6 x 9. 288 pgs. 18 B&W photograph section, approx 30 music examples, 3 tables. (2005) Cloth 978-0-472-11417-7 $27.95T  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content About the Book Praise Look Inside Series Jazz Perspectives Subjects Cultural Studies / Music--Jazz

Head Hunters
The Making of Jazz's First Platinum Album

Steven F. Pond

Winner of the IASPM-US 2006 Woody Guthrie Award

The story of one of the most influential and controversial jazz recordings of the twentieth century

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About the Book

Steven Pond's Head Hunters captures a transitional moment in modern music history, a time when jazz and rock intermingled to create a new, often controversial, genre. At the forefront of that style was Head Hunters, Herbie Hancock's foray into the fusion jazz market. It was also the first jazz album to go platinum, and the best-selling jazz record of all time to that point.

The album became a turning point for a radical shift in both the production and reception of jazz. The sales numbers were unprecedented, and the music industry quickly responded to the expanded market, with production and promotion budgets rising tenfold. Such a shift helped musicians pry open the control-booth door, permanently enlarging their role in production. But it was all at a cost. Critics, believing that rock and funk might be appropriating jazz to new musical ends—or more ominously, for commercial reasons—grew increasingly alarmed at what they saw as the beginning of the end of jazz.

Steven F. Pond is Assistant Professor of Music at Cornell University.