Herbie Hancock / Flood

AllMusic Review by Richard S. Ginell

Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters take to the road in the live double album Flood, recorded and released only in Japan. Contrary to the impression left by his American releases at this time, Hancockwas still very much attached to the acoustic piano, as his erudite opening workout on "Maiden Voyage/Actual Proof" with his funk rhythm section makes clear. The electric keyboards, mostly Rhodes piano and clavinet, make their first appearances on side two, where Hancock now becomes more of a funky adjunct to the rhythm section, bumping along with a superb feeling for the groove while Bennie Maupin takes the high road above on a panoply of winds. Except for "Voyage," the tunes come from the Head Hunters, Thrust, and Man-Child albums (another reason why this was not released in the U.S.). "Chameleon" comes with a lengthy outbreak of machine pink noise that attests to Hancock's wide-eyed love of gadgetry. In all, this was a great funk band, not all that danceable because of the rapid complexities of Mike Clark's drumming, and quite often, full of harmonic depth and adventure.

Herbie Hancock
Flood



CBS/Sony ‎Herbie Recorded live at Shibuya Kohkaido
June 28, & Nakano Sun Plaza, July 1
1975 Tokyo, Japan

Tracklist A1 Introduction/Maiden Voyage A2 Actual Proof 7:59 B1 Spank-A-Lee 16:27 B2 Watermelon Man (Hancock, Mason) 25:14 C1 Butterfly (Hancock, Maupin) 31:05 C2 Chameleon (Maupin, Mason, Hancock, Jackson) 43:49 D Hang Up Your Hangups (Hancock, Ragin, Jackson) 54:24

Herbie Hancock (p, e-p, clavinet, key, syn) Bennie Maupin (ss, ts, saxello, bcl, fl, perc) Dewayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight (g) Paul Jackson (b) Mike Clarke (dr) Bill Summers (perc)