
He Who Lives in Fear musically matches the title, and, via the ensembles at the beginning and end, recaptures the atmosphere of Prisoner. The central section is a long solo by Hancock in trio formation. Promise Of the Sun has a similar form.
The music of these two concept albums by Herbie Hancock would be called, in the language of classical music, ‘programme music’. The composer’s main idea is an extra-musical element . This concerns instrumental music, without text: The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, the Pastoral Symphony by Beethoven, Dante Sonata by Franz Liszt, Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, Finlandia by Sibelius. A characteristic of good programme music is that it remains good music, even if the title or the program is unknown, or the listener doesn’t care much.
And, does Herbie Hancock’s music stand up straight if we ignore the program/titles, that whole M.L. King story?
Speak Like a Child
1.Goodbye to Childhood
2.The Sorcerer The Prisoner
3.I Have a Dream
4.The Prisoner
5.Firewater
6.He Who Lives in Fear
7.Promise of the Sun
The Prisoner line-up Johnny Coles – flugelhorn. Garnett Brown – trombone. Joe Henderson – tenor sax, alto flute. Tony Studd and Jack Jeffers – bass trombone. Hubert Laws – flute. Jerome Richardson – bass clarinet, flute. Romeo Penque – bass clarinet. Buster Williams – bass. Tootie Heath – drums. *)
*) Click for the news item about the Herbie Hancock Sextet (1)
*) Click for the broadcast of Herbie Hancock Sextet (1)
House of Hard Bop – Eric Ineke
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