Speak Like A Child

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Herbie Hancock debuted as a leader in 1962, starting a Blue Note streak that would come to include such 1960s classics as <i>Inventions & Dimensions</i>, <i>Empyrean Isles</i>, and <i>Maiden Voyage</i>. The next album in this historic run, 1968’s <i>Speak Like a Child</i>, would represent another triumph of imagination, melodic acuity, masterful pianism, and sheer band chemistry. At the heart of it all is a trio featuring Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Philadelphia legend Mickey Roker on drums. That’s a solid musical foundation—one that Hancock augmented with an unusual section of warm, chamber-like brass and winds, featuring Jerry Dodgion on alto flute, Thad Jones on flugelhorn, and Peter Phillips on bass trombone. This configuration, influenced in part by Gil Evans, had a mysterious aura, one that set the stage for the bass clarinet and alto flute of Bennie Maupin in Hancock’s first major post-Blue Note ensemble, the Mwandishi band. Ron Carter’s original “First Trip,” a solidly bluesy midtempo workhorse that remained in Hancock’s book for years, is one of two <i>Speak Like a Child</i> tracks to feature the trio without the chamber group. The other is “The Sorcerer,” previously recorded in 1967 on the Miles Davis quintet album <i>Sorcerer</i>. Hancock takes it a good 20 clicks slower on the metronome, giving the tune’s complex changes a satisfying lilt as the trio shreds mightily. The horns paint with dark and vibrant colors on the opening track, “Riot” (which appeared on Davis’ <i>Nefertiti</i> album the very month Hancock recorded this version). It’s just one of several standout cuts here, alongside the glorious “Speak Like a Child,” the eerily chromatic “Toys,” and the richly contrapuntal ballad “Goodbye to Childhood.”

via Apple Music