My Point of View

My Point of View
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released Early September 1963[1]
Recorded March 19, 1963
Studio Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Genre Jazz
Length 42:59
Label Blue Note Records
BST 84126
Producer Alfred Lion
Herbie Hancock chronology
Takin' Off
(1962)Takin' Off1962		 My Point of View
(1963)		 Inventions and Dimensions
(1963)Inventions and Dimensions1963
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Down Beat[2]
Allmusic [3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[4]

My Point of View is the second album by pianist Herbie Hancock. It was released in 1963 on Blue Note Records as BLP 4126 and BST 84126.

Overview

Hancock has changed personnel for this album and expanded beyond Hard Bop's traditional quintet. Notably, the album is one of the first released to feature drummer Tony Williams who replaces Billy Higgins. Tony Williams, only 17 at the time, would join Hancock just a couple of months later in Miles Davis's second great Quintet on two of the tunes from Seven Steps to Heaven. Dexter Gordon has been replaced by Hank Mobley and Hancock utilizes Grant Green on guitar on the songs "Blind Man Blind Man" and "And What If I Don't". Donald Byrd—Hancock's mentor, whose 1961 album Royal Flush was Hancock's Blue Note debut—is also in the line-up.

Track listing

All compositions by Herbie Hancock

  1. "Blind Man, Blind Man" – 8:19
  2. "A Tribute to Someone" – 8:45
  3. "King Cobra" – 6:55
  4. "The Pleasure Is Mine" – 4:03 (incorrectly labelled as 8:00 on the CD reissue)
  5. "And What If I Don't" – 6:35
  6. "Blind Man, Blind Man" (Alternate Take) – 8:21 (re-release only)

The music

"Blind Man, Blind Man" was written by Hancock trying to evoke "something that reflected my Negro background". The blind man standing in the corner playing his guitar was in fact one of the things Hancock experienced in his neighbourhood in Chicago. The piece is reminiscent of "Watermelon Man", one of his greatest hits. According to Hancock, "King Cobra" was an attempt to "expand the flow [of jazz tunes and chords] so that it would go in directions beyond the usual".[5]

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Billboard Sept 21, 1963
  2. ↑ Down Beat: November 7, 1963 Vol. 30, No. 29
  3. ↑ Erlewine, Thomas (2011). "My Point of View - Herbie Hancock | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 93. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  5. ↑ Original liner notes by Ira Gitler
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