Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 09/23/2008
The idea of collecting tracks off several of jazz legend
Herbie Hancock's albums from the influential '60s
Blue Note years through to his Grammy-winning 2007 album
River is a nice idea that doesn't quite come together on
Verve's
Then and Now: The Definitive Herbie Hancock. Obviously designed to showcase the whole of
Hancock's career post his 2007 Grammy win for
River: The Joni Letters,
Then and Now doesn't really give you the full picture. With only five tracks devoted to his '60s/'70s recordings (arguably his most essential and defining period), there's just not enough "then" here to really qualify this as a "definitive" collection. Not to mention that
Then and Now basically ignores
Hancock's '70s recordings, opting for merely an "edit" of
"Chameleon" and the album version of
"Watermelon Man," which comes out of chronological order near the end of the collection. Add in that you only get a live version of
"Rockit" and you're left with less a definitive view of
Hancock's career and more of a thumbnail sketch.
~Matt Collar, All Music Guide
;)
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