The Prisoner
Herbie Hancock’s 7th album, The Prisoner, was released by Blue Note in the US during 1969 but only became available in the UK in May 1970 or thereby, so I’m happy to include it here.
The album is, as they say, transitional. It is his last recording for Blue Note, before he was increasingly drawn towards Fusion. If you know Blue Note recordings you’ll know what I mean if I say that you would probably guess the label just by listening to the music, which sits nicely at the tail end of Bop. I confess I was lulled by the opening bars which have a kind of ‘lounge’ quality, but don’t be deceived, this is high quality post-Bop music
Hancock himself has said this album, which was written and performed with the late Martin Luther King in mind, was one of the first where he really felt able to play how he wanted. So here’s the thing: I prefer this to a lot of the fusion stuff that came later. I’m not being derogatory about the later work which was important, enjoyable and influential, but this album, which I hadn’t heard previously, is one that would go on my shelf along with 1964’s Empyrean Isles, on regular rotation in the office.
I also have to say, in the context of contemporary comments by, amongst others, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Cannonball Adderley, is that this is uncompomisingly black music deeply rooted in civil rights. To miss that is to miss important context. It goes without saying that it is unquestionably richer and more sophisticated than pretty much anything in the white rock world at the time.
Good stuff, worth a listen.
I listened on Spotify; it’s also a YouTube playlist.
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