HERBIE HANCOCK – THE PIANO FULL ALBUM (1979)

Best Sheet Music download from our Library.

As with Directstep (recorded one week previously), this album was recorded, and originally only released, in Japan. It was one of Hancock’s most successful albums in Japan, perhaps because it was entirely solo piano. Hancock tackles jazz standards such as “My Funny Valentine”, “On Green Dolphin Street” and “Some Day My Prince Will Come” while also performing four original compositions.

This album was initially released exclusively in Japan and first issued there on CD in 1983. In 2004, over 25 years after its recording, the album was released with four additional alternate takes of the same session. It was the first and only (until 2014) of Hancock’s Japanese releases available internationally.

Please, subscribe to our Library. Thank you!

Track listing

Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length

1. “My Funny Valentine” Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart 7:42
2. “On Green Dolphin Street” Bronisław Kaper, Ned Washington 3:20
3. “Some Day My Prince Will Come” Frank Churchill, Larry Morey 4:36
   Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length
4. “Harvest Time” Herbie Hancock 4:48
5. “Sonrisa” Herbie Hancock 3:40
6. “Manhattan Island” Herbie Hancock 3:56
7. “Blue Otani” Herbie Hancock 3:24
   Total length: 31:26
   CD Reissue bonus track (Columbia – CK 87083)[4]No. Title Writer(s) Length
8. “My Funny Valentine” (Take 3) Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart 6:08
9. “On Green Dolphin Street” (Take 2) Bronisław Kaper, Ned Washington 4:04
10. “Some Day My Prince Will Come” (Take 3) Frank Churchill, Larry Morey 5:16
11. “Harvest Time” (Take 3) Herbie Hancock 5:10
    Total length: 52:04
    

Personnel: Herbie Hancock – acoustic piano

Production credits

David Rubinson – producer
Fred Catero – engineer, mixing
Mikio Takamatsu – mastering
Yasohachi "88" Itoh and Keiichi Nakamura – production coordination
Yusaku Nakanishi – art direction
Kazumi Kurigami – cover photo
Akira Aimi – photography

The Piano Review by Thom Jurek

Recorded after the funky fusion of Head Hunters, Thrust, Sextant, and other electric albums, and before the dawn of “Rockit” and more commercially viable and hip-hop-oriented material, Herbie Hancock took time out in 1978 to touch base again with his piano. Recorded completely solo, this set was issued only in Japan as the truly awful Feets, Don’t Fail Me Now was issued stateside. A curious set, the first half of the album features Hancock playing jazz standards in truly elegant and restrained fashion. His treatments of “My Funny Valentine,” “Green Dolphin Street,” and “Someday My Prince Will Come” — all tracks he performed as part of the Miles Davis Quintet — are elongated, morphed, and beautifully woven together as a suite. The latter half of the recording is comprised of four tracks, “Harvest Time,” “Sonrisa,” “Manhattan Island,” and “Blue Otani,” all of which are originals. These pieces are concerned with Hancock’s preoccupation with the piano as a solo instrument. They are composed as formalist treatments that are extrapolated upon at several different junctures, or “turning points,” within them. They embody notions of classical music à la Anton Webern, blues, Erroll Garner’s lyrical phrasing, and Bill Evans’ harmonic sensibilities. They are, in sum, inseparable from one another and are usually performed as a suite. This is a stunning triumph for Hancock, and it’s too bad that the album has never been issued in the U.S., as it would undoubtedly be a popular addition to his vast catalog. About the closest one can come are the tracks from here included in The Herbie Hancock Box. Maybe someday.