Herbie Hancock - Takin’ Off

The Watermelon Man. 

Takin‘ Off is the brilliant debut album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. It was released on July 4, 1962 by Blue Note Records. Joined by tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins, Talkin‘ Off became an outstanding album of jazz. The bluesy track Watermelon Man made the Top 100 singles chart and became a jazz standard. The popularity of the track ensured Hancock‘s existence for quite a few years. Since then, the piece has been recorded by more than 200 musicians. Hancock began his career in the group of trumpeter Donald Byrd. Shortly after, he joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the main contributors to the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk and electro styles, using a wide range of synthesizers and electronics. His 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, becoming only the second jazz album to win the award after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Since 2012, Hancock has been a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and is chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.

Side B

1. The Maze  
2. Driftin‘  
3. Alone And I