Herbie Hancock - Secrets

AllMusic Review by Richard S. Ginell

Having long since established his funk credentials, Herbie Hancock continues the direction of Head Hunters and its U.S. successors here, welding himself to the groove on electric keyboards while Bennie Maupin again shines sardonic beams of light on a variety of reeds. In "Doin' It," the most successful track, Hancock makes a more overt bid for the dancefloor, for the tune is basically one long irresistible groove with a very commercial-sounding bridge. Again Hancock chooses to recompose one of his standards; "Cantelope [sic] Island" is almost unrecognizable converted into a sauntering, swaggering thing. A streamlining process has set in -- the drumming has been simplified, some of the old high-voltage drive has been muted -- yet there are still enough enjoyable, intelligently musical things happening here to hold a Hancock admirer's attention.

Secrets is a August 1976 jazz-funk fusion album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock. It is also Hancock's seventeenth album overall.

Read more

1. "Doin' It" (Melvin Ragin, Ray Parker, Jr.) – 8:03
2. "People Music" (Herbie Hancock, Ragin, Paul Jackson) – 7:11
3. "Cantelope Island" [sic] (Hancock) – 7:06
4. "Spider" (Ragin, Hancock, Jackson) – 7:21
5. "Gentle Thoughts" (Hancock, Ragin) – 7:05
6. "Swamp Rat" (Jackson, Hancock, Ragin) – 6:26
7. "Sansho Shima" (Bennie Maupin) – 4:50

• James Gadson – drums on Doin' It
• Herbie Hancock – acoustic piano, Rhodes electric piano, electric grand piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP String Ensemble, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Micromoog, Oberheim 4 Voice, Echoplex
• Bennie Maupin – soprano sax, tenor sax, saxello, lyricon, bass clarinet
• Ray Parker Jr. – guitar, backing vocals on Doin' It
• Paul Jackson – bass
• James Levi – drums
• Kenneth Nash – percussion
• Wah Wah Watson – guitar, Maestro universal synthesiser system / sample and hold unit, voice bag; vocals & bass on Doin' It