Herbie Hancock - V.S.O.P.: The Quintet

With the cheers and huzzahs from their 1976 one-off reunion still resounding, the reconstituted Miles Davis Quintet minus Miles went on the road in 1977, spreading their 1965-vintage gospel according to the Prince of Darkness to audiences in Berkeley and San Diego, CA. In doing so, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, plus interloper Freddie Hubbard seem to pick up where they left off, with a repertoire mostly new to the five collectively and developed from there. It isn't exactly the same -- you miss Miles' brooding presence and sense of space in Hubbard's busy, fiery playing, and Hancock is a more harmonically daring, assertive player than he was with Miles -- but the interlocking telepathy and individual virtuosity of the musicians is pretty amazing. This also isn't the best tape from the tour; they were even tighter and more volatile in Japan five days later on Sony's Tempest in the Colosseum. The V.S.O.P. tours amount to a pit stop in the general shape of Hancock's evolution, but their influence upon the direction of jazz as a whole in the '80s and '90s would be staggering. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

Name Credits Bennie Maupin Percussion, Wind Bruce Talamon Photography Bryan Bell Audio Engineer, Engineer Buster Williams Percussion, Bass Chris Minto Assistant Engineer Conrad Silvert Liner Notes David Rubinson Producer Dennis Mays Remote Recording Crew Eddie Henderson Percussion, Trumpet Fred Catero Engineer Freddie Hubbard Trumpet, Flugelhorn Herbie Green Design Herbie Hancock Piano, Vocals, Synthesizer, Keyboards James Levi ? Jeffrey Cohen Associate Producer Julian Priester Trombone Les D. Cooper Remote Recording Crew Paul Jackson Bass Paul Sandweiss Remote Recording Crew Ray Thompson Remote Recording Crew Ron Carter Bass Russ Anderson Design Shawn Murphy Remote Recording Crew Tony Williams Drums V.S.O.P. Performer Wah Wah Watson Guitar Wayne Shorter Sax (Tenor), Sax (Soprano), Saxophone