Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock album)

Maiden Voyage is the fifth album led by jazz musician Herbie Hancock, and was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on March 17, 1965, for Blue Note Records. It was issued as BLP 4195 and BST 84195. It is a concept album aimed at creating an oceanic atmosphere. Many of the track titles refer to marine biology or the sea, and the musicians develop the concept through their use of space.[4][5] The album was presented with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.

Maiden Voyage
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released	1965
Recorded	March 17, 1965
Studio	Van Gelder Studio Englewood Cliffs
Genre	Modal jazz, hard bop
Length	42:20
Label	Blue Note
Producer	Alfred Lion
Herbie Hancock chronology
Empyrean Isles (1964) Maiden Voyage (1965) Blow-Up (1966)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Penguin Guide to Jazz	👑[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[3]

Overview

According to Bob Blumenthal's 1999 liner notes, "Blue Note logs indicate that an attempt had been made to record 'Maiden Voyage', 'Little One', and 'Dolphin Dance' six days earlier, with Hubbard on cornet and Stu Martin in place of Williams. Those performances were rejected at the time and have been lost in the ensuing years." A different version of "Little One" was also recorded around the same time by Miles Davis and his quintet (including Hancock, Carter, Shorter and Williams) for the album E.S.P., also released in 1965.

Hancock cites Count Basie's "Shiny Stockings" as the main source of inspiration for "Dolphin Dance".[6]

Reception

The Penguin Guide to Jazz designated the album as part of its Core Collection with a four star rating, calling it "a colossal achievement from a man still just 24 years old."[7] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic describes the album as "arguably his finest record of the '60s, reaching a perfect balance between accessible, lyrical jazz and chance-taking hard bop."[8]

Legacy

"Maiden Voyage", "The Eye of the Hurricane" and "Dolphin Dance" have now become jazz standards and are featured in Hal Leonard's New Real Book vol. 2. While being interviewed for KCET in 2011, Hancock said he considered "Maiden Voyage" to be his favorite of all of the compositions he had written.[9] During an interview on KTLA in 2020, the composer told Frank Buckley that he originally wrote the tune for a television commercial. Hancock rerecorded "Maiden Voyage" and "Dolphin Dance" on his 1974 album Dedication and updated the title track on his 1988 album Perfect Machine. "Dolphin Dance" was rerecorded in 1981 for the Herbie Hancock Trio album. Hancock has released live concert versions of "Maiden Voyage" on CoreaHancock (1979) and An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert (1980) (both with Chick Corea). Hancock recorded "Maiden Voyage" and "Eye of the Hurricane" with the VSOP Quintet on VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum (1977).

Track listing

All tracks are written by Herbie Hancock.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Maiden Voyage"	7:53
2.	"The Eye of the Hurricane"	5:57
3.	"Little One"	8:43
4.	"Survival of the Fittest"	9:59
5.	"Dolphin Dance"	9:16
Total length:		42:20

Personnel

• Herbie Hancock — piano
• Freddie Hubbard — trumpet
• George Coleman — tenor saxophone
• Ron Carter — bass
• Tony Williams — drums

Cover versions

Artists who have covered "Maiden Voyage", the title track, include:

• Bobby Valentín, on his 1975 live album Va a la Cárcel
• Bobby Hutcherson, on his album Happenings
• Grant Green, on the album Alive!
• Brian Auger and the Trinity, on the 1970 album Befour[10]
• Jazz rock band Blood, Sweat, and Tears, on their 1972 album New Blood
• The rock band Phish performed the song in their early concerts. A live version was released on their album Colorado '88.
• Toto, on their 2002 album Through the Looking Glass. This recording included elements of Hancock's 1974 song "Butterfly".
• Robert Glasper, on his 2004 album Mood.[11] He recorded it again on his 2007 album In My Element, this time as a medley with Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place".
• Gary Boyle, on his 1978 album The Dancer[12]

Artists who have covered "Dolphin Dance" include:

• Ahmad Jamal, on his 1971 album The Awakening[13]
• Grover Washington Jr., on his 1976 album A Secret Place
• Bill Evans, on the 1980 album I Will Say Goodbye
• Kazumi Watanabe, on his 1989 album Kilowatt

Other covers include:

• Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, and Mark Whitfield recorded a version of "The Eye of the Hurricane" on their 1997 album Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock.
• Madlib remixed "Dolphin Dance" and combined it with the song "Peace" by Horace Silver on his 2003 album "Shades of Blue"
• In 2008, jazz pianist John Beasley released a tribute to Hancock called Letter to Herbie, which features a re-working of "Maiden Voyage" called "Bedtime Voyage". The album also features a recording of "Eye of the Hurricane".

See also

• 1966 in music
• Herbie Hancock discography

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2011). "Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
2. "Penguin Guide to Jazz: 4-Star Records in 8th Edition". Tom Hull. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 93. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
4. Wendell, Eric. (2018). Experiencing Herbie Hancock. Rowman & Littlefield. p.32. ISBN 9781442258389.
5. Hancock, H. (1965). Original Album Liner Notes; Blumenthal, B. (1999). Reissue Album Liner Notes.
6. "Herbie Hancock: The Ethics of Jazz". Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, accessed via YouTube. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
7. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2002). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (6th Ed.) Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140515213
8. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2011). "Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
9. KCET https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEUP6ttUL1E
10. https://www.allmusic.com/album/befour-mw0000175821
11. Allmusic review of Mood
12. "Gary Boyle - The Dancer". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
13. Allmusic review of The Awakening