Future Shock

About

To jazz fan, Herbie Hancock needed absolutely no introduction by the early 1980. The former Miles Davis sideman, leader of such historic Blue Note sessions as <i>Maiden Voyage</i> and <i>Empyrean Isles</i>, had secured his legacy as one of the greatest pianists in the music. While the turntables and breakbeats of 1983’s <i>Future Shock</i> might have seemed a sudden turn toward pop commercialism, Hancock had followed Davis’ example and gone electric long before, first with his <i>Mwandishi</i> sextet, then on the highly successful <i>Head Hunters</i>, as well as later Columbia outing. All the while, he continued recording acoustic jazz of the highest rank, with the V.S.O.P. Quintet and his own trio. <i>Future Shock</i>, co-produced with Bill Laswell and his Material partner Michael Beinhorn, represented just one facet of Hancock’s artistry, but the hit single and video “Rockit”—and the resulting Grammy and MTV attention both earned—helped make him a household name. The response to <i>Future Shock</i> sparked much debate in the jazz world, especially between Hancock and young trumpet sensation Wynton Marsali, who had played with such commanding fire on Hancock’s <i>Quartet</i> album just two years earlier. The criticism, not in so many word, was that Hancock had sold out. But by today’s light, <i>Future Shock</i> is remarkably prescient in its defiance of genre boundarie, its embrace of technology, and especially in its beat-driven emphasi. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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