HERBIE HANCOCK — Empyrean Isles (review)

HERBIE HANCOCK — Empyrean Isles album cover

Album · 1964 · Post Bop

4/5 · 2025-04-16
FunkFreak75

Herbie is back with two of his cohorts from Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet": drummer extraordinaire Tony Williams and bass legend Ron Carter--plus long-time collaborator and Miles replacement, Freddie Hubbard.

A1. "One Finger Snap" (7:21) Freddie Hubbard can sure get inspired by a spirited swing! He's on fire--prompted, to be sure, by the play of Tony Williams and Ron Carter. Only Herbie feels a little out of place (which may have something to do with his one minute of silence beneath Freddie's solo). But then he shows that he's certainly improved and matured with his own great high-speed solo in the fourth and fifth minutes. He definitely has a gift for cleverly and subtly varying the melody with each pass through the phrases. Tony's amazingly entertaining solo in the seventh minute is so cleanly recorded, top to bottom, that it feels as if the sound of a full drum has never been captured so well. So cool! (14/15)

A2. "Oliloqui Valley" (8:30) here's an interesting song whose opening sounds so much like the clip from THE DRIFT's 2008 song "Uncanny Valley" that is used as the main theme song for The Moth Radio Hour podcast! Herbie is the front man from the very start and, I must say that his gift for pleasing melodies (despite his penchant [and talent] for varying them with each and every recapitulation) is quite remarkable. At the end of the fourth minute Herbie finally relinquishes the spotlight in lieu of Freddie's cornet. Freddie's great--quite dynamic and exciting--but he still can't prevent me from gravitating to the extraordinary play of both Herbie and Tony. At 5:40 all but Tony's cymbal play and the odd piano chord step aside to allow Ron Carter to be heard in solo. Ron chooses to take the melody and rhythm off into an mind-bending psychedelia of pitch distortion and pace warp. Never expected that! When Herbie and the others return and push Freddie back to the front the song is about over and I'm sad! That was one of the fastest 8:30's I've ever experienced! (18.75/20)

B1. "Cantaloupe Island" (5:33) We are here once again (like "Watermelon Man") exposed to Herbie's genius for pop-friendly melodies and earworm "hooks." It sounds to me like a bit of a combination of variations on the main melodies of the famous samba-inspired songs, "Mas que nada" by Jorge Ben (released in 1963; later, in 1966, made famous by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66) and Billy and Gene Page's "The 'In' Crowd" (which was, coincidentally being recorded for the very first time by and for Doby Gray just before Empyrean Isles was released). Nice cornet soloing over the two-part Brasilian-influenced song. (9/10)

B2. "The Egg" (14:01) built over one of the strangest rhythm motifs I've come across: there is a third-world (African) tribal ecstatic dance feel to this--a tense environment that Herbie's piano play is only encouraged and --until 5:15 when things "break" for another creative Ron Carter solo--this time with his bow on his double bass--while Tony (or someone) adds percussive accents and support to the odd "Aquatic Astronaut" sounds Ron is playing. Around the seven minute mark Herbie re-enters and steps up front to play some very angular, mathematical 20th Century "classical" piano stylings before turning it into jazz in the ninth minute as Ron and brush-handed Tony return to jazz-like support. The tneth minute sees a run in which Herbie parades a cascade of more unconventional "classical"-sounding chord progressions before heading off into a mouse/bug-like scurrying mode of play runs on the right handed keys. In the 12th minute Ron and Herbie (mostly) cut out to allow Tony to channel some of his own "weird hee-bee-gee-bee" ideas/inspirations. By the arrival of the 13-minute mark, Freddie is returning and the band is recongealing into a variation of the opening motif for the song's close. Interesting! Fun for a live performance or an internal band exercise, but not so much for the gentle listener. Of the musicians' performances I can say that only Herbie's really wowed me; the rest of the improvised expositions felt a little forced, faked, or soulless. (25.75/30)

Total time: 35:25

Though the growth of all four musicians is on keen display, I find myself a bit let down and turned off by the final piece, "The Egg."

A-/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of melodic and yet sophisticated and often experimental jazz. Highly recommended for its first three songs.