Headhunters

The Headhunters is a very popular group of Jazz funk in the years 1970, more known for the participation of the pianist Herbie Hancock. Their album Head Hunters is one of best the sale of album of the history of the Jazz.

History

Beginnings

In the beginning, Herbie Hancock founded the group in 1973 for its album Head Hunters . Hancock kept only the saxophonist Bennie Maupin of its precedent sextet in order to reflect its new musical orientation. Throughout the activity of the group, the bass player Paul Jackson will be the only attending member continuously. On the original album Head Hunters , the other members of the group were the percussionnist Bill Summers and the beater Harvey Mason.

Success and notoriety

Headhunters continued to work with Hancock during the Seventies although the formation varied from one album to another. On their following album, Thrust (1974) , Mike Clark became the beater of the group. On Man-Child (1975), several prestigious guests such as Stevie Wonder (harmonica) or Wayne Shorter (soprano saxophone) made some appearances (on the album 18 musicians are credited). The year 1975 off saw also the birth of their first album without Hancock Survival the Fittest and the hit " God Made Me Funky" . This piece was samplé by the Fugees on " Ready gold Not" and Jamiroquai used it on a piece live.

The year 1975 is one year out of gold for Headhunters since they also leave Flood , live with the Japan, true voyage jazz-funk towards the stars, on which the majority of the pieces are revisited.

The album Secrets (1976) saw a change of the group on the level of the battery (James Levi), percussions (Kenneth Nash), Guitare S (Ray Parker and Melvin " Wah Wah" Waston), always in company of Hancock, Maupin and Jackson. A concert with the Newport Jazz Festival on June 29th, 1976 of this line-up left out of CD the following year: V.S.O.P. (1977) .

Departure of Hancock

Sunlight (1978) includes the participation of the bass player Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report and of the beater Tony Williams. During the same year, the group left a second album without Hancock: Straight from the Spoils . End of the year 70 marks separation " officielle" of Hancock with the group. They will collaborate almost 20 years later on the album Return off the Headhunters (1998) .

Currently

Clark, Jackson and Summers since continued to play and record under the name of Headhunters. Based with the New-Orleans, the group called upon Victor Atkins and Robert Walter for the parts of piano. They left two albums: Evolution Revolution (2003) and Rebecca Barry and the Headhunters (2005) .

Hancock founded in parallel another group called " Headhunters 2005". The group includes: John Mayer, Lionel Loueke, Marcus Miller, Terri Lynne Carrington, Roy Hargrove and Munyungo Jackson.

Style and Influences

The music of Headhunters is a complex mixture several styles including the jazz, the funk, the African Musique and afro-caraibéenne. Headhunters are also recognized to have " amener" electronic instruments and effects like the electric Piano (the Fender Rhodos of Hancock), the Vocoder or the Synthetizer.

As in the funk in general, the music of the group builds around a base line Groove: in much of pieces, the line of Paul Jackson is used as key element on which the group comes to be grafted to arrive at a mixture of combinations funky very Syncopé. For this reason, the successive beaters of the group thus could build parts of very advanced batteries because the rhythmic base rested on the low one and not on the battery.

The first albums of Headhunters are characterized by the absence from guitarist, Hancock fascinating charges with them the parts of guitar to the keyboard. From Man-Child , the guitar makes its appearance, often in the style " wah wah" typically funky.

Their beginnings, the music of Headhunters was regarded by the purists of the jazz as pop, but she is largely recognized like belonging to the family of the jazz: Improvisation, harmonic Progression and topic: the ingredients " typiques" current jazz (mainly brought by Hancock and Maupin, resulting both from a medium very jazz).

Others

  • Herbie Hancock confirmed a little later that the piece Sly of the album Head Hunters is a homage to Sly Stone, founder of the group Sly & the Family Stone.

  • On Watermelon Man , the syncopated line of the beginning of the piece is " jouée" with a bottle out of empty glass: it is acted in fact of a technique of " hoquet" used in the Music Pygmy which Bill Summers took as a starting point.

  • the title Chameleon and its famous base line became true a standard of jazz-funk. Into live, Herbie Hancock plays this line with the synthetizer.

Albums

With Herbie Hancock:

  • Head Hunters (1973)
  • Thrust (1974)
  • Flood , recorded in public with the Japan in 1975
  • Manchild (1975)
  • Secret (1976)
  • Sunlight lamp (1978)
  • The Return off The Headhunters (1998)

Without Herbie Hancock:

  • Survival Of The Fittest (1975)
  • Straight From The Spoils 1978
  • Evolution Revolution 2003
  • Rebecca Barry and the Headhunters 2005

Composition

The Headhunters is composed of:

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