Takin' Off

Last updated
Takin' Off
Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 1962 [1]
RecordedMay 28, 1962
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
Genre Soul jazz, hard bop [2]
Length39:01
Label Blue Note
Producer Alfred Lion
Herbie Hancock chronology
Takin' Off
(1962)
My Point of View
(1963)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [3]
Down Beat Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [6]

Takin' Off is the debut album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock released in 1962 [7] by Blue Note Records. The album features veteran tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins. The album is a creative example of music in the hard bop idiom. [8] The bluesy track "Watermelon Man" made it to the Top 100 of the singles charts, [8] and went on to become a jazz standard. Hancock released a funk arrangement of “Watermelon Man” on his 1973 album Head Hunters . Takin' Off was initially released on CD in 1996 and then again in remastered form in 2007 by Rudy Van Gelder.

Contents

Track listing

All compositions by Herbie Hancock.

Side one

  1. "Watermelon Man" – 7:09
  2. "Three Bags Full" – 5:27
  3. "Empty Pockets" – 6:09

Side two

  1. "The Maze" – 6:45
  2. "Driftin'" – 6:58
  3. "Alone and I" – 6:25

Bonus tracks on CD reissue

  1. "Watermelon Man" (alternate take) – 6:33
  2. "Three Bags Full" (alternate take) – 5:31
  3. "Empty Pockets" (alternate take) – 6:27

Personnel

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References

  1. Billboard Oct 22, 1962
  2. Martin, Henry (2004). Essential Jazz: The First 100 Years. Cengage Learning. p. 243. ISBN   1111794278 . Retrieved October 5, 2013. ...Takin' Off was a typical hard bop LP...
  3. Huey, Steve (2011). "Takin' Off - Herbie Hancock | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  4. Down Beat: January 17, 1963 vol. 30, no. 2
  5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide . U.S.: Random House/Rolling Stone. p.  93. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
  6. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 640. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  7. "Album".
  8. 1 2 Martin, Henry; & Waters, Keith (2005). Jazz: The First 100 Years. Thomas Wadsworth. p. 311. ISBN   0-534-62804-4