Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles on Limited Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Remastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman from the Original Rudy Van Gelder Blue Note Master Tapes! The Definitive 45RPM Blue Note Reissue Series!
Empyrean Isles is the best of Hancock's Blue Note albums and an outstanding example of modal jazz. But beyond that, it's simply one of the finest pure jazz albums ever made, right up there with Kind of Blue and Love Supreme. What helps makes it so great is not just the phenomenal musicians and the flawless performance, but a composer/arranger (Hancock) who really has no equal in the jazz world.The 1950s were about forming the groundwork for jazz. Its maturation came in the post-bop 1960s, and this album was conceived at arguably the very peak of that movement. My favourites here are the 'Oliloqui Valley' and the immortal 'Cantaloupe Island.'