“Hang Up Your Hang Ups” (1975): Herbie Hancock
One of my favorite songs by Janet Jackson is “All Nite.” It is funky and fun to dance to. And then while listening to a lot of Herbie Hancock’s music I came across this song from his 1975 album Man-Child, “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” and I heard the same funk melody I heard in “All Nite.” What I didn’t realize is that “All Nite” samples that melody from “Hang Up Your Hang Ups,” so I listened to the song to gain more context. I couldn’t stop grooving. The way Herbie has brought so much creativity to the jazz funk fusion genre had me jamming and made me appreciate even more how awesome he is and how awesome his music is. I also really love that it’s in the key of E minor because that’s one of my favorite keys.
Herbie wrote this excellent memoir called Possibilities. It talks about how he went from being solely about keeping jazz a pure genre into becoming a musician who could still love playing jazz but mix it in with other genres of music such as funk. He talks about how his Buddhist practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo played a huge role in inspiring this creativity. “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” is a wonderful example of how Herbie has fused these two amazing genres to form something so innovative and groovy.
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