Herbie Hancock - Jammin' with Herbie [2LP Violet]

Jammin' with Herbie collects Herbie Hancock's lesser-known 1960s sideman sessions on purple vinyl, years before his name alone sold a record.

By the time Miles Davis tapped him in 1963, Hancock had already made Takin' Off for Blue Note and caught everyone's attention with Watermelon Man, but the label kept him busy well beyond his own projects, playing dozens of sessions as a sideman while simultaneously being the mainstay of one of the greatest rhythm sections jazz has produced, alongside Ron Carter and Tony Williams. This compilation takes advantage of precisely this period, with singles and album outtakes where Hancock appears as a session musician rather than a headliner, working with musicians like Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams and Jimmy Cobb.

Maulana opens with the kind of loose, exploratory feel that defined the era, Hancock's comping shaping more than soloing. Jammin' with Herbie gives the set its title and its loosest groove, Herbie's Blues is exactly what it says, laid back and grounded, and Far Out lives up to its name with the harmonic breadth that already set him apart from all the other pianists working on sessions as a sideman.

Not the famous records, but the ones that built his reputation before Davis even noticed. Purple vinyl for the sound of a young genius who was still searching for how far he could go.