1964 · Album
Empyrean Isles
Recorded 1964 · Blue Note Records · Produced by Alfred Lion
Four Players, One Perfect Afternoon
Hancock and three giants locked into something that still sounds fresh sixty years later.
By 1964, Herbie Hancock was already a working member of the Miles Davis Quintet, but Empyrean Isles (1964) is the record that showed what he could do on his own terms. Recorded for Blue Note with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums, this is a pianoless-quartet-style record in the sense that the four voices feel genuinely equal — nobody is just keeping time. The rhythm section here is not furniture. Williams in particular plays with an independence that keeps every track slightly unpredictable, and Carter locks in with him in a way that gives Hancock room to roam without ever losing the pulse.
The album opens with Cantaloupe Island, which became one of the most sampled jazz tracks in history after De La Soul and US3 got hold of it decades later. That familiarity can actually work against a first listen — it sounds almost too easy, a rolling vamp with a melody a child could follow. But sit with it and the bass movement underneath does something quietly unusual. The other tracks, including One Finger Snap and the title piece, are harder and more angular, showing that Hancock was interested in post-bop structure without abandoning groove entirely. Hubbard is in excellent form throughout, playing with a brightness and precision that suits the material better than a more impressionistic trumpeter would have.
This is not Hancock's most adventurous record — that argument could go several directions — but it is probably his most satisfying as a pure quartet album. Everything fits. The writing is tight without being rigid, the playing is confident without being flashy, and at about forty minutes it never overstays its welcome. If you are new to Hancock, start here.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Herbie Hancock
All 26 albums →
The musicians on this record
Breaking Point 1964
Freddie Hubbard
plays cornet here
plays cornet here
Where? 1961
Ron Carter
plays double bass here
plays double bass here
The Joy of Flying 1965
Tony Williams
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
