This release includes Herbie Hancock's music from 1969-1971 for the Warner Brothers label, released originally as three albums, one of Herbie Hancock's most creative periods. The earliest album, Fat Albert Rotunda, features a fine sextet highlighted by tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, like Hancock a master at maintaining strong rhythmic grooves while stretching outward. The later music, with a regularly working band, becomes increasingly expansive and exploratory. Like Miles Davis on Bitches Brew, Hancock was increasingly interested in layering rhythms and textures, emphasizing percussion, electric keyboards, and potent soloists, and broadening his palette of sounds to eventually include synthesizers. There are significant contributions from the inspiring drummer Billy Hart and some potent, if neglected, soloists in multireed player Bennie Maupin (also on Bitches Brew) and trombonist Julian Priester (a Sun Ra associate), who also provided the extended compositions "Water Torture" and "Wandering Spirit Song," respectively. This is a sometimes overlooked period in Hancock's music, bracketed by the quality of his earlier acoustic music, both with Davis and as a leader on Blue Note, and his later commercial success, but it's some of his most innovative work.
Principally recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey between October 4 and December 8, 1969; Wally Heider Recording Studios, San Francisco, California on December 31, 1970; Pacific Recording Studios, San Mateo, California from February 15-17, 1972; Different Fur Trading Company, San Francisco, California.
Personnel includes: Herbie Hancock (acoustic, electric & Fender Rhodes pianos, mellotron, percussion); Candy Love, Sandra Stevens (vocals); Benny Maupin (soprano saxophone, piccolo, alto flute, bass clarinet, percussion); Joe Farrell (alto & tenor saxophones); Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone, alto flute); Eddie Henderson (trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion); Johnny Coles (trumpet, flugelhorn); Joe Newman (trumpet); Ray Alonge (French horn); Julian Priester (alto, tenor & bass trombones, percussion); Garnett Brown (trombone); Ron Montrose, Eric Gale (guitar); Buster Williams (acoustic & electric basses, percussion); Jerry Jermott (electric bass); Billy Hart (drums, percussion); Albert "Tootie" Heath, Bernard Purdie (drums).
CD1
1 Wiggle-Waggle
2 Fat Mama
3 Tell Me a Bedtime Story
4 Oh! Oh! Here He Comes
5 Jessica
6 Fat Albert Rotunda
7 Lil’ Brother
8 Ostinato (Suite for Angela)
9 You’ll Know When You Get There
CD2
1 Wandering Spirit Song
2 Sleeping Giant, Pts. 1-5
3 Quasar
4 Water Torture
