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The musicians are quick to credit the contributions of their late bassist. Hands-down, Paul Jackson was the slam-dunker, Summers said. He was the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the band. Maupin said Jackson brought the funk and put the feeling on it, and all we had to do was just go with the flow. When asked about the signature hiccuping beat he plays on Chameleon, Mason also deferred to Jackson: It was derived from what the bass was playing.
That track, with its unshakable ARP Odyssey vamp and bright, tenor-saxophone-led fanfare, helped usher along a breakthrough. Chameleon was played on R&B radio, and I think the tune is like 15 minutes long, Summers said, still sounding incredulous. And it was the first time in my life that I heard that kind of music played on a popular format.
Even as it brought in a flood of new listeners, Hancocks aesthetic shift riled jazz purists. Reviewing a 1976 Hancock performance that featured a rendition of Chameleon, the New York Times critic John Rockwell wrote that the artists funk direction will no doubt continue to sell lots of records, but in a way that doesnt seem to do justice either to Mr. Hancocks jazz potential or to the best of what he might offer the world of popular music.
Maupin said that the group drew a lot of heat, recalling returning to Paris after an earlier, well-received show there with Mwandishi: When we went back with the funk, they threw [expletive] at us. They threw apple cores and toilet paper rolls and all kinds of stuff.
Hancock laughed as he recalled the backlash from certain corners. People that we now call the jazz police and many of them were writers, critics they just said I was a sellout, he said.
For listeners like a young Miller, the immediacy of the music was all that mattered. I was 13, he said. I didnt need a damn critic to tell me about Head Hunters.
The albums success freed up Hancock to follow his restless creative spirit, whether that meant incorporating D.J. scratching into his 1983 hit Rockit, or interpreting the work of his longtime friend Joni Mitchell on the Grammy-winning 2007 LP River: The Joni Letters.
And for subsequent generations, Head Hunters has remained a shining example of how to break out of genre-based strictures. Growing up studying saxophone, Martin, now 45, felt that it was kind of sacrilegious to play anything other than straight-ahead jazz. But hearing Head Hunters, he said, I saw it was OK to make people dance. It was OK to get hit records and still play your ass off. It was OK to be this upper-echelon artiste but to come party and hang out, have a good time, and smile, and make others feel good.
All the musicians are looking forward to tapping into that celebratory feeling at the Hollywood Bowl, but the show will be extra special for Mason, who bowed out of Hancocks group after recording the album because of his studio commitments. Itll be fun to play the music and see where it goes, he said, and see the acceptance of the people, which I never got to see.
The original group dissolved around the mid-70s as Hancock moved on to other projects, but along with the drummer Mike Clark, Masons hard-grooving replacement, Summers has consistently held down a version of the band in the studio and on the road. Believe me: Everybody will be there, including Oprah, he said with a laugh of the upcoming concert.
Even though the arrangements for the show will stick close to the original album, Hancock seems enthused by the potential for surprise. I dont know whats going to happen: I mean, were all older gentlemen now, he said with a chuckle. But as he reflected on the Head Hunters legacy, what came through most was the satisfaction of following his instincts and ultimately outlasting his detractors yes, even the jazz police.
He recounted a time when Leonard Feather, the prominent critic, who had reviewed Head Hunters poorly upon its release, approached him backstage at a jazz festival. He said to me, Heres something Ive been wanting to tell you for a while. He said, I remember with your Head Hunters record, he said, I only gave you two stars, Hancock recalled. I was wrong. I had never, ever heard a critic do that before.
The gesture stuck with Hancock. I was thinking, Wow, Leonard Feather just apologized to me. Its hard to believe, but that was a real thanks, for him to acknowledge what I had done, he continued, and the path that I had taken.
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