Empyrean Isles

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Empyrean Isles
Empyrean Isles cover
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released 1964
Recorded June 17, 1964
Genre Hard bop
Modal jazz
Length 35:11 (1964 release); 53:29 (1999 release)
Label Blue Note
Producer Alfred Lion (1999 reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna)
Professional reviews

All Music Guide 5/5 stars link
Herbie Hancock chronology
Inventions and Dimensions
(1963)		 Empyrean Isles
(1964)		 Maiden Voyage
(1965)

Empyrean Isles is the fourth album by jazz musician Herbie Hancock, released on June 17, 1964 on Blue Note Records. It features the debut of two of his most popular compositions, "One Finger Snap" and "Cantaloupe Island".

From the original liner notes by Nora Kelly: "This is a quartet album for trumpet and rhythm section. In this circumstance, a problem was created for the composer-arranger, in that the lack of another instrument supporting the lower, richer register, such as a tenor saxophone, might result in a shallow sound. With this problem in mind, Herbie Hancock, who composed and arranged all the tunes, wrote them to sound more like improvisations than ensemble melodies, so that the warmth and fullness of a supporting melody would not be missed. Free sketches were written in such a way that each instrument is allowed great flexibility of interpretation. In many cases, no melodic line was laid out over the chords nor atonal clusters written, so that the trumpeter could supply any melody he wished."

From the 1999 reissue liner notes by Bob Blumenthal: "If someone had ordered up a program that explored four distinct areas of jazz expression with equal brilliance, they could not have done better than Empyrean Isles. It is as if Hancock had set out to present 'changes,' modal, funk and free playing and delivered each at its apex."

The album was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.

[edit] Track listing

All compositions by Herbie Hancock.

Original 1964 release:

  1. "One Finger Snap" – 7:17
  2. "Oliloqui Valley" – 8:27
  3. "Cantaloupe Island" – 5:30
  4. "The Egg" – 13:57

Remastered 1999 release:

  1. "One Finger Snap" – 7:17
  2. "Oliloqui Valley" – 8:27
  3. "Cantaloupe Island" – 5:30
  4. "The Egg" – 13:57
  5. "One Finger Snap" (alternative take) – 7:33
  6. "Oliloqui Valley" (alternative take) – 10:45

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Miscellanea

For the dictionary.reference.com definition and etymology of empyreal, which appears to be the root of empyrean, click here.

In 1993 the group US3 sampled "Cataloupe Island" for their song "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)", which is the biggest selling record of all time for Blue Note Records.

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