Mr. GONE

We love performing this album https://mrgoneband.bandcamp.com/album/head-hunters-live-at-the-falcon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY_kNAbHCKM

🎹 Herbie Hancock — Head Hunters (1973)

Herbie Hancock dropped Head Hunters on October 26, 1973, and nothing was the same. Columbia Records released what became the best-selling jazz album of its era. Hancock abandoned avant-garde abstraction and dove headfirst into raw, electrified funk. This record rewired how the world thought about jazz.
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Hancock assembled a razor-sharp quintet built for groove and power. Bennie Maupin played saxophone, bass clarinet, and alto flute with serpentine brilliance. Paul Jackson locked down the bass while Bill Summers unleashed a global arsenal of percussion. Harvey Mason's drumming drove every track with unshakable authority and precision.

"Chameleon" opens with one of music's most recognizable bass lines ever recorded. Jackson and Hancock built that spiraling two-note riff together in the studio. Hancock then attacks his synthesizers and Clavinet over Mason's relentless funk groove. At nearly sixteen minutes, it never loses momentum — it simply evolves.

"Watermelon Man" is a complete reinvention of Hancock's own 1962 composition. Bill Summers opens the track blowing across a beer bottle, mimicking an African Pygmy flute. Harvey Mason rebuilt the entire arrangement, transforming a jazz standard into an Afro-funk ritual. The result is bold, primal, and absolutely unforgettable.

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