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Head Hunters: The Making of Jazz's First Platinum Album (Jazz Perspectives) | 
| Author: Steven F. Pond
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $18.24
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 994918
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0472114174
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.657
EAN: 9780472114177
ASIN: 0472114174
Publication Date: October 5, 2005
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
". . . as gripping and readable as the album is unapologetically popular and danceable, this book will be gobbled up like a musicological mystery novel that incites and invites readers to listen again and rethink 'who-done-it' and how in the jazz history we thought we knew."
---Sherrie Tucker, author of Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s
"Steven Pond produces his own 'fusion' with a seamless blend of ethnographic and historical research. This book will fascinate scholars and fans of jazz and popular music, as well as those interested in the emerging interdisciplinary field of sound studies, and in the broader relationship between genre and identity in contemporary music."
---David Brackett, author of Interpreting Popular Music, and The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates
"An important and timely book. Pond's work reflects the insight an informed researcher and skilled performer can bring to the study of music. In exploring varied dimensions-sonic, cultural, technological, economic-he renders the tale in all its complexity, without sacrificing clarity of expression. This is the kind of book jazz scholarship has long needed."
---Travis Jackson, Associate Professor of American Music, University of Chicago
Steven Pond's Head Hunters captures a transitional moment in modern music history, a time when jazz and rock intermingled to create a new, often controversial, genre. At the forefront of that style was Head Hunters, Herbie Hancock's foray into the fusion jazz market. It was also the first jazz album to go platinum, and the best-selling jazz record of all time to that point.
The album became a turning point for a radical shift in both the production and reception of jazz. The sales numbers were unprecedented, and the music industry quickly responded to the expanded market, with production and promotion budgets rising tenfold. Such a shift helped musicians pry open the control-booth door, permanently enlarging their role in production. But it was all at a cost. Critics, believing that rock and funk might be appropriating jazz to new musical ends-or more ominously, for commercial reasons-grew increasingly alarmed at what they saw as the beginning of the end of jazz.
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| Customer Reviews:
The correct title should be: The Labelling of Jazz's First Platinum Album! November 30, 2005
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
Being a big Herbie Hancock fan for some time and dissapointed by the fact there is very little written on Hancock considering his importance in music (in fact, this is the first book devoted entirely to Hancock), I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy.
Now that I've read the book, I'm rather dissapointed. I wouldn't even consider it being a book on Herbie Hancock in the first place. The subtitle, "The Making of Jazz's First Platinum Album", is quite misleading. I was expecting something similar to the great and insightful books of Ashley Khan on Miles Davis' recording of "Kind of Blue" and John Coltrane's recording of "A Love Supreme". Instead, this book essentially is yet another rather clumsy and crude addition to the debate on how to label the sort of music that emerged with "Bitches Brew", the Head Hunters record serving as an example. It is helpful to know that Pond's work was originally published as his Ph.D. thesis. From this angle, it is understandable why Pond abundantly quotes various musicologists and researchers (and also includes a couple of transcription excerpts from the songs played on the record - no Herbie solos, though). But none of these comments are directly linked to the making of the record.
Of the overall 193 pages text, the passages that are directly linked to the recording of the album boil down to about 10-20 pages! There are interviews with Hancock, Bennie Maupin, Bill Summers, Pat Gleeson (who introduced Hancock to synthesizers) and producer David Rubinson. However, Paul Jackson and Harvey Mason are neither interviewed nor hardly mentioned at all (as well as interesting questions such as why Mason left the band, why Mike Clark didn't play on the record already etc). Apart from mentioning that the bass ostinato of "Chameleon" consists of two different tracks recorded in different studios, the recording process is not described in detail. Even the record date remains unclear: it is only said that it was recorded in late August or early September 1973 within a week.
Nevertheless the book has a few interesting things to offer. The chapter on African aesthetics and identity prevalent in Head Hunters is quite revealing, and there is a photo section (although no photos from the actual recording date, not even a single photo from the release year 1973). Most interesting are some of the anecdotes told by Summers, Maupin, Gleeson and Rubinson, but again, they only make up about 10 pages altogether.
If you've listened to the record and your problem is that you can't make up your mind what to call this music - then this book is for you. If you're a Herbie Hancock or a Headhunters fan expecting to gain insights into the actual recording of a landmark album, this book sadly has very little to offer.
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