.jpg)
THE HEADHUNTERS Live at the Jazz CafeSunday 7th October
doors 7pm
£20 advance
Seminal Jazz Funk outfit formed by Herbie Hancock.
The Headhunters represented a major turning point for Herbie Hancock, whose approach to fusion became slicker and more commercial (though not without substance or integrity) with the formation of this popular band in 1973.
Employing saxman/clarinetist Bennie Maupin (a holdover from the Sextant), bassist Paul Jackson, Jr., drummer Harvey Mason and percussionist Bill Summers, Hancock made a point of being more accessible when he unveiled the Headhunters with his 1973 Columbia relase Head Hunters.
Fusing jazz with funk and rock, the album sold over a million copies and attracted many R&B and rock fans. In fact, Head Hunters even outsold Miles Davis' popular Bitches Brew.
Defined by the catchy Chameleon (which was interpreted by jazz singer Eddie Jefferson in 1976 and sampled by various rappers in the 1980s and 1990s) and a funky remake of his 1962 boogaloo Watermelon Man, Headhunters set the tone for subsequent Columbia projects with The Headhunters, including Thrust (1974), Man-Child (1975), Secrets (1976) and Sunlight (1977).
By the end of the decade, The Headhunters were no more, and Hancock was turning his attention to everything from outright R&B to standards and acoustic post-bop. In the 1990s, Sony's Legacy label reissued most of the Headhunters' work on CD, and in 1998 the group reunited to record Return of the Headhunters!
Mike Clark, Paul Jackson and Bill Summers have since continued recording and performing as The Headhunters, and are based in New Orleans.
No comments:
Post a Comment