"Maiden Voyage" is a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

composition by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

from his 1965 album '' Maiden Voyage''. It features Hancock's quartet – trumpeter

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

, bassist

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

and drummer Tony Williams – with additional saxophonist

George Coleman George Edward Coleman (born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master. Early life Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ...

. It is one of Hancock's best-known compositions and has become a

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...

. The piece was used in a Fabergé commercial and was originally listed on the album's master tape as "TV Jingle" until Hancock's sister came up with the new name. In the liner notes for the ''Maiden Voyage'' album, Hancock states that the composition was an attempt to capture "the splendor of a sea-going vessel on its maiden voyage". While being interviewed for KCET TV in 2011, Hancock considered Maiden Voyage to be his favorite of all of the compositions he had written.

Harmonic Structure

Minor eleventh chord Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage

modal jazz Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece. Although precedents exist, modal jazz was crystallized as a theory by compose ...

piece, the composition follows a 32-bar

AABA form The 32-bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. A ...

with only two chords in each section: A7/D , , , , C7/F , , , A7/D , , , , C7/F , , , Bb7/Eb , , , , Ab7/Db , , , A7/D , , , , C7/F , , , There are several different perspectives on exactly how to label or interpret these harmonies. The chord voicings used by Hancock make extensive use of

perfect fourth A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to ...

s, and could be interpreted as quartal harmonies: for example, the opening chord Am7/D has the notes A, C, E, G, D, and the same notes in a different order spell out a series of perfect fourths creating a quartal chord, E, A, D, G, C. Another common analysis in print is to label each chord a suspended chord. In this perspective, the first chord Am7/D (D, A, C, E, G) can be thought of as a Dm9 chord (D, F, A, C, E) with a suspended 4th (G instead of F). Along these lines, Jazz.com's Ted Gioia describes the harmonic progression used as "four

suspended chord A suspended chord (or sus chord) is a musical chord in which the (major or minor) third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or a major second. The lack of a minor or a major third in the chord creates an open sound, while the dissonanc ...

s,"

Jerry Coker Jerry Coker (born November 28, 1932) is an American jazz saxophonist and pedagogue. Coker was born in South Bend, Indiana. He attended Indiana University in the early 1950s, but left school to become a member of Woody Herman's Herd. Coker eventua ...

describes the progression as "only sus. 4 chords," From this perspective, the first chord is really an extended Dm chord with a suspension. On the other hand, '' The Real Book'' lists the chords as four

minor seventh chord In music, a minor seventh chord is a seventh chord composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the minor seventh chord built on C, commonly written as C–7, h ...

s with the

bass note In music theory, the bass note of a chord or sonority is the lowest note played or notated. If there are multiple voices it is the note played or notated in the lowest voice (the note furthest in the bass.) Three situations are possible: # ...

a fifth below the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

which matches Hancock's description of the opening chord (right). This label implies that the opening chord is not really any kind of Dm chord, but an Am7 chord with a non-chord-tone D in the bass. ''The Real Book'' also spells the fourth chord (measures 22-24) as A-7/D, while Owens spells it Cm13. These two ways of spelling the fourth chord are actually

enharmonic In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a written n ...

equivalents; The pitches of Cm13 (

ninth chord In music theory, a ninth chord is a chord that encompasses the interval of a ninth when arranged in close position with the root in the bass. Heinrich Schenker and also Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov allowed the substitution of the dominant seve ...

) are just a different way of spelling the same notes as A-7/D (C = D, E=F, etc.)

Recorded Versions

, on his album '' Maiden Voyage'' *

Bobby Hutcherson Robert Hutcherson (January 27, 1941 – August 15, 2016) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. "Little B's Poem", from the 1966 Blue Note album '' Components'', is one of his best-known compositions.Huey, Steve. "Components – Bob ...

, on his album ''

Happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

'' *

Ramsey Lewis Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five RIAA certification, gold records and three Grammy Awards ...

, on his album '' Maiden Voyage'' *

Grant Green Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms ...

, on the album '' Alive!'' *

Brian Auger and the Trinity Brian Auger and the Trinity was a British band led by keyboardist Brian Auger. His duet with Julie Driscoll, the Bob Dylan– penned "This Wheel's on Fire", was a number 5 hit on the 1968 UK Singles Chart. The song also reached number 13 in C ...

, on the 1970 album ''Befour'' *

Jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

band Blood, Sweat, and Tears, on their 1972 album '' New Blood'' *The rock band

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon ...

performed the song in their early concerts. A live version was released on their album ''

Colorado '88 ''Colorado '88'' is a 3- CD live album from the rock band Phish, recorded over several nights in summer 1988. Despite having only traveled outside Vermont occasionally, in the New England college and club circuit, Phish embarked on a tour in the w ...

''. * Toto, on their 2002 album ''

Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

''. This recording included elements of Hancock's 1974 song "

Butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

". *

Robert Glasper Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger with a career that bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won fou ...

, on his 2004 album ''Mood''.Allmusic review of Mood
/ref> He recorded it again on his 2007 album ''

In My Element ''In My Element'' is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label on March 20, 2007. The album is Glasper's second for Blue Note. Track listing All songs composed by Robert Glasper exc ...

'', this time as a medley with

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

's "

Everything in Its Right Place "Everything in Its Right Place" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, ''Kid A'' (2000). It features synthesiser, manipulated vocals, and lyrics inspired by the stress singer Thom Yorke experienced while ...

Notes

{{Authority control 1965 compositions Jazz compositions 1960s jazz standards Modal jazz standards Jazz compositions in A minor Songs written by Herbie Hancock