Herbie’s 1975 album Manchild is a Jazz-Funk masterpiece, a great example of Herbie’s forward thinking musical attitude that saw him take on a whole host of modern instrumentation and experimental electronic arrangements. His compositions from this period have a certain timelessness about them, music channelled and directed by a master of his craft who after having worked with Jazz giants such as Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis since the fifties, set about on his own musical path and totally redefined the contemporary landscape of Jazz insodoing. His wholesale adoption of the Funk and it’s swaggering, syncopated rhythms while incorporating heavily melodic elements of Jazz playing endeared him to a new generation of listeners while developing a totally unique signature sound that is instantly recognisable to his fans.
This gave the music a signature, futuristic sheen—infused with funky rhythmical elements and pinpoint sharp instrumentation from a host of stalwart players, ranging from the likes of Mike Clark, Bill Summers, Paul Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bennie Maupin and Wah Wah Watson. To say that the lineup on Manchild is star-studded would be a total understatement.
‘Hang Up Your Hang Ups’ is the leading track on the album, a tour de force of Jazz-Funk—arguably one of the genre’s finest and most iconic exports—a seven and a half minute number that starts off at least 15 BPM slower than it ends, a powerfully funky and deeply rhythmical cut overlaid by a fine brass section and definitively syncopated drumming chops, a fast moving and pulsing track with more than enough dynamism for any dancefloor. Herbie’s breakdown and key solo at the end, underpinned by and urgent and slippery bassline by Paul Jackson, close the song off with a sharp reminder of Herbie’s talents as a keysman—one of the greatest living piano players in his prime tearing it up with a roster of some of the funkiest people ever to record music.
Sun Touch is a slower and more meditative recording, a piece of music that hinges indirectly off the interplay between the drumming and the bassline with airy Fender Rhodes Keys painting in the blanks with silver, ethereal sounds—injected with ascerbic wails from Wah Wah Watson’s—identifiably so—Wah Wah Guitar, an undeniably beautiful piece of music. More so, Bubbles has similar musical themes, a heady and lingering track featuring some powerful playing by Wayne Shorter and Bennie Maupin on reeds.
Overall, Man-Child is one of the finest examples of Jazz-Funk that there is, a hybrid album that saw Hancock channel some rawer Funk influences in his compositions. The inclusion of multiple guitar players on the album and of drummers Mike Clarke and Harvey Mason meant that the funk was in no short supply. Man-Child is a joyous and riotously spirited album. The real star in the Album is Hancock himself, a mercurial player that has no counterpart.
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