# The brief reign and brilliant legacy of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi Band: Video, Photo

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/11/12/the-brief-reign-and-brilliant-legacy-of-herbie-hancocks-mwandishi-band-video-photo/
- Published: 2020-11-12T00:17:06+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Fifty years ago, Herbie Hancock formed a sextet on the vanguard of electroacoustic
music.**

We remember it now as Mwandishi, after the title of its debut album — the first 
of three studio releases in as many years, during a run that has largely been overshadowed
in the scope of Hancock’s career. Wedged between the curvilinear post-bop of the
1960s and the strutting jazz-funk of _Head Hunters_, Mwandishi embodied a distinct
alignment of time and space, a moment unlikely to be replicated.

This episode of Jazz United turns a spotlight on that legacy. Mwandishi sounded 
equally at home in outer space as on the ground. And it was a crucial antecedent
for many bands today that pursue a fiery and futuristic Afrocentrism, with jazz 
and funk swirling together in the mix.

During this period, the early 1970s, Hancock became a leading figure on a newfangled
instrument, the Fender Rhodes piano. Mwandishi also featured an explosive front 
line of multireedist Bennie Maupin, trombonist Julian Priester and trumpeter Dr.
Eddie Henderson. Drummer Billy Hart and bassist Buster Williams forged new rhythmic
pathways, with elasticity and forward pull. (Later Hancock added Dr. Patrick Gleeson
on synthesizers, and enlisted a permanent sound man, Fundi Bonner, on tour.)

It so happens that four members of the band — Hancock, Maupin, Henderson and Hart—
turned 80 in 2020. Every artist in the lineup has enjoyed a major career, but we
feel Mwandishi embodied a distinct alignment of time and space, a moment unlikely
to be replicated. We hope you’ll join us in paying homage now.

![Members of Mwandishi (Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams and Billy Hart) in the early
1970s.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202011/
herbie-mwandishi.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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