Make the temperature rise

Herbie Hancock’s recording career is so varied, so rich and so long that it is impossible to generalise or even begin to do it justice in a short posting. We know of course about the extreme funk of the Head Hunters records, of the excellence of his straight jazz work with Miles Davis, and later with the same quintet minus Miles as VSOP. We know of the electro genius of Futureshock. We know of the sublime jazz-soul of “Maiden Voyage”. But there is so much more, and as I say far too much to even begin to scratch the surface of his genius.

And so rather than delve deep I thought I would simply pick out a gem of a tune from a somewhat under-rated period of his career, the electronic disco funk of “Ready Or Not” from 1979’s “Feets Don’t Fail Me Now”. Dismissed by many as an unimaginative and slightly pedestrian four-four disco cash-in, this album actually has a couple of real highlights, and “Ready Or Not” is certainly one of them.

Featuring none other than Ray Parker Jr and Sheila E, amongst other session luminaries, this tune has some dated elements in the electric wah-wah and occasional scream of the guitar, Hancock’s synth runs and vocoded harmonies, and yet it doesn’t sound dated as a collective. Rather it just bounces and bounces on, burning up the floor as it goes. With a bassline fatter than Fat Albert (who Hancock of course famously sound-tracked years earlier), this is a monster from a forgotten period.

Pop-oriented it might be, but a man can’t be serious all the time. And whether more traditionalists were ready for it or not is irrelevant. Hancock has always challenged boundaries and expectations. Even the very best have to get down with their bad selves sometimes, and just burn the disco out.