Herbie Hancock – Sextant (1973)

As a senior in high school, I skipped a lot of class. If grades were measured on cunning and deceit I would have gotten straight A’s.  It didn’t take much motivation for me to duck down a lonely hallway on a mostly unfrequented wing, and find that door that the security guard never monitored.  Finding a way out, and a way back in a couple hours later without getting caught was something of an art form for me.  

But one day was different, there were cosmic forces guiding me.  I truly felt compelled to leave, not my normal “I hate this class and I want to get high” reason for skipping.  No, something pulled at me, and told me I HAD to leave right now, and I didn’t know exactly why.  I’m not making this up.  

So I did what I was best at, and ducked out from under the watchful eye of the guards and ran home, which was only a handful of blocks away.  When I arrived home, I turned on the radio to KJHK, my local station run by students at the University of Kansas.  At noon every weekday, they had the “Noon Hour Classic”, where the DJ played a classic album in it’s entirety, always on vinyl.  When I tuned in that particular day, I heard the wildest sounds my young virgin ears had ever heard.  I immediately popped a blank tape into the boom box (yes it was those days, circa 2001) and hit record.  

I still remember precisely where that tape comes in, about 4/5 of the way through “Hornets“.  The music was unlike anything I had ever heard.  It was the electric, psychedelic, outer space funk jazz fuck orgy from the future I always knew existed but had never been invited to.  To this day and at least 10,000 hours of listening later, I’ve still never heard anything else like it.  

I wore that tape into the ground.  Writing this now, how I wish I still had that tape!  I commend the DJ at KJHK for playing the album in reverse order, side 2 and then side 1.  When played like this, you conclude with the greatest composition ever written (in my humble opinion) “Hidden Shadows.”  Hidden Shadows is like great sex, when finished you want to relax, and relish the moment without disturbances. I also compare this tune to sex because the band truly simulates the climax of an orgasm, and the coming down there of.  For this reason, and perhaps because it’s how we were introduced, I’ve always preferred listening to this album in the same order, side 2 first.

The instruments on Hidden Shadows are as follows: 

This song, if you can call it that, begins simply, with a riff that becomes the backbone of this incredibly complex composition.  This riff is played by one of the various electric keys and drums.  This is only for one staff, before the congas, percussion, bass, and synthesizers find their way into the fold.  Soon thereafter the melange of sound is difficult to comprehend.  There are many instruments playing different rhythms that blend together in magnificent harmony.  The only thing constant is the bass line, which plays the simple riff explained above. This funky bass line allows the rest of the instruments to go wild while still having a thread of reality.  There are great solos from Eddie Henderson and the beautiful, living legend Julian Priester, all while the synthesizers, clavinet, and hand drums have conversations in an other worldly language.  This wild arrangement makes way for the climax, Herbie on Steinway.  Those first couple notes of acoustic piano ease us into what is sure to send us the the stratosphere.  The first statement or two are that of beauty.  Then he begins ripping the keys with blinding speed. The keys slow down and then build to a crescendo, and aberrant rhythms lead to a powerful climax.  Herbie viciously strikes the keys with precision, the drums turn into an animal, the trumpet blows, trombone slides, percussion claps, and the synthesizer sends waves of sound through every breath of life.  This musical orgasm chills my flesh every time I hear it, a hundred times later it hasn’t lost it’s impact. After the climax, the band begins to relax at a slow descent.  They’ve said all they need to, and they ease us away from the voyage we’ve gratefully been aboard. The last line of bass and electric keys play the same notes we’ve heard throughout, and three lonenotes tastefully, flawlessly, conclude the most perfect composition ever written.

I went back to school that day to one of the three classes that actually interested me, Advanced Earth and Space Science. Though my body was present at class, my mind was still under Herbie’s spell.  I couldn’t concentrate, all I could think about was that wild journey KJHK, Herbie Hancock and the Mwandishi Band had just guided me through.  That day, I learned a lesson more important than anything ever taught to me in public schools.  I learned that music is truly my spirit animal.  

This experience changed my life, and I credit it as the catalyst for my lifelong exploration of sound.  No album has impacted me as deeply as Sextant.  If you have never heard this before, I suggest you listen to this on the best hi fi you have available and listen to this LOUD.  This will be the best way to experience, however, my first 500 listens came from a blank tape on a Casio boom box, so who am I to tell you how it’s done. 

Since I have shared my experience with you, please share yours with me.  I would love to hear what album changed your life.  Please leave your album, and your experience if you so choose, in the comment field below.  We can all then refer to this page for a list of albums that influenced the life of fellow sound explorers like you, and I.  

by Charles Pearlman