Customer Reviews

The Prisoner

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

 

 

"The Prisoner" has got to be the most overlooked recording in Herbie Hancock's catalog. This gem is blessed with great music and some intense solos - especially from saxophonist Joe Henderson and trombonist Garnett Brown. I love the way the bass clarinets and trombones make this music float and swing without getting too heavy. Buster Williams (Bass) and Albert Heath (Drums) provide the perfect rhythm section for Herbie to dance and dazzle while Hubert laws and Jerome Richardson provide some colorful Flute to give these compositions added beauty. As a group, this band is tight and on the mark. Beautiful compositions plus intense group chemistry equals five stars for this well polished recording. Check it out!!!

The unbearable Dave Matthews band gets so much attention, while this beautiful work of art is ignored? The music here is like a romantic walk through Central Park on a cool, crisp day in October. It's got the great, late Joe Henderson doing some fine work and Gil Evans trumpet player Johnny Coles laying down some melodic sounds. In fact, the album was influenced primarily by Evans. If you want some soothing sonic brilliance to keep you company, give this a try.

This is the time when Herbie is drifting slowly towards the funk session. The numbers from this album will make you feel the same. A solid lineup with Al Tootie Heath on drums accompanied by Joe Henderson is quite a unique masterpiece.

Big Thanks to Mr. Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio who has recorded some everlasting Jazz classics and this is one of them.

From 1969, Herbie's final recording for Blue Note, and what a haunting masterpiece it is,
PERFECTLY capturing the turbulence and combustible energy and feeling that permeated
the events and atmosphere that closed out the 1960's decade. I, too, was there and went
through it like so many others. This recording is a brilliant SOUNDTRACK of those times. In
addition to using his working sextet at the time (with trumpet, tenor sax, and trombone in
the horn section), Hancock adds three more (bass trombone, bass clarinet, and flute) to
create a nonet for "The Prisoner" recording. This particular three-horn ensemble had its
roots on Herbie's beautiful 1968 Blue Note album "Speak Like A Child", which used flugelhorn,
bass trombone, and alto flute that revealed Gil Evans' influence and Herbie's alliance to his
brilliant orchestral style and writing. The same sextet that appears on "The Prisoner" (Joe
Henderson on tenor sax, alto flute, Johnny Coles on flugelhorn, Garnett Brown on trombone,
Buster Williams on bass, Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums, and Herbie on piano, electric piano)
also made Herbie's most commercial record until then (later on in 1969), "Fat Albert Rotunda",
for Warner Bros. Records. The first track on "The Prisoner" is the fabulous "I Have A Dream",
Herbie's poignant, heartfelt tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, and features brilliant
extended solos and work from Coles and Henderson, along with Herbie himself, on the long-
est cut on the session at almost eleven minutes. I particularly love the way the great Rudy
Van Gelder recorded the haunting echo of not only the horn ensemble, but also the soloists
on their extended expressions. This is simply gorgeous writing by Herbie. I remember the first
time I heard "I Have A Dream", and how it evoked so MANY haunting images and feelings that
reminded me of those times from the 1960's. In particular, for me, this is my favorite Hender-
son solo on record - absolutely STUNNING. The title cut, "The Prisoner", features an additional,
shorter alternate take, and like "I Have A Dream", evokes powerful themes and images deal-
ing with the struggles and challenges of African-Americans and the Civil Rights movement so
prevalent in the 60's. Joe Henderson, once again, is magnificent on his soloing here, with very
intense, emotional playing expressing the deep problems involved in the long term imprison-
ment and struggles of black people; hence, "The Prisoner". "Firewater", from bassist Buster
Williams, is the only chart on "The Prisoner" not written by Hancock, and suggests the social
dichotomy of the oppressor and the oppressed. According to the liner notes, "the fire and wa-
ter idea symbolizes, for Hancock, the feeling of fire in violence and power play and the feeling
of water in Dr. King." Great solos and work once again from not only Henderson and Coles, but
also trombonist Garnett Brown. A second, longer alternate take of "Firewater" also appears on
the cd. "He Who Lives In Fear" finds Hancock using electric piano (as well as on the title track),
and was ORIGINALLY composed for a Silva Thins cigarette commercial, but was re-shaped, re-
titled, and re-created into a totally new piece with a different melody, as well as harmonic struc-
ture. The new title is in reference to Dr. King having had to live in the constant danger and
turmoil that defined the 1960's, and his challenges with it. The final cut, "Promise Of The Sun",
again features fabulous ensemble work from Hancock's group, and represents the sun's promise
of life and freedom for ALL living beings, an optimistic hope for sure, yet one which a great many
people do not ever experience. In addition to the previously mentioned players, the great flute
master Hubert Laws also appears on several cuts of "The Prisoner" with important contributions.
Produced by pianist Duke Pearson, "The Prisoner" is a magnificent, contemporary achievement
by Hancock that perfectly expresses the plight and feeling of the modern, urban dilemma in our
society, EVEN today. Brilliantly recorded by the great Rudy Van Gelder, it's a timeless work of
art. Concerning "The Prisoner", in 1969, Herbie stated, "Generally speaking, I've been able to get
closer to the real me with this album than on any other previous one." Herbie's next sextet af-
ter "The Prisoner" lineup would take a FAR different direction in 1970, with his MIND-BLOWING
"Mwandishi" group in OUTER SPACE, keeping only Buster Williams, and replacing all others with
Bennie Maupin on reeds/flute, Dr. Eddie Henderson on trumpet/flugelhorn, Julian Priester on trom-
bone, and Billy Hart on drums. 50 billion stars for "The Prisoner".

Herbie Hancock's "The Prisoner" has been locked up for more than ten years. It was first released on CD in the late 80s only to be deleted a few years later. Then it was paroled in the mid-90s, but only available in limited numbers through the Collector's Choice program. At long last, justice has been served, and "The Prisoner" has been pardoned by Governor Rudy Van Gelder. While I am glad it has been made available (I wish everything could be in print), I have always found "The Prisoner" do be a disappointing, lackluster effort. Here Hancock builds on the larger group stylings of "Speak Like A Child," and employs a band that includes the wonderful, underrated trumpeter Johnny Coles. But the sound is more commercial than any of Hancock's other six Blue Note albums. Of course, Hancock would continue to produce financially successful mainstream jazz, most notably with "Headhunters," but the music is much more realized and enjoyable than it is on this transitional session. Personally, I would give this disc only three stars, but I know there are people out there who will enjoy this title, so I'll give it four stars to avoid any unnecessary confrontations. But I think it boils down to this, if your favorite Hancock CDs are the inventive and exploratory "Empyrean Isles" and "Maiden Voyage," then you may want to pass on this disc. But if you love the Complete Warner Brothers recordings or Herbie's 70s material, "The Prisoner" is yours.

Hey, kid! You! Yeah, you! I can tell by the look in your eyes that you're a Herbie Hancock fan, right? Well, I've got the fix for you! This isn't a very challenging album - really, it's a traditionalist effort. But a very good traditionalist effort. "I Have a Dream" just might be the loveliest song in Hancock history, and it certainly has the best melody. Plus I approve of the flute part. It's long, but I couldn't imagine it short at all. Winner in my book! Oh, and its title comes from the Martin Luther King, Jr. speech of the same name, so it earns my full blessing. One of Hancock's most essential songs, and trust me, there are a lotta those. Anyway, most the album's in the same mold, but it's a good mold, so I can't complain too much: key songs include the title track (again, driven by a flute) and "Firewater", which is kind of funky: Hancock's playing on "Promise of the Sun" makes that one of the highlights too. Now, you may end up living in fear of "He Who Lives in Fear", because it's not a very good song. But it's a single bad song on an exceptional album. So it's forgiven.

This is my beloved Herbie right after he left Miles and right before becoming an herb in the fussion stew. This is probably the most dense music he ever made--all those years at Blue Note and he never used horns with this thickness.


Nothing really stands out in the band, but that is the point. The music on Prisonor is about layers and layers of clouds. The horns and the panio mesh completely, and you really have to listen, many times. Over these listens, the Prisonor penatrates.

This is also Herbie's darkest. Martan Luther King had just been killed, and no one had the race tiger by the tail. Things were getting increasing militant--understandably so.

It was pretty dark out there in 1969, and the music here personifies this.

After this, Herbie moved to the jubulant funk of Fat Albert Rotunda. As if to prove even potential insurrection would not keep this happy master worried for too long.