Sextant (album)


Sextant is the eleventh studio album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released on March 30, 1973, by Columbia Records. It was Hancock's first album on Columbia, and his final album with the "Mwandishi" sextet featuring woodwind player Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, trombonist Julian Priester, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Billy Hart. Synthesizer player Patrick Gleeson and percussionist Buck Clarke also appear.
The album showcased Hancock's early adoption of synthesizers and electronic effects. Upon release, the record was considered to be a commercial flop, and Hancock subsequently formed a new band, the Headhunters, with only Maupin continuing on from the "Mwandishi" band.

Critical reception

AllMusic called the album a "gem" which features "a kind of post-modal, free impressionism that traces the edges of funk." Rolling Stone wrote that, "taking his cue from Miles Davis| Davis' swirling, anarchic Bitches Brew and On the Corner, Hancock went even further into outer space much of Sextant, with its twittering, burbling effects, amounts to a primitive version of Nineties ambient music." The album was called an "uncompromising avant-funk masterpiece" by Paste in a retrospective review.

Personnel