Herbie Hancock
Sextant

Experimental. Avant-garde. Sick: "Sextant" (1973) represents the pinnacle of expression in the career of this bespectacled nerd obsessed with technology, the immense and always forward-thinking Herbie Hancock. It is his most abstract and psychedelic work; more or less, and not just because of the nearby artwork, a sort of upgrade of Miles Davis' brilliant Bitches Brew, which evidently must have also influenced his talented ex-pianist, truly monumental in the fusion trilogy with the Mwandishi band (Crossings and Mwandishi the others), two complex mystical-experimental masterpieces, although not on the level of the extremely innovative Sextant, which really pushes beyond!

An album simply uncatalogable although partly close to the avant-garde-concretists of the sixties, the early kraut experiments, or the electric period of Miles himself, with whom the student Herbie shares the art of experimenting and regularly searching for new directions. The role played by him in the nearby "On The Corner" will also prove to be fundamental for the development of a well-distinct, yet still little visible, funk/fusion component within his way of seeing jazz.

In the lineup, we find Herbie on keyboards (piano, rhodes, clavinet, mellotron) supported by the never too praised genius of Dr. Patrick Gleeson on the Arp 2600 (a luxury for the era) [his role will be more than fundamental], Bennie Maupin (who will continue to collaborate even in the subsequent jazz-funk period and already in the Miles entourage) on winds (soprano sax, piccolo, bass clarinet) as well as sporadically supporting Billy Hart (drummer) and Buck Clarke (percussionist) on kazoo and afuche (the indigenous-influenced sound of the band obviously requires numerous percussion). Eddie Henderson (trumpet, flugelhorn), Julian Priester (trombone, cowbell), and Buster Williams on bass (electric and acoustic) complete the mind-bending ensemble recruited by Hancock to perfect this pure avant-garde jewel.

The indecipherable track that opens the work, "Rain Dance", is not only the absolute masterpiece of Sextant and Hancock's entire career in general, but one of the most groundbreaking compositions both in terms of jazz and particularly in electronics. And if Davis with Bitches Brew, although another uncatalogable work, remained quite anchored to jazz roots...here we are absolutely miles apart; it navigates rather toward a form of electronic music so free and futuristic that it remains today difficult to define or match. One can say that Hancock and his gang, Gleeson first and foremost, create on this track a sort of "minimal-techno-jazz" [!!] absolutely ahead of its time in 1973 [nineteen seventy-three].

This mind-bending fragment is introduced with an absurd visionary-spatial intro, supported by psychedelic effects and evolving underwater blips (actually notes from Gleeson's arp 2600) that cannot help but remind what Hawtin & co will achieve in minimal techno some twenty years later (even the 4/4 rhythm with straight drums and Williams' bass in the foreground suggests a production by M_nus, Trapez et similia). Henderson's trumpet plays a role more of "effect" than harmonization, merely completing the minimal canvas (which gradually becomes fuller and stranger), thus becoming one of many atmospheric background elements; Williams dominates on bass, crafting dark and psychedelic lines, and when Hancock takes over, launching into his psychotic rhodes solo, we are on the brink of sonic schizophrenia.

Around one-third through the track, everything rebalances, transforming into a sort of cosmic ambient: a pause with a bass solo by Buster Williams, gradually accompanied by Gleeson's usual synthetic-metallic rhythm, which becomes increasingly present until it lets the bassline dissolve and retakes the scene, finding inspiration for further cybernetic antics, primordial lasers, hyper-processed analog synths, LFO modulations, resonances, floating notes in a whirlpool of electro-paranoic chaos worthy of Mort Garson and Terry Riley! No doubt remains, the fusion bombardment has returned. The closure is pure electricity: a synthesizer festival where Herbie and Gleeson do as they please with crazy and visionary entanglements, yet perfectly aided by Hart's limited but incredibly functional work, which when he rarely intervenes does so with wild drumming perfectly suited to the track's drugged and polyrhythmic atmosphere.

In nine minutes of pure anarchic experimentation, our heroes anticipate the techno, minimal, and ambient-techno (but also the so-called IDM) of the nineties/2000s: try, for example, listening to Billy Hart's work on hi-hats and Williams on bass... you will see if it's not a case of thinking about some electronic-jazz-like from Ninja Tune... the same Supermodified by Amon Tobin. "Rain Dance" alone is worth the purchase of the album, but before you tire of repeating it, know that within it are two other gems of absolutely no lesser importance, although, so to speak, more accessible than the elusive beginning.

"Hidden Shadows" is the second track: at first glance, it's a highly groovy jazz-funk jam akin to what was heard on "Fat Albert Rotunda" four years earlier. Maybe also inspired by that "On the Corner" our protagonist was collaborating on, but if one lets go and analyzes in detail, one can also find brilliant insights and experimentation here in significant quantities. For example, the main "stepped" rhythm with dry snare hit and brief cymbals in the background anticipates in part the classic dub; in the alienating background Stockhausen-like noise and Herbie's strings, at times futuristic and at others almost oriental, are intensely engaged on the mellotron to once again create that diverted atmosphere without any precise earthly direction typical of the formation; distant and future worlds, unreachable alien territories guided only by the wise Hancock! As the title suggests, the arrangement is shadowy and dark, almost noir when the smoky trombone of Julian Priester is finally heard, precisely supported by an active Clarke on bongos and congas, and Hancock frequently counterpoints with progressive mellotron and multi-effected clavinet.

As can be read between the lines, it is the rhythm, halfway between Africa and Mars, the element protagonist in Hidden Shadows, Billy Hart occasionally seems to lose his senses and comes up with crazy breaks. It's already halfway through the track when Herbie unleashes one of his hallucinatory piano solos; Patrick Gleeson increasingly infernal on his Arp 2600 seems to do everything possible to disturb the beauty of the majestic solo: the outcome is a blend between noise madness and fusion peace (present "In a Silent Way"?) truly insane. The finale is entrusted to Maupin's flute, which in a funk-heavy outro again tries to make space amidst Hart's unexpected schizoid breaks and Gleeson's wonderfully irritating spatial counterpoints. Astonishing.

"Hornets" is the least experimental of the three tracks, at least at the start. However, the fusion side is more pronounced, and Maupin, Henderson, and Priester will find ample space for their respective winds, improvising primitive riffs over a classic fusion rhythm completed by the repetitive sound of the afuche and the usual insane synthesizer interventions. Buster funks on bass, Priester is a powerhouse, Maupin dominates on the Kazoo (Christ, it sounds like a slaughtered duck), and in the meantime, the track rises ever more in intensity and speed... more and more...more and more...until it becomes a devastating cyclone where foolish winds, insane rhythms, and random electronics succeed each other in a dragging psycho-chaos with no escape in sight! More simply, Hornets reprises the sound of Bitches Brew multiplied by ten: Hancock intervenes mainly at the end on the fender rhodes: classic freaked-out solo, classic frightening drumming by an utterly stoned Billy Hart, and clearly the usual pandemonium of saxes and trumpets where you can't understand where the hell they are going.

Certainly not an easy listen, complex, cerebral, incredibly forward-thinking and still current, recommended for all those who appreciated "Bitches Brew," "I Sing the Body Electric," "Live-Evil"... but above all for those who prefer research and experimentation in music.

And you'll find plenty of that here.