''My Point of View'' is the second album by pianist Herbie Hancock. It was released in 1963 on Blue Note Records as BLP 4126 and BST 84126. Musicians featured are trumpeter Donald Byrd, trombonist

Grachan Moncur III Grachan Moncur III (June 3, 1937 – June 3, 2022) was an American jazz trombonist. He was the son of jazz bassist Grachan Moncur II and the nephew of jazz saxophonist Al Cooper. Biography Born in New York City, United States, (his paternal gran ...

, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, guitarist

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 two tracks), bassist

Chuck Israels Charles H. Israels (born August 10, 1936) is an American jazz composer, arranger, and bassist who is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. He has also worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hanco ...

and drummer Tony Williams.

Overview

For his second album, Hancock remained rooted in the

hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

and

soul jazz Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including ten ...

movements. As with his first album, he put together a classic hard bop small group, adding a trombone on three tracks to the trumpet and tenor sax parts he had previously written. Donald Byrd's 1961 album '' Royal Flush'' was Hancock's Blue Note debut. Hank Mobley, like Byrd, was in the midst of recording a long run of Blue Note albums as a leader. Additionally, Hancock added guitarist Grant Green for two songs that had a more pronounced

feel. With the composition "King Cobra", Hancock worked in the

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 ...

idiom, which he used in 1965 when writing the jazz standard “Maiden Voyage”. The album was one of the first releases featuring drummer Tony Williams, who was 17 years old at the time of this recording. Williams and Hancock joined Miles Davis's band two months after ''My Point of View'' was recorded, as part of a new group that would evolve into the " Second Great Quintet". With the exception of bassist

, every player on the album went on to release numerous jazz albums as a bandleader during the 1960s and 1970s, and each had at least two albums as a leader on Blue Note Records during the 1960s.

Composition

"Blind Man, Blind Man" was written by Hancock trying to evoke "something that reflected my Negro background". The blind man standing in the corner playing his guitar was in fact one of the things Hancock experienced in his neighbourhood in Chicago. The piece is reminiscent of " Watermelon Man", one of his greatest hits. According to Hancock, "King Cobra" was an attempt to "expand the flow f jazz tunes and chordsso that it would go in directions beyond the usual".Original liner notes by

Ira Gitler Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...

Track listing

All compositions by Herbie Hancock #"Blind Man, Blind Man" – 8:19 #"A Tribute to Someone" – 8:45 #"King Cobra" – 6:55 #"The Pleasure Is Mine" – 4:03 ''(incorrectly labelled as 8:00 on the CD reissue)'' #"And What If I Don't" – 6:35 #"Blind Man, Blind Man" (Alternate Take) – 8:21 (re-release only)

Personnel

* Herbie Hancock –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

* Donald Byrd –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

–

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Hank Mobley –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

(only 1, 5 & 6) *

– bass * Tony Williams – drums

References

Herbie Hancock albums Albums produced by Alfred Lion Blue Note Records albums 1963 albums Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio {{1960s-jazz-album-stub