Head Hunters

This article is about the 1973 album by Herbie Hancock. For other uses, see Headhunter (disambiguation).
Head Hunters
A human figure wearing a horned mask with its face resembling a reel-to-reel tape recorder playing keyboards in the foreground, while four unmasked men in the background hold instruments. The keyboardist has shades of yellow and red, while the musicians in the back blend with the blue background
Studio album by
Herbie Hancock
ReleasedOctober 26, 1973 (1973-10-26)
RecordedSeptember 1973
StudioWally Heider and Different Fur (San Francisco)
Genre
Length41:52
LabelColumbia
Producer
Herbie Hancock chronology
Sextant
(1973) 		Head Hunters
(1973) 		Dedication
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
DownBeat[3]
Tom HullB+[4]
Jazzwise[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[6]
Pitchfork10/10[1]
Q[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[9]
Uncut[10]

Head Hunters is the twelfth studio album by American pianist, keyboardist and composer Herbie Hancock, released October 26, 1973, on Columbia Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in the evening at Wally Heider Studios and Different Fur Trading Co. in San Francisco, California.

The album was a commercial and artistic breakthrough for Hancock, crossing over to funk and rock audiences and bringing jazz-funk fusion to mainstream attention, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard 200. Hancock is featured with woodwind player Bennie Maupin from his previous sextet and new collaborators – bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Harvey Mason. The latter group of collaborators, which would go on to be known as The Headhunters, also played on Hancock's subsequent studio album Thrust (1974). All of the musicians (with the exception of Mason) play multiple instruments on the album.

  1. ^ a b Larson, Jeremy D. (April 5, 2020). "Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Review: Head Hunters. AllMusic. Retrieved on January 7, 2010.
  3. ^ Columnist. "Review: Head Hunters Archived June 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine". DownBeat: January 17, 1974.
  4. ^ "Tom Hull: Grade List: Herbie Hancock". Tom Hull. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  5. ^ "Herbie Hancock – Headhunters ★★★★★". Jazzwise. July 22, 2019.
  6. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 642. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  7. ^ Q. London: 100. February 2000.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  8. ^ Hoard, Christian (ed.) "Review: Head Hunters". Rolling Stone. 361. November 2, 2004.
  9. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 94. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  10. ^ Carr, Roy (July 1997). "Miles Davis: Kind of Blue / The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out / Herbie Hancock: Headhunters". Uncut. No. 2. p. 107.