Head Hunters – jazz album made by Hancock

Head Hunters is a jazz album made by the talented Herbie Hancock and The HeadHunters. The HeadHunters were made up of Herbie Hancock, Bennie Maupin, Harvey Mason, Paul Jackson and Bill Summers. Head Hunters is considered one of the best jazz albums of all time. When it first was released it sold more than one million copies making it the first jazz album to go platinum at the time. The album had a little bit of everything like jazz, hip-hop, funk and soul. This made the album more enjoyable for other people rather than just jazz fans.

To start out with, you hear the funk in the beginning with the first song of the album, Chameleon. This song is one of those songs that it is impossible to sit still through the whole song. It starts out with a great bass line that will play in your head for days to come. Followed by a saxophone that makes you just wanna get up and dance. Then Hancock comes in with a electric keyboard solo that comes with a unique and enjoyable sound. After the solo the saxophone comes back in for little bit but is then followed by a new bass line and piano keys that just make this song great. Throughout the rest of the song it is a piano being played amazingly. To finish it off it closes out the way it started with that classic bass line and that amazing saxophone. This song is easily the best song of this album.

Followed by Chameleon is Watermelon Man a remake of from the original but still just as good. Watermelon Man was debuted on Hancock’s album Takin Off. It starts out with a high flute which gets followed by a great bass. Then Hancock brings in that electric keyboard making it sound like a guitar is being played. This is followed by some soothing saxophone play and more bass. The song finishes with the same flute it started with. Hancock gave his band members a little bit of improvisation throughout this song changing the original Watermelon Man into this masterpiece. Next up is Sly, which was dedicated to the musician Sly Stone. Hancock found a lot instripration from Sly Stone. It is no surprise that he has a song dedicated to him on this album. The song starts with some saxophone, bass and some drum.

The beginning of this song is mostly saxophone as the rest of the band just plays in the background adding some funk to it. Next comes in Hancock with his keyboard skills. It’s crazy how well band works together and make such an amazing song. There is so much going on at once in this song but yet they make it sound amazing. Hancock closes out the song with solo right before the beginning of the song starts to play again. With so much going on at once I would imagine this more challenging than the other songs on this album to record. It’s groovy, funky and is a great song to dedicate to Sly Stone.