Herbie Hancock
Empyrean Isles (Blue Note 98796)

The music on Empyrean Isles is amazing, full of rich ideas and vitality. Its initial CD incarnation, however, was a fucking mess. It took the original LP's four songs, and added alternate takes of "One Finger Snap" and "Oliloqui Valley," positioning them in order of recording.

Wow, nothing more enjoyable than starting an album off with two takes of the same song, then going into two takes of another song. By the time you got to "Canteloupe Island," the album's catchiest song, you wondered if maybe you had accidentally walked in toward the end of a really good jam session, instead of a really good album.

Fortunately, the Rudy Van Gelder remastered edition fixes this issue by tacking the alternates on at the end. There should be a law mandating all alternate takes tacked onto CD reissues must be placed at the end of the program. I suppose there's always a tug-of-war between the old-schoolers who want the "complete chronological" approach and those of us who want "album integrity preservation," but I think the "complete chronological" approach is losing. That's entirely why I don't buy much Charlie Parker, because I get scared by track listings like:

1. Leap Frog - take 1
2. Leap Frog - take 2
3. Leap Frog - take 3 with breakdown
4. Leap Frog - take 4 (master take)
5. Leap Frog - take 5
6. Leap Frog (false start)
7. Leap Frog - take 6 with studio chatter
8. Donna Lee - take 1
9. Leap Frog - take 7

At any rate, Empyrean Isles features 3/5 of the Miles Quintet (Herbie, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums) plus Freddie Hubbard on cornet (arguably a better player than Miles, anyway).

The songs are similar to what the Quintet was doing at the time (this was mid-1964), except for "Cantaloupe Island," which is a toe-tappin' throwback to Herbie's earlier hits. "The Egg" is a masterpiece, deeply experimental and serious without getting bonkers like some other "experimental" jazz from the 60s.

"Canteloupe Island" is undeniably excellent, but carries with it the baggage of its instant recognizability (it formed the basis for Us3's "Cantaloop"), which serves to make it stand out even more, but not in a better way. So your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance and/or abhorance of the familiar.

The alternate takes, now correctly added to the end of the program, are notably different from the master takes, rounding out a classic jazz outing, and more importantly, a most excellent listening experience.

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Review by Lula Babcock