That Herbie Hancock is basically an abstract player is the secret of his versatility of style?which is another way of saying that he has no stable sense of taste, being willing to play a line of notes in almost any idiom or sound-world if it fits. It was during his Columbia years that he made his most blatantly commercial music, of which about half of this four-disc set consists. Since it’s unlikely that many enjoy such a wide range of approaches, this selection, irrespective of its size, doesn’t make much sense. Better to have separated the material into its categories (and audiences).
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