AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Herbie Hancock

Artist:Herbie Hancock

Song:Rockit

Album:Ken Burns Jazz

Of course pianist Herbie Hancock is an all time jazz great and he was a big part of jazz fusion of the 70s. I have already featured him as part of my Jazz for Beginners series. But he made a big pop culture splash with the 1983 album Future Shock and the hit single Rockit. Of course the music video was a big part of the song's success. Hancock had a lot of success in the 70s with the jazz funk sound of The Headhunters. Hancock liked experimenting with electronics and he recorded the 1978 album Sunlight singing with the use of a vocoder. Meanwhile he still recorded jazz and at the time he recorded and toured with the quartet V.S.O.P. So the 1983 album Future Shock seemed to come out of nowhere. And needless to say, it turned out to be very influential. The guys behind Future Shock were bassist Bill Laswell and keyboardist Michael Bienhorn of the jazz rock band Material. They had tried out some of their ideas in Material and they approached Hancock to see if he was interested in collaborating. Future shock was the result. Most of the songs were written by Hancock, Laswell and Bienhorn. Laswell wrote the arrangements. Musicians include Pete Cosey on guitar, legendary Jamaican drummer Sly Dunbar of Sly & Robbie and Daniel Ponce on percussion. Cosey was in Miles Davis' 70s band. Ponce frequently worked with fellow Cuban Paquito D'Rivera. Future Shock was the most high profile album either appeared on. Most of the hip hop elements were added by pioneering turntablist Derek "DST" Showard. And then there was the music video featuring Jim Whiting's movable sculptures. The video was directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme of 10cc and Godley and Creme. They were music video pioneers. Of course MTV went nuts over the video. But in those days, radio stations boycotted songs that were popular on MTV. So Rockit only reached #71 on the Billboard Hot 100. It did top the Dance chart and reached #6 on the R&B Singles chart. It won two Billboard Video Music awards. Rockit was a bigger hit than the chart position and very influential on the hip hop that followed. Future Shock was certified Platinum. It was certainly Hancock's biggest commercial success. You can get Rockit on this comp. Hancock recorded two more albums with Laswell but neither was successful. Hancock left Columbia for Verve. He last recorded in 2010 though he still makes guest appearances and tours. A proposed new album was announced in 2018 but it doesn't look like it ever happened. Here's the video for Rockit by Herbie Hancock.