Customer Reviews

Fat Albert Rotunda

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Counting about 99.8 % of the music on this album 'Fat Albert Rotunda' is Herbie Hancock's first dive into the world
of funk-jazz,a just blooming genre in 1969 when this was recorded and a style he wouldn't return to for another five years or so.As for the jazz side of his personality only "Tell Me A Bedtime Story",with it's gentle theatrics,works in this
arena.Otherwise this album is pretty much instrumental funk,upbeat and well made but probably not quite as thrilling and
DEFINATELY not as innovative as later such efforts as 'Thrust',
"Man-Child','Secrets' and of course 'Headhunters'.But once fans of Herbie's funkier style have purchased those recordings (whitch
are essencial) this album is the next logical step to walk in.

This album contains some of the most lighthearted and yet still street serious grooves I've ever heard. It's loose and by no means perfect, but still one of the greatest albums - almost for those attributes. As well as having awesome grooves like the opening track, fat mama, and the title track; it also contains a classic and very beautiful jazz composition by Herbie, Tell Me A Bedtime Story. This is a beautiful piece of jazz groove history and still great to listen to today. If you don't have it, buy it. It will do you no harm except to possibly make your feet move all by themselves and your mind to be soothed by the touch of a master.

Hancock takes the cake with this just about unheard of CD. This is a killer collection of "feel good use the dashboard or kitchen table as a percussion instrument" instrumentals. I could write a thank you letter to Herbie for getting me through numerous late night shifts at work with this CD...but I will just say that this is an audible "great day". If you're having a bad morning, drop this CD in and you'll feel better by the time track one kicks in. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to all audiences. Herbie Hancock for president.

I love this album. It is funky and beautiful. Well arranged and expertly played. It may not be the purest jazz masterpiece, but it is perfect for what it is. It flows perfectly after Herbie's previous album, the Prisoner. I almost wish more people would try to rip this style off more often. When I first got the album I thought Fat Mama was the best song on it, but after listening, the driving but entirely laid back force of Tell Me A Bedtime Story is one of my favorite songs period. I wanted to buy a copy of this cd for everybody I knew for christmas but couldn't find a single copy in stores (aside from the complete Columbia recordings). Do yourself a favor and snatch it while you can. (Or just get the complete columbia recordings if you also like awesome space funk jazz)

This album is amazing, I also cannot rave about it enough. Tight grooves throughout and funky beyond belief. Somehow this album has been forgotten in the Herbie catalog, but glad to see it's in print again.

Herbie Hancock is one of the greatest jazz and funk players of all time and this album and others recorded around the mid 70's reveals this in full groove splender. This is a brilliant album full of fat funky grooves. I cannot rave about it enough. Also available in 2-cd set with other (more spacey) songs of the warner brother period.

I love that James Brown instrumental "Night Train"
and when I put this disc into a player and heard first
half minutes I knew that this was something mind blowing.
Just like "Night Train", songs on this CD have some catchy
riffs and then soulful saxophone (and other) solos.

Sometimes this CD is said to be soul-jazz, and sometimes
funk-jazz. The truth is that some tracks are like
instrumental soul and some others are like funk (4, 6, & 7).

This CD has a very interesting background (because it was Herbie's first
really funky album) so it is pity that liner notes
are not very informative.

I have been looking any other album that included same
style of music as this but in vain. Herbie has not made
any other CD like this (Headhunters sounds very different
as you can hear) and other "soul-jazz" CDs that I have
heard sound more like hard-bop than soul.

Great album - first a correction, Herbie did not write the music for Bill Cosby's classic Saturday morning cartoon series. This music is the soundtrack for an animated one-off "special" which showed on TV somewhere around 1969. I recall seeing it (I was 9 at the time) and recall loving the music, and that the animation had a great sense of style, sort of like Spider-Man. I recall almost nothing of the cartoon nor have I ever seen it anywhere since. I came across this album on vinyl about 15 years ago and had a thrill putting it on. The music is very funky but a little static with repetitive grooves and horn sections which are a background for Herbie to solo on electric piano. A notable exception is "Tell Me a Bedtime Story", a beautiful ensemble piece, a funk ballad, worth the price of admission. The other tunes feature a lot of late-60's fuzz guitar riffs with understated Rhodes underneath. Kind of lightweight for Hancock, especially considering the great musicians featured, but fun and funky too. Remember that this is soundtrack music so it is subdued. Very nostalgic 60's funk sound to the album as a whole. The Spider-Man comparison can almost fit to the music.

If you like the early Crusaders, you will love Fat Albert Rotunda - Guaranteed. In fact, I do strong suspect this was the model for the Crusaders after they dropped "Jazz" from their moniker and re-invented their sound. The early Crusaders releases are strikingly similar to this music. My only complaint is that there isn't more of the music than is offered. You just want it to keep on going and going. It is a much better buy to pick up Herbie Hancock - The Complete Warner Bros Recordings. For a mere $2.00 more you get this release plus Mwandishi and Crossings which are also great fusion releases.

read that he had done the music for Fat Albert and decided to grab this disc. There are some really funky moments. A very "listener" friendly funk/jazz album. I recommend it.