Herbie Hancock - V.S.O.P. (Live) (1977/2015) Hi Res

V.S.O.P. is an April 1977 jazz-funk fusion live album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock featuring performances by the V.S.O.P. Quintet (Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams), the Mwandishi band with Eddie Henderson on two tracks, and The Headhunters featuring Bennie Maupin and Paul Jackson.

In the spring of 1976, Herbie Hancock’s manager David Rubinson approached impresario and producer of the Newport Jazz Festival, George Wein, with the idea of staging a retrospective of Hancock’s work. Wein endorsed the idea, so Hancock made a phone call to Miles Davis to ask whether he would do a one-time reunion of the classic quintet with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. When Davis declined, Hancock invited his long-time Blue Note collaborator Freddie Hubbard to join the ensemble.

On June 29, 1976, they took the stage at the City Center in New York and captivated the audience with blistering renditions of “Maiden Voyage,” Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti,” and “The Eye Of The Hurricane.” The concert continued with a set of the original Mwandishi Band and was concluded by Hancock’s then current funk band (with the same line-up as on Secrets). It was especially the resounding success of the quintet’s performance, and the 1977 release of this seminal concert, that would have a major impact on Hancock’s later career, effectively ushering in a resurgent wider audience for acoustic jazz.