Herbie Hancock - My Point of View (1973 US Blue Note Vinyl LP)

Herbie Hancock - My Point of View | Vinyl LP, 1973 US Blue Note Reissue (BST-84126, United Artists)

• Hancock’s second album, recorded March 19, 1963 at Van Gelder Studio with a septet drawn from Blue Note’s best: Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Grachan Moncur III, Grant Green, Chuck Israels and a 17-year-old Tony Williams
• Five Hancock compositions ranging from the soul-jazz groove of “Blind Man, Blind Man” to the more harmonically adventurous “King Cobra” and “A Tribute to Someone”
• 1970s US reissue pressing on the United Artists era black “b” label, with Van Gelder’s stamp in the deadwax

Takin’ Off had given Hancock a hit with “Watermelon Man” and a Blue Note contract, and for his second album Alfred Lion gave him a septet. The personnel is remarkable even by Blue Note’s standards. Donald Byrd returns from the debut. Hank Mobley was in the middle of his long run of Blue Note leader dates. Grachan Moncur III, who would record his own Blue Note albums Evolution and Some Other Stuff within the next year, plays trombone. Grant Green appears on two tracks. Chuck Israels, who was Bill Evans’s bassist at the time, plays bass. And Tony Williams, 17 years old and already working professionally, plays drums. Within two months of this session, both Hancock and Williams would join Miles Davis’s group, forming half of the rhythm section that became the Second Great Quintet.

All five compositions are Hancock’s. “Blind Man, Blind Man” opens with a funky, blues-drenched groove that picks up where “Watermelon Man” left off, a piece Hancock wrote to reflect something of his African American background. But the album moves quickly beyond that territory. “A Tribute to Someone” is a ballad, tender and spacious. “King Cobra” is the centrepiece: a longer, more compositionally ambitious piece where Byrd, Mobley and Moncur all solo, and Williams drives the band with a ferocity that belies his age. “The Pleasure Is Mine” and “And What If I Don’t” round out a programme that shows Hancock already thinking as an arranger, not just a pianist and composer. Reid Miles designed the cover and took the photograph. Ira Gitler wrote the liner notes. Rudy Van Gelder recorded the session. This is a 1970s US reissue on the United Artists era Blue Note label (the black “b” design), with Van Gelder’s stamp in the deadwax. Original catalogue BST-84126.