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Track Listings
| 1. Rain Dance |
| 2. Hidden Shadows |
| 3. Hornets |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Recorded with the sly, space-funky band that Herbie Hancock formed as Mwandishi, Sextant is one of those cornerstone jazz collections. It ranks with the best early, electric fusion for its fuzzing of textures, always used as bedrock for killer, roomy solos. A troika of horn greats can take much of the credit for the solos: trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and saxophonist Bennie Maupin. Each generates great, dense ideas without betraying Hancock's eerie ambience and funky vibe. Yes, this is an aggregation of many 1970s-era ideas: renewed sense of Africanisms (at least in the band's naming), intensified percussive underpinnings, and a heap of rumbly rhythms that give props to everyone in neofunk jazz from Clyde Stubblefield to Funkadelic, albeit in a slowed, methodically rhythmic vein. Hancock's keyboards make fine clouds, as well as slinking shuffles. --Andrew Bartlett
Product Description
CD
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insanely hardcore, a total mind-job, powerful, intense- I could go on
26 Oct 2006
By The Fish
Format:Audio CD
The period that Herbie Hancock had between his 60s Blue Note work and his funk stuff (Head Hunters ownwards) is often criminally overlooked. His Mwandishi band recorded some of the most awesome, mind-blowingly messed up music that I have ever heard, and Sextant is probably the most challenging album of all. I guess you could call it the paranoid, insomniac brother of Crossings (their previous album). Where Crossings had a real organic, earthy feel to it, Sextant moves even further into uncharted territory. If you like, Bitches Brew was electric, but this is electronic.
This is most noticeable on Rain Dance. It's probably the only electrosiren-swing tune you're likely to hear. Buster Williams inparticular shines on the upright bass. Hidden Shadows is in 19/4 (!) Yet it's not one of these indulgent excuses to write in a wierd time signature- it really flows, and Herbie plays what I'm tempted to call one of the most brilliant piano solos I've ever heard. Hornets is more of an organically instrumental groove- fast-and-furious- but with the kind of organisation and structure you'd never hear on Bitches Brew.
There's not enough Bennie Maupin on this album and he doesn't shine like he does on Crossings, but listen out for Eddie Henderson on the trumpet and flugel, who steals the show. Buster Williams is out of sight, as is Herbie himself. Overall, this album doesn't quite beat Crossings (for me nothing can; buy that before you buy this) but it is the most rewarding long term listen around. If nothing else, pretend you like it just to impress your friends.
This is most noticeable on Rain Dance. It's probably the only electrosiren-swing tune you're likely to hear. Buster Williams inparticular shines on the upright bass. Hidden Shadows is in 19/4 (!) Yet it's not one of these indulgent excuses to write in a wierd time signature- it really flows, and Herbie plays what I'm tempted to call one of the most brilliant piano solos I've ever heard. Hornets is more of an organically instrumental groove- fast-and-furious- but with the kind of organisation and structure you'd never hear on Bitches Brew.
There's not enough Bennie Maupin on this album and he doesn't shine like he does on Crossings, but listen out for Eddie Henderson on the trumpet and flugel, who steals the show. Buster Williams is out of sight, as is Herbie himself. Overall, this album doesn't quite beat Crossings (for me nothing can; buy that before you buy this) but it is the most rewarding long term listen around. If nothing else, pretend you like it just to impress your friends.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By D. Robinson
Format:Audio CD
A great album to listen to in almost any mood, and ahead of its time, a sign of things to come. I particularly like "Hornets": with its persistent pulsating dance beat and grungy tones, if you overlooked a few of the more conventional jazzy interludes it really could pass off as a new release on the dance floors tomorrow. A good album cover too!
Format:Audio CD
I just love it when an artist known for a certain style or sound breaks out of old ground and launches into something new and exciting. I feel this is exactly what Herbie Hancock did when he made this album. He'd already done 'Crossings' which had laid the ground work for this new style but he obviously felt that album was enough of a success to continue in the new experimental vein.
What one hears in the opening seconds of the first track 'Rain Dance' is not jazz; it is something new. Sure it has jazzy elements but its core is now more towards electronica/funk territory. In short we hear fusion. It's the death of jazz but the birth of a new chapter in music.
Even Miles Davis himself said in an interview in later years that jazz didn't exist anymore. Yes, bands play jazz music today but it's more like a picture of jazz rather than jazz incarnate as it was in say the era of 'A Kind of Blue'.
So, if you want to hear a highly skilled keyboardist from a jazz background laying down some beautiful and occasionally startling sounds in lengthy tracks, 'Sextant' is most definitely your album. If you want not even a trace of rock, funk, electronica or latin in your jazz collection then most definitely stay away.
What one hears in the opening seconds of the first track 'Rain Dance' is not jazz; it is something new. Sure it has jazzy elements but its core is now more towards electronica/funk territory. In short we hear fusion. It's the death of jazz but the birth of a new chapter in music.
Even Miles Davis himself said in an interview in later years that jazz didn't exist anymore. Yes, bands play jazz music today but it's more like a picture of jazz rather than jazz incarnate as it was in say the era of 'A Kind of Blue'.
So, if you want to hear a highly skilled keyboardist from a jazz background laying down some beautiful and occasionally startling sounds in lengthy tracks, 'Sextant' is most definitely your album. If you want not even a trace of rock, funk, electronica or latin in your jazz collection then most definitely stay away.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where did it all go? (Later it went all over the airwaves)
Flugelhorn, bass clarinet, trombone, cowbell, electric bass, drums, synthesizers, electric piano and clavinet with fuzz wah and echoplex, dacha-di-bello, melotron (sic), Steinway... Read more
Published 6 months ago by N. Jones
2.0 out of 5 stars
ElectriFRIED Mwandishi
Seems like I'm in the minority on this one - maybe it's an age thing. After so, so many years of digging 'Mwandishi' my curiosity about what happened next (after 'Crossings')... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nomad
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who knew there was stuff this good in existence without Miles on it?
Being part 2 of my rediscovery of Herbie Hancock's 70s recordings.
After Crossings, part 1, I was ready to take a hit. Couldn't possibly be as good. It is. Read more
After Crossings, part 1, I was ready to take a hit. Couldn't possibly be as good. It is. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Steve Keen
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