Herbie Hancock
Secrets

A friend of mine in a battered Panda pulls over and lowers the window. Groove by surprise, that's what I call it. From the slightly crackling speakers comes a compact, precise, tightly woven rhythm. The piano work, mostly Fender Rhodes, is the glue with the interventions of Bennie Maupin's sax.

The flashy Herbie Hancock, as someone has described him. Flashy, yes, very flashy, the cover is eloquent. But it's still different from the acid sound of "Dis Is Da Drum" (one of the peaks of Hancock's flashiness) and especially from the funk/psychedelic sound of Sly Stone's "Head Hunters". This is a different kind of funk, it fairly reminds of the Motown sound (of which guitarist Wah Wah Watson was a sessionman). And it's he who changes everything. The balances shift, the foundation is now provided by the rhythm of the drums/bass/guitar and the leader's interventions can thus be more targeted.

Music that's more immediate, in short, more catchy. Don't think of Weather Report, even if during that period it was hard not to look at Zawinul and Shorter (tracks like "People Music" confirm this), but the pieces of "Secrets" are less structured. This is the album: nothing revolutionary in Hancock's house in 1976. Thoughtful compositions, halfway between improvisation and structuring, all aimed at immediacy, catchiness. There's even a cover (how could it be missing), this time of "Cantaloupe Island". The circle closes, once again Herbie has done his duty.