Customer Reviews

Secrets

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

 

 

Herbie's last HEADHUNTERS-era disc that is still a fairly rewarding one for those open to his mid-'70's fusion of jazz with progressive funk/r&b. As with the previous few discs, Hancock and Maupin in particular get ample solo space, with Herbie still trying to integrate his talent for improvisation with his vision for genre-hopping. The music is a bit lighter in texture than the prior three albums in this style, and the repetitive semi-vocal track DOIN' IT hints at the rapid musical decline to come. Nonetheless, check this CD out if you are into HH's 1973-1976 period.

Hard, smart, creative funk can be a hard pursuit in life these days. Even with the age of the reissue firmly upon us, finding a decently accessible funk album can be a real biyatch.

Thankfully, "Secrets," under the usually readily available Columbia jazz header is probably just sitting there in your jazz section pleading with you to pick it up for $9.99. Should this be a hard decision? Emphatically: No.

Although I can see where previous reviewers are coming from, trying to compare this outing to Headhunters is truly unnecessary. With this '76 effort Herbs is definitely toeing the fine line between jazz, funk and disco but it all works. "Doin It" is a super, super heavy funk jam and sounds like it was culled from the "Man-Child" sessions. And although "Gentle Thoughts" can be interpreted as a dated sound it probably stands as my favorite rip on the album. It's got a great walking bassline and super funky breakdown and, as always, Herbie dancing on the keys.

Go get "Secrets," don't think about it. It'll always be an easy go-to funk bomb just when you need a little infusion.

This album digs pretty deep into the FONK!Now this is Hancock's final album with the Headhunters and included Ray
Parker Jr's BOSS guitar on "Doin' It"."Swamp Rat" and the title
song dig DEEP into the type of funk the Headhunters are so known
for.Only "Gentle Thoughts" rings a little dated but is still
excellent soft fusion.Nothing more to say-this is CLASSIC,funky
Herbie!!!

This album takes funk to a new level in my opinion. It shows that funk can be more than a continuous stream of the same groove. It can rise and fall, be expressive, and be as much of a "group music" as straight-ahead and free jazz. If you liked the original Headhunters album, this one will put you over the edge.

I really like this recording and I honestly do not know why it touches me so deeply. There are a lot of jazz funk recordings out there, but this is the one I like listening to all of the time. Herbie Hancock is a genius. I regularly enjoy listening to recordings of Charlie Parker, Horace Silver, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Heath Brothers, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Art Pepper, Zoot Sims and other bebop and hard bop artists. I also enjoy listening to Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart regularly. This super funky album firmly established electronic music in what once was an acoustically dominated art. This funky jazz album gave us a peek at what was to come and which is here now. Electronic everything: from cars to phones and everything in between. This to me is the signal jazz album of the Electronic Age. Herbie Hancock's Headhunter album was an experiment and major breakthrough that won many awards. The "Secrets" album to me is the final product and culmination of a sound that will be listened to for a long time. Thank you Amazon.com for providing a marketplace for these hard to find recordings.

Warm regards and Aloha,

D. A. Rofoli
Kenai, Alaska

Amazing funky stuff like never heard before!!!! This album is so funky-groovalistic, it makes your body move like crazy snake! From straight up feel-good funk like Doin' It and the updated version of Canteloupe Island to the mellow grooves of People Music and Gentle Thoughts...this album is very very CHILL. Perfect with headphones and a little buddha!

This album will always hold a special place in my heart. The guitar stylings of Ray Parker Jr. along with the inimitable Wah-Wah Watson are truly classics. Rhodes and smooth synth sounds abound in this Hancock Funk classic!

I originally bought this on vinyl when it first came out...
that was some 25 years ago when I was just a teenager...I like it better now than I did then...It's like some kind of a funky wine that only improves with age...

Compared to Hancock's last three records (headhunters, thrust, and man-child), Secrets seems to show itself as being less creative and energetic. It still has a lot of funk to it, but for the most part the album is toned down and a bit bland at times, leaving you with repetitve parts you wish would shift. The album is good, but I would pick up any of his previous three albums if you don't have them.

It is from this album that I actually coined a whole definition for a certain kind of music from the 70's,inspired by the title of a particularly funky song on this...particularly funky album. Herbie was on this huge musical winning streak in the mid 70's and,even so this album really stands out very strong even for this period in his career! One of main reasons is the addition of Ray Parker Jr who,much as the Brothers Johnson had on the previous album Man-Child had really gone above and beyond in his ability to enhance and add great flavors to the already well established Headhunters sound. Not only is this one of Herbie's most funky albums albums of this period but also his most thouroughly ear catching and....pretty melodic since Head Hunters and it's also the most similar one they made to it. All their music from this period was that way but the previous two albums had gone after some more expirmental type sounds. This one not only gets back to the basics but adapts on the sound in all kinds of different ways. In every measurable sense this is a funk album through and through but not every song is alike.

"Doin' It" is.....well I'd say it was the best tune here but every one is so excellent that's hard to say but it's certainly one of the very strongest jams of 1976,a year full of 'em. The song starts from this Ray Parker riff that....builds into another riff until Herbie's keyboards and synthesizers kick and and build on top of them unti Ray starts singing "just keep on doing it!". This is a pointed reminder of the building nature of funk in it's heyday. His remake of his own "Cantaloupe Island" adds a this afro-caribbean stomp,along with kind of this marching "big four" jazz beat to the funk and gives the tune some extra added bounce. "Spider" is just an amazing song;like the theme song to a kind of "techno-blacksploitation" movie never made with it's bassy synth fanfare and that heavy chase scene rhythm. "Gentle Thoughts" is probably the most commercial sounding groove here as it sticks closest to the melody and sound fairly light for this type of album.

As for it's overall atmospherics...well lets just say it's most fittin that Lee Ritenour actually used this song as the title cut for his next album Gentle Thoughts. "Swamp Rat" is...among one of the most harmonically advanced tunes Herbie ever made with yet more fanfaring bass synths and,as for the second half of the song Paul Jackson's bass and Bennie Maupin's passionate work on sax and reeds carry that area. As for Maupin he gets a big kudos on his own "Sansho Shima" at the end of the album,which has this very strong afro cuban jazz flavor with the inprovisation being baught to the forefront and the funk kind of riding along in the middle. This album is kind of ignored because it's sandwiched after some well known classics and comes right before his disco-funk period-itself HIGHLY underrated. There is a progression from one to the other yet in terms of Herbie's powers as a soloist,bandleader and composer in the 70's,nevermind his funkiness this album is one of many that can't be beat!