Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off

Recorded in a single day - May 28, 1962, at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs studio - Takin' Off is Herbie Hancock's debut as a bandleader, made when the pianist was just twenty-two. Fresh off a run of sideman work with trumpeter Donald Byrd, Hancock assembled a formidable quintet for the occasion: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, veteran tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Billy Higgins. All six tracks are Hancock originals, a bold move for a first-time leader, blending the tuneful, blues-rooted feel of classic Blue Note hard bop with a harmonic curiosity and cool, cerebral touch that were already distinctly his own. The album opens with "Watermelon Man," a deceptively simple, funky theme Hancock wrote with commercial appeal deliberately in mind - advice from his mentor Byrd - and while the original didn't chart, Mongo Santamaría's Latin-jazz cover of it became a Top 10 hit the following year, cementing the tune as a jazz standard Hancock himself would revisit a decade later on Head Hunters. The rest of the record, from the exploratory "The Maze" and "Driftin'" to the spare closing ballad "Alone and I," reveals the deeper story: a young composer already writing with the confidence and imagination that would soon make him one of the defining pianists of the 1960s. Artist(s): Piano – Herbie Hancock Bass – Butch Warren Drums – Billy Higgins Tenor Saxophone – Dexter Gordon Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard Recording Info: Recorded on May 28, 1962, at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder Sourced from a Blue Note LP Components used for Transfer: This transfer leverages precision analog playback and mastering-grade digital conversion. The signal path begins with a VPI HW-40 Anniversary turntable paired with an Ortofon MC Anna cartridge, fed through a Merrill Audio Jens Phono pre-amp for accurate RIAA equalization. The analog signal is then converted using a Merging Hapi converter, powered by a Teddy Pardo dedicated linear power supply, synchronized to an Antelope Audio 10MX atomic clock for temporal accuracy. All components receive isolated power conditioning through a Shunyata Research Everest 8000 with Sigma-X cords, while grounding infrastructure utilizes Shunyata ALTAIRA hubs to minimize noise floor and preserve sonic detail throughout the transfer chain. 1 Watermelon Man 7:05 2 Three Bags Full 5:25 3 Empty Pockets 6:11 4 The Maze 6:46 5 Driftin' 6:56 6 Alone And I 6:28 Please Note: This release was edited in DXD PCM from a DSD256 Master then the DXD edited master was used to generate the final DSD files using Merging Technologies Album Publishing. DXD (352.8KHz 24/32 bit PCM) is one of the best and least destructive formats for post-processing DSD originated digital recordings Copyright © & ℗ High Definition Tape Transfers 2026, including all compilation, transfer, remastering, and restoration aspects Play Sample Tracks