Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Herbie Hancock with his iconic Keytar at The Hollywood Bowl on August 14, 2024, where he performed ...
[+] the Head Hunters album with original bandmates for the first time in half a century. Cris Rosales Fifty-one years ago, Herbie Hancock experienced a sonic breakthrough in the form of Head Hunters, an album with more funk and dance grooves than anyone had ever thought possible from a “jazz” record. On Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl, he gathered the surviving bandmates for the first time in half a century (how it that even possible?) to revisit the groundbreaking work that redefined jazz and became the first in the genre to go platinum.
It’s a reunion that seems almost too good to be true, given Head Hunters’ legendary status and the band’s collective influence. Yet here they were, noticeably older, a bit looser with the notes, but still up for delivering a two-and-a-half-hour performance that reaffirmed the record’s lasting impact. Hancock was joined on stage by drummer Harvey Mason, saxophonist Bennie Maupin, and percussionist Bill Summers, plus bassist Marcus Miller, who filled in for the late Paul Jackson, to play straight through one of the greatest albums of all time.
The crowd ate up every bassline and horn blast. By every measure, Head Hunters was a transformative masterpiece in the jazz genre, emblematic of a pivotal era where musical boundaries were relentlessly tested and expanded. The album .