Herbie Hancock
Dis Is da Drum

How important rhythm was in Herbie Hancock's music had already been conveyed by "Watermelon Man," "Cantaloupe Island," "Chameleon," "Rockit" (just to name the most famous ones), and many other tracks. Over the years, this focus on rhythm has increased and found its peak in this "Dis Is Da Drum" (1994). The title alone says it all: this is an album completely centered on groove. To draw a parallel with another jazz giant, "Dis Is Da Drum" stands to Herbie Hancock as "On The Corner" (in which Hancock incidentally participated) does to Miles Davis, with the difference that the pianist's album is, thanks to the twenty years separating it from Miles's work, much more acid, much more celestial.

And when I say acid, I don't mean psychedelic acid, but that cold electronic acid (in a positive sense) often found in funk, electronic music, and acid jazz. To better understand, listen to the original "Butterfly" from Thrust (1974) and the version on this album: you will undoubtedly find that the adjective "acid" fits well. Just as "celestial" does, given that those synthesizers indeed give the idea of wandering in the deepest space.

"Dis Is Da Drum" is the victory of rhythm over melody (still present, of course), it's the simplicity of the groove, it's a need to dance, to move. Important collaborators include Wah Wah Watson, Wallace Roney, Bennie Maupin, Airto Moreira, Hubert Laws, and Bill Summers, who plays a central role on the album, co-writing most of the tracks with Herbie and playing everything everywhere. Indeed, this is quite a collaborative album by Hancock's standards. Mind you, I'm not saying that in previous works the contribution of the sidemen wasn't important; on the contrary, it has always been fundamental (as it has always been in the world of jazz, much more than in other genres), I'm just saying that Herbie was always a step above the others, while here Herbie is on par with the other musicians, not a protagonist, but an actor among actors. And mind you, I said actor, not an extra. And this is because the focus is on the drums, or rather the rhythm. You just have to move your ass, this is the drum.