Blue Note publish Herbie Hancock’s debut album : ‘Takin’ Off’ featuring ‘Watermelon Man’ (1962)

LondonJazzCollector
I prefer this acoustic piano bopping Hancock to the frizzy-haired funky evil twin who finally managed to escape from the attic in the 1970′s. However this will no doubt invoke howls of protest from the funk-lovers so let me say they are all better than Herbies’ most recent and ghastly Imagine Project. Oh oh! Help! Here come the World Love and Peace fansand they are screaming for my blood! […]

The Guardian
Hancock was already astonishingly sophisticated, both as a player and a composerand the knack for hooks that made his later work so successful in pop as well as jazz is apparent in the gospelly yet knowing theme of the classic Watermelon Man. […]

allmusic
Yet while Hancock could be just as funky and blues-rooted as Silver, their overall styles diverged in several ways: Hancock was lighter and more cerebral, a bit more adventurous in his harmoniesand more apt to break his solos out of a groove (instead of using them to create one). […]

Thanks to the following musicians : AntoineHerveOfficial . Colin White . Isaac Soria . Ivica Todorović . jazzpianist111 . Lot2learn . Mike Hermans . Piano Marcos . RayPorrelloTrio . Reese Williams . Santiago Cañón . startbass . TJhandford524 . Trinthepianist . Vladimir Antonoski . Yvan Jacques