‘Rockit’! 10 essential discs by a master of all genres, the icon Herbie Hancock

In the seven decades since Herbie Hancock — at 11 years old — performed a selection from a Mozart keyboard concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the pianist developed an immense impact on contemporary music. From the beginning of his solo career, he explored new harmonic possibilities for jazz, while writing songs that have become popular standards. A lifelong advocate for emerging technologies, he embraced electronic instruments and digital instruments, sometimes introducing them to the general public.

Hancock’s discography is extensive, and he also has recorded celebrated albums alongside Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and Joni Mitchell. For those who are looking to build a Hancock LP collection, start with these 10 before he returns to his hometown Chicago for an SCP Jazz concert Oct. 26: 

“Takin’ Off” (Blue Note, 1962)

Hancock was just 22 when he recorded his first session as a leader. This was shortly after his stint with hard-bop trumpeter Donald Byrd, and the debut shows his visionary musical ideas already starting to take shape. Along with taking veteran saxophonist Dexter Gordon and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard into shifting harmonic directions, he messes around with time signatures on “The Maze.” He also already knew how to compose indelible tunes, such as the ballad “Alone And I” and “Watermelon Man,” which would turn into a big hit for Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría.

“Inventions and Dimensions” (Blue Note, 1963)

Around the time that Hancock recorded his third Blue Note album, he had joined the Miles Davis Quintet, a high-profile gig that gave him not just more confidence, but also a chance to exchange ideas with the brilliant trumpeter. Hancock brings this inventive spirit to a quartet with an uncanny lineup consisting of himself, bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin drummers (Willie Bobo and Osvaldo Martinez). Aside from a few sketches, most of the sessions were not planned, and the rhythms change unexpectedly on “Triangle.” But all throughout, the flow is ceaseless.

“Empyrean Isles” (Blue Note, 1964)

The concept for this album was to write links to tales of mythical islands with a sparse lineup of Hubbard on cornet interacting with the quartet’s rhythm section. This arrangement contrasted with typical saxophone/trumpet fronted groups and left it up to the band’s ingenuity to create a fuller sound with a smaller front line. Hancock and his group exceed the challenge through pieces ranging from groove-based “Cantaloupe Island” and bluesy “One Finger Snap” to the freewheeling “The Egg.”

“Maiden Voyage” (Blue Note, 1965)

This quintet album is the pinnacle of Hancock’s Blue Note years, and although he claimed it was a hit “only in the jazz circle,” it is one of the decade’s landmark recordings in any genre. By this time, Hancock had absorbed Davis’ lessons about space and subtlety while he strengthened his own ideas about using brief themes to direct rich spontaneous conversations among top musicians. The deceptively simple title track has become a standard and the ballad “Dolphin Dance” seems straightforward, but dig deeper and discover how it is built from complicated harmonies and a tonal center that is never easy to pin down.

“The Prisoner” (Blue Note, 1969)

As the 1960s were coming to a close, Hancock made his final Blue Note album into a large-scale orchestral and social statement. Leading a nonet, Hancock continues to create lovely melodies that contain tricky harmonic and rhythmic shifts. The sizable ensemble — including flutes and flugelhorn — provides an array of different colors and shifting textures. The album also responds to the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. the previous year, and Hancock’s expansive “I Have a Dream” is his musical consideration of the Civil Rights leader’s message.

“Mwandishi” (Warner Brothers, 1971)

After leaving Blue Note, Hancock launched a new sextet of the same name (after the Swahili word for “composer”). With this new beginning came his deeper dive into electronics as he combined the piano and Fender Rhodes. He has not abandoned funk even with challenging time signatures on “Ostinato (Suite for Angela).” On “You’ll Know When You Get There,” Hancock brings together electronic keyboards with the impressionistic orchestrations that reflect his classical upbringing.

“Head Hunters” (Columbia, 1973)

After Hancock dug deeper into contemporary R&B, he formed a new band that condensed Mwandishi’s electronic approach into one of the biggest selling jazz albums of all time. A two-note melody and a sturdy bass line turned into the album’s signature track, “Chameleon.” Hancock’s Head Hunters could sound dreamy and ethereal, too, on such tracks as “Vein Melter.” Despite (or, maybe, because of) the commercial appeal, the album initially received a mixed response from jazz critics but, eventually, even many of them came around and realized why it is so widely venerated.

“Thrust” (Columbia, 1974)

With the huge success of Head Hunters, Hancock continued working in this mode with strong grooves, complex melodies and a playful back and forth with an array of electronic instruments. Hancock’s arsenal included a Fender Rhodes and different Arp synthesizers while his virtuosity on all of them remained recognizably his own. Bennie Maupin’s fluidity on different reeds is equally crucial, particularly on the ballad, “Butterfly.” The music and cover art are more ways that Hancock was also exploring Afrofuturism.

“The Piano” (Columbia, 1979)

Alongside Hancock mapping out music’s future, he made this solo acoustic album that looked back at his beginnings as his artistic courage meant not being afraid to sound vulnerable. Originally released for the Japanese market, the first side is an introspective rendition of three jazz standards and four Hancock originals comprise the second. In the midst of his plugged-in explorations, the album showed that he retained his sensitivity on a concert grand. Hancock would revisit the classic American in the late 1990s with his George Gershwin tribute, Gershwin’s World (Verve, 1998).

“Future Shock” (Columbia, 1983)

Perhaps still identified for the riff that shapes the MTV-era “Rockit,” Hancock’s adaption of cutting-edge technologies set the pace for the emerging hip-hop generation. The album was a collaborative project with Hancock sharing production credits with bassist Bill Laswell and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn. The sheer joy that comes across in their exploration of samples, turntable scratches and new digital worlds remains palpable 42 years later. The title track was written by another former Chicagoan, Curtis Mayfield.