The Headhunters are a popular jazz-funk fusion band, best known for their albums they recorded as a backing band of jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock during the 1970s. Hancock's debut album with the group, Head Hunters, is one of the best-selling jazz/fusion records of all time. Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat, electrified sounds. ... Bitches Brew (1970) by Miles Davis is considered the most influential early fusion album. ... In music, a band is a company of musicians, or musical ensemble, usually popular or folk, playing parts of or improvising a musical arrangement on different musical instruments. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at around the start of the 20th century, mostly popular in the 1920s. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an Academy Award- and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer from Chicago, Illinois, USA. Hancock is one of jazz musics most important and influential pianists and composers. ... // This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Head Hunters is an album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 (see 1973 in music) on Columbia Records. ...

History

The Headhunters pictured on the cover of their eponymous debut LP.

Herbie Hancock originally assembled the band for his 1973 album Head Hunters. The Headhunters' new lineup and instrumentation, retaining only wind player Bennie Maupin from Hancock's previous sextet, reflected his new musical direction. Bassist Paul Jackson was really the only other member who maintained a continuous presence in the lineup in subsequent recordings and concerts. On the original Head Hunters album the other band members were percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Harvey Mason. Cover of the Herbie Hancock album Head Hunters. ... Cover of the Herbie Hancock album Head Hunters. ... A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ... Bennie Maupin (born 8/29/1946) is a Detroit jazz multireedist. ... A bassist is a musician who plays a double bass or electric bass (also referred to as bass guitar). ... Paul Jackson, Jr. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ... Harvey Mason is one of the most well-known session drummers. ...

The Headhunters continued to work with Hancock throughout the seventies, although the precise line-up varied from album to album. For the next Headhunters album, 1974's Thrust, Mike Clark took over drumming duties. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mike Clark (October 3, 1946) is a jazz and funk drummer who is most noted for playing in the Headhunters band headed up by Herbie Hancock. ...

Both Mason and Clark contributed drums to the Hancock's 1975's solo album Man-Child, which featured guest appearances from Stevie Wonder on harmonica and Wayne Shorter on soprano sax in its greatly expanded line-up. (The release notes for Man-Child credit 18 musicians, in contrast to the simple quintet of their debut.) Man-Child is the seventeenth album by Herbie Hancock. ... Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris),[1] a singular musical talent, is an African American singer, songwriter, record producer, musician, and social activist. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter in the 1960s quintet Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz composer and saxophonist. ...

1975 also saw Headhunters first album without Hancock, Survival of the Fittest, featuring the hit "God Made Me Funky". This song was sampled by The Fugees for their track "Ready or Not," and has been covered by Jamiroquai as a live track. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The Fugees are a critically acclaimed music band from the United States, popular during the mid-1990s, whose repertoire includes primarily hip hop, with elements of soul, and Caribbean music (particularly reggae). ... Jamiroquai is an English band. ...

As the 1970s turned to the 1980s, Herbie Hancock drifted away from the band as he moved into his electro-oriented phase, and they ceased operation as a visible unit. The band reunited with Hancock for the 1998 album Return of the Headhunters. Electro, short for electro funk (also known as robot hip hop and Electro hop) is an electronic style of hip hop directly influenced by Kraftwerk and funk records (unlike earlier rap records which were closer to disco). ...

Clark, Jackson and Summers have since continued recording and performing as The Headhunters, based in New Orleans, with Victor Atkins or Robert Walter filling in for Hancock on keyboards. They released an album, Evolution Revolution, for Basin Street Records in 2003, and backed up the saxophonist Rebecca Barry on her 2005 album Rebecca Barry and the Headhunters. In 2005 Hancock assembled a new group called Headhunters 2005. The group included guitarists John Mayer and Lionel Loueke, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Terri Lynne Carrington, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and percussionist Munyungo Jackson. New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... John Clayton Mayer (born on October 16, 1977) is an American Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist. ... For German football goalkeeper, see Markus Miller Marcus Miller giving a concert in London Marcus Miller (born June 14, 1959 in New York) is a jazz musician, composer and producer, perhaps best known as a bass guitarist with Miles Davis, Luther Vandross and David Sanborn. ... Roy Hargrove, born in 1969 in Waco, Texas, has gone from a child prodigy to become an established young jazz trumpeter, with several albums as a leader under his belt. ...

Musical style and influences

The Headhunters' music is a complex blend of many styles and genres, including jazz, funk, African and Afro-Caribbean music. The group is also notable for its pioneering use of electronic instruments and effects. Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at around the start of the 20th century, mostly popular in the 1920s. ... Funk is an African American musical style. ... An African woman, wearing native garments, performs during a visit from participants in the West Africa Training Cruise 1983. ... The music of the Caribbean is a diverse grouping of musical genres. ... An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. ...

In the sleeve notes to Head Hunters, Herbie Hancock confirms that track 3, "Sly," is named in tribute to Sly Stone, leader of Sly & the Family Stone. This band, along with James Brown are the key influences from funk music. As in funk music, the band often built a groove around a bassline; Paul Jackson's deceptively simple licks are frequently the bedrock of Headhunters material. ("Chameleon," the famous opening track of Head Hunters, provides a fine example of this, although in this case the main bassline is played by Hancock.) Also taken from funk music is the technique of building a complex groove by combining many small but carefully interlocking, syncopated contributions. Head Hunters is an album by Herbie Hancock, released in 1973 (see 1973 in music) on Columbia Records. ... Sly Stone on The Ed Sullivan Show performing Everyday People, December 28, 1968. ... Sly & the Family Stone was an American rock band from San Francisco, California. ... James Brown, known variously as: Soul Brother Number One, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. ... In music, syncopation is the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. ...

While straightforward funk depending on a snappy, danceable backbeat from the drummer, the various drummers in the Headhunters tended to use the stability of Paul Jackson's basslines as an anchor, allowing them to play in and around his motif, creating more advanced and complex rhythmic patterns, drawing on the jazz drumming tradition. This is probably best exemplified by the music on Thrust. In music a back beat (or the off-beat) is any of the even beats as opposed to the odd downbeats, ie pulses which are weak on their respective metric levels. ...

Early editions of the Headhunters were notable for the absence of a guitarist; All guitar-like parts were handled by Herbie Hancock on the Headhunters' first two albums. Electric guitars were introduced into from Survival of the Fittest onwards. A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ...

Although the Headhunters' albums were often belitted as "pop" by purist jazz critics at the time, it is now widely accepted that they were significantly influenced by, and made a significant contribution to, the "serious jazz" canon. Their music featured extensive solo and group improvisation over chord progressions, just as in the jazz mainstream. Most of the overtly jazz-influenced material comes in the form of solos from Herbie Hancock and Bennie Maupin. Depending on context, pop music is either an abbreviation of popular music or, more recently, a term for a sub-genre of it. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at around the start of the 20th century, mostly popular in the 1920s. ... In music, solo means to play or sing alone. ... Philosophically, improvisation often focuses on bringing ones personal awareness into the moment, and on developing a profound understanding for the action one is doing. ... A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in an order. ...

A strong connection to African music is evident, with the role of percussion hugely enhanced compared to mainstream jazz, and more extensive exploration of complex polyrhythms compared to most funk.

The Headhunters are also notable for the unusually wide range of instruments they use. Hancock used myriad keyboards, from the staple Fender Rhodes electric piano to the Hohner clavinet, as well as being an early adopter of synthesizers, particularly instruments from ARP. Maupin used bass, tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet and bass flute, and oddities such as the Saxello and Lyricon. Unusual choices like beer bottles and the Voice Bag also featured in their instrumentation. A Rhodes piano is a musical instrument. ... A clavinet is a keyboard instrument, manufactured by the Hohner company. ... A synthesizer (or synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce electronically generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, phase distortion, or Scanned synthesis. ... ARP Instruments, Inc. ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ... The lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first to be constructed. ...

Members

The following members appeared on multiple Headhunters releases:

• Herbie Hancock: keyboards, electric pianos, clavinet, synthesizers
• Bennie Maupin: Saxophones, Saxello, Clarinets, Flutes, Lyricon
• Paul Jackson: bass guitar
• Harvey Mason, James Levi, Mike Clark, James Gadson: drums
• Bill Summers, Kenneth Nash: percussion
• Ray Parker, Wah Wah Watson, Blackbyrd McKnight: electric guitar