Inventions & Dimensions [Import]

Herbie Hancock, Osvaldo Martinez, Willie Bobo, Herbie Hancock / Michael Brecker / Roy Hargrove | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Toshiba EMI Japan
• ASIN: B000CBO0NK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,788,047 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Succotash

2. Triangle

3. Jack Rabbit

4. Mimosa

5. A Jump Ahead

Editorial Reviews

For his third album, Herbie Hancock chose a very rhythmic setting for his improvised compositions. Supported only by bassist Paul Chambers and percussionists Willie Bobo and Osvaldo Martinez, the pianist creates each tune from scratch and the results are astonishing. The alternate take of "Mimosa" has previously only been available as part of box set.

*bonus tracks, not part of the original LP

HERBIE HANCOCK, piano
PAUL CHAMBERS, bass
WILLIE BOBO, drums, timbales
OSVALDO "CHIHUAHUA" MARTINEZ, congas, bongos, guiro, finger cymbals --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice "out-lite" record, October 6, 2005

By 

luv my 20D! (SF Valley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventions & Dimensions (Audio CD)

Don't let the whole thing about "improvised music" fool you - this is not like an Ornette Coleman or Art Ensemble of Chicago disc. It's very structured and accessible - you wouldn't realize it was all improvised unless you read the liner notes.

It's a side of Herbie Hancock you probably haven't heard before. First, he's playing over Latin-tinged grooves. Second, it's rather minimalist, both in instrumentation and in the simplicity and repetitiveness of the melodies. That said, he really tears it up - this is one of my favorite Herbie records. Practically anyone who's into jazz in general or Herbie in particular would dig this side.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unlike any Herbie Hancock you've heard before, May 24, 2006

By 

Michael Hardin (South Duxbury, Vermont United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventions & Dimensions (Audio CD)

I am a jazz pianist and Herbie Hancock is a personal favorite of mine, and he is certainly one of the most versatile musicians to ever come out of jazz. His music and his playing is anywhere from ridiculously funky to absolutely beautiful to out there and crazy. This album, from 1963, most closely follows the third option. One has to wonder where this session came from; Hancock had found his first hit with "Watermelon Man" and spent his second session trying to duplicate that success, albeit with mixed results. This third session for Blue Note sounds nothing like the first two or almost anything in the Blue Note catalogue at that time. Stripped down to trio plus auxiliary percussion with Paul Chambers on bass, Willie Bobo on drums, and Osvaldo Martinez on auxiliary percussion, the group explores Latin grooves in a very subtle way that I can only label "concept-based post-bop." There aren't really any written tunes ("Mimosa" was a set of chord changes and the other tunes are completely improvised) so sketches are built more off of fragments and ideas born in the studio. For example, one tune features the bass playing a pedal tone for four bars followed by Hancock's improvisation in that key for sixteen bars. The music, while abstract, is oddly infectious through the rhythmic approach. In addition, Hancock was working with fairly "inside" musicians, especially Chambers, a first call bop musician. As a result, though free, this music is fairly conservative. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of taste; it is controlled and in what many would call "good taste" but at the same time, sometimes that control inhibits the musicians from reaching the full potential of the wild and crazy things that *might* have been born. Thus, this was never able to reach the classic status of the great "out" sessions but it was also kept from descending into meaningless noise that happens when free jazz finds itself uninspired. Instead, it walks a middle path, a relatively safe (though still more adventurous than either of his prior two releases) "free" session which is very interesting, sometimes catchy, but not really a classic. I find it difficult to call any of this session to mind because there aren't memorable melodic moments; it's more about texture. I still enjoy this quite a bit, though, and anyone interested in Herbie Hancock would do well to check out this album to see the germ of his playing with Miles, or perhaps a road he chose not to take.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest "trio" records ever, June 3, 2004

By 

Jess Row (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inventions & Dimensions (Audio CD)

"Trio" in quotation marks, of course, because there are actually two percussionists on this date, working as a single Afro-Cuban unit. I've always thought that Hancock's piano work is often overshadowed by the musical contexts he chooses to work in; this record is a rare example of Hancock alone at the helm, and it's a pure joy to listen to--an approach to "free" jazz that is relaxed and loose, critiquing jazz traditions without tearing them apart, as in the best work of Eric Dolphy (whom Hancock played with shortly before this recording). In some ways this record is similar to McCoy Tyner's "Plays Duke Ellington," especially in the mixture of Latin textures with jazz harmonies and structures. This is an overlooked gem which belongs in any Herbie Hancock collection.