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What is the best Herbie Hancock album?

By YPB Team

He has played acoustic hard bop, wild synth funk and a turntable-scratching pop smash, often within a few years. Pick the era that still sounds like the future.

  1. Head Hunters — ranked #11
    Head Hunters
    The 1973 funk-jazz landmark with Chameleon, often rated his masterpiece.
    1000pts
  2. Maiden Voyage — ranked #22
    Maiden Voyage
    The 1965 modal jazz classic with its nautical title track.
    814pts
  3. Feets, Don't Fail Me Now — ranked #33
    Feets, Don't Fail Me Now
    A 1979 disco-funk album that was one of his biggest chart sellers.
    781pts
  4. Mr. Hands — ranked #44
    Mr. Hands
    A 1980 album that bridged jazz-funk with R&B and fusion.
    642pts
  5. Possibilities — ranked #55
    Possibilities
    A 2005 duets album with pop and rock artists.
    642pts
  6. My Point of View — ranked #66
    My Point of View
    A 1963 hard-bop session with Hank Mobley, Grant Green and Donald Byrd.
    597pts
  7. Mwandishi — ranked #77
    Mwandishi
    A 1971 experimental electric jazz album with his sextet.
    546pts
  8. Inventions and Dimensions — ranked #88
    Inventions and Dimensions
    A 1963 trio-plus-percussion album showing his early taste for freer rhythm.
    546pts
  9. Sunlight — ranked #99
    Sunlight
    A 1978 album that put the vocoder at the centre of his sound.
    423pts
  10. Thrust — ranked #1010
    Thrust
    The 1974 follow-up to Head Hunters, featuring Actual Proof.
    423pts
  11. Fat Albert Rotunda — ranked #1111
    Fat Albert Rotunda
    The 1969 soul-jazz soundtrack for the Bill Cosby TV special.
    423pts
  12. River: The Joni Letters — ranked #1212
    River: The Joni Letters
    His 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
    349pts
  13. Man-Child — ranked #1313
    Man-Child
    A 1975 funk album with guests including Stevie Wonder and The Headhunters.
    349pts
  14. Round Midnight — ranked #1414
    Round Midnight
    The 1986 soundtrack to the Bertrand Tavernier film, which won him an Oscar.
    349pts
  15. Secrets — ranked #1515
    Secrets
    A 1976 funk-fusion record built on clavinet and synthesizer grooves.
    349pts
  16. Takin' Off — ranked #1616
    Takin' Off
    The 1962 Blue Note debut that produced the hit Watermelon Man.
    349pts
  17. Future2Future — ranked #1717
    Future2Future
    A 2001 electronic and drum-and-bass flavoured return to his Rockit experiments.
    349pts
  18. Sextant — ranked #1818
    Sextant
    A 1973 electronic, synthesizer-heavy album of spacey fusion.
    349pts
  19. Gershwin's World — ranked #1919
    Gershwin's World
    A 1998 tribute to George Gershwin with a wide range of guests.
    263pts
  20. Empyrean Isles — ranked #2020
    Empyrean Isles
    A 1964 Blue Note album featuring Cantaloupe Island.
    263pts
  21. Speak Like a Child — ranked #2121
    Speak Like a Child
    A 1968 Blue Note album with a distinctive three-horn voicing, praised as an overlooked gem.
    263pts
  22. The Imagine Project — ranked #2222
    The Imagine Project
    A 2010 global collaboration album of reworked songs, Grammy-winning in 2011.
    263pts
  23. Future Shock — ranked #2323
    Future Shock
    The 1983 electro album with the hit Rockit, which brought turntable scratching to a mass audience.
    0pts
music885jazz49Herbie Hancock1

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