Monster [Import, Original recording remastered]

Herbie Hancock | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony/Bmg Int'l
• ASIN: B000024QUK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,609 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not a Disco album!!, February 27, 2005

By 

Tall Paul (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monster (Audio CD)

For the record the Disco era pretty much died in late 1979. This album is a very energetic funky dance album. Incredible funky latin tune Saturday Night which features Santana and Sheila E killing it on percussion! A very underrated effort from Herbie. Seems like people only want their artists to play only one style of music. Herbie proves he can do it all effectively.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative disco-funk-jazz, but not for trad-jazz snobs, December 30, 2008

By 

J. Cohen "fan of all" (Long Island, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monster (Audio CD)

A master composer creates compositions of extraordinary complexity (e.g., on Thrust, Fat Albert Rotunda) and then strips down the writing to the basics, relying more on polyphony to get to the funky heart of the matter.

Why does "Stars in your eyes" work like a charm? I don't know, but it is superb funk that sneaks up on the listener until he/she says "that's it!!" The little keyboard phrase after the vocals sums the song up perfectly, because you are on the beach at night feeling the night breeze. Herbie is among the few composers who is able to use chord progression to evoke emotion or evoke a visual (e.g., Tell me a Bedtime Story, Watermelon Man, Riot).

That disco-funk thing, mastered by the two guys in CHIC, or by Ray Parker, Jr., depends on just the right subtlety to get its funk across. How did an aging jazz musician like Herbie figure out what that funky thing was? I don't know, but his ability to do it proves his mastery of multiple musical mediums.

Herbie was excoriated for doing this record, and no one listened to it; certainly, I didn't know about it until a couple of years ago, although all the jazz bohos knew about "Headhunters," and largely approved, probably because it had some killer keyboard riffs and was more to the point in getting to the Miles-type voodoo funk. But "Monster" has vocals and is just plain romantic in outlook, and it's intended to be danced to, so it is very un-jazzy and un-fusion.

"Monster" contains alot of Herbie-type brilliance but doesn't wear same on its sleeve. Listen and enjoy, and pretend that Ray Parker, Jr. wrote it instead!!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neglected, March 30, 2004

By 

Andre' S Grindle "Funk Meister" (Bangor,ME.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monster (Audio CD)

Yes the opening dance-funk of "Saturday Night" features
as honest to goodness jazz piano solo by Hancock along with
Santana's gripping guitar solo-it sounds alot like "Marathon"/
"Inner Secrets"-era Santana band really."Stars In Your Eyes" is
a VERY sexy slow groove with a equally lilting Ray Parker Jr.
guitar solo."Go For It" has it's share of retro disco pleasures
(even if some of those pleasures are guilty" but the meat of
"Monster" is in the uncontrolable DINASAUR fonk of "Don't Hold It In" grooving,jamming and throwing killer guitar and electronics at you!Even with "It All Comes Down"'s bizzare
fusion of funk and progressive rock fans of "Feet's Don't Fail
Me Now" era Hancock will be at home here.