The original liner notes introduce the 22-year-old Hancock as someone you might just have heard of, if you checked all the latest Blue Notes, but this was still a year before he joined Miles. It’s an understatement to say Herbie is already hugely competent and inventive, but he’s also, like many greats in their early years, something of a sponge – hence a delightful take-off of fellow Blue Note pianist Horace Parlan during his ‘Driftin’’ solo. The varied nature of the repertoire could be a drawback if the individual pieces were less convincing, but indeed they lay out a lot of the composer’s future directions, from ‘Watermelon Man’ (its first documentation) to the waltz ‘Three Bags Full’. Almost in passing, they present Freddie and the then resurgent Dexter with a more challenging programme than they often recorded at this period, and the players amply repay that challenge. Of course, this is a document of its time, but one that grows more impressive with the passing decades – I suppose that’s the definition of a classic. Despite all that’s happened since, to the music and to Hancock, this can hardly be less than a four-star debut and the sound, always good, now feels simultaneously more tight and more spacious.
Brian Priestley

This review is from Jazzwise Issue #115 to read the most extensive CD, DVD, Book and Live review section out there and receive a Free CD Subscribe Here...