Herbie Hancock: Empyrean Isles (Blue Note Classic Vinyl series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Classic Vinyl series pressing was mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl. AllMusic gives the album five stars and says it established Hancock as a major artist in his own right.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Picture three-quarters of the Miles Davis rhythm section on their afternoon off. On June 17, 1964, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams went to Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs with Freddie Hubbard, who for once left his trumpet at home and played cornet.

Hancock wrote all four pieces over two years, and each one stakes out new ground. "One Finger Snap" races along at a sprinter's tempo, "Oliloqui Valley" floats in a modal haze, and "Cantaloupe Island" rides a funky piano vamp that became a jazz standard. "The Egg" closes with a long, open-ended exploration that shows how far this quartet could stretch without a saxophone in sight, and Hubbard's cornet brings a warmer, rounder tone than his usual trumpet. Alfred Lion produced, Rudy Van Gelder engineered, Reid Miles designed the cover, and Francis Wolff took the photographs. It was Hancock's fourth album as a leader, out on Blue Note in November 1964.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it four out of four stars. "Cantaloupe Island" has been grooving through cafés and record shops ever since, and we see no reason to ask it to leave.

Also at Kops: more Herbie Hancock on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 4859562), a reissue of the 1964 album.