HERBIE HANCOCK — Man-Child (review)

Album · 1975 · Funk Jazz

4/5 · 2011-04-26
Sean Trane

Of Hancock’s funk era; Man-child is easily their better album, by now the Headhunters (thr group without HH) had recorded their debut album, one f the first space-funk album, and a damn good one at that, too!! While Thrust had lots of moments and was arguably better than HH (the album), MC turns out to be this line-up’s apex and has its most impressive artwork as well (Mwandishi-era excepted of course). With HH now having a keyboard collect ion big enough to make Emerson and Wakeman jealous, he’s nicely seconded by the Summers/Clark/Jackson rhythm trio, one that was envied by many leaders as the complex killer funk rhythms abounded and seemed effortless. Up front Maupin gets help from Wayne Shorter and Earnie Watts, Garnett Browne.

Opening on the futilely-titled Hang up Your Hang Ups, the combo engages in a high-flying funk with strong chorus horn arrangements, and halfway through a thorough rhythm change with HH switching to Fender Rhodes. Sun Touch is a much gentler and suave electric piano led piece and with synth-based layers, but this sounds a bit like as if Max Middleton (J Beck) has gone by and not that much is happening. The album’s centrepiece is Trailor, with its huge bass line and HH’s wild synth use, but the horns are making wonders. an amazing piece of music even if once the groove is installed, it tends to remain in it, sometimes making lengths, but hardly a problem here.

On the flipside, Bubbles is another suave piece of music and the gradual construction makes it the proggiest (Jackson’s bass lines are absolutely fab-u-lous), with a rare guitar solo, Wayne Shorter’s sax coupled with descending guitar lines, the gradual appearance of the electric appearances through the synth layers. Simply astounding. Next to it, Steppin’ In It, sounds exactly like it’s title….. a big turd…. I’m exaggerating of course, as we are now in a huge funky track, but it’s just no that subtle compared with the preceding Bubbles. HH’s electric piano and Jackson’s bass brings this track through nicely although it overstays its welcome by at least three or four minutes, Stevie Wonder’s harmonica not changing this fact one iota. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s long. The closing Heartbeat is a killer tune where the electric piano can remind Brian Auger’s Oblivion express, except that the musos are so much better here. A repeated one-note bass that give a wild guitar run around and in less than 20 seconds the complex groove is built, they have the guts to repeat this the following minute,

Theoretically this is the end of HH’s HH era, if you count the studio albums only (there is a live coming up), and HH will return to more standard jazz material (I think, not sure), before attacking the dance market with the awful (for me anyway) Rock It. If I must compare the three Mwandishi albums to the three Headhunters albums, I prefer the former, because I’m a fan of all three albums, while in the latter, only the last one (the presently discussed) is really fascinating, the previous two, being good, but no cigar.