The album is a jazzed up finger-popping blast of vintage late-‘60s funk, served up with all the compositional sophistication and technical mastery you’d expect from an old Herbie Hancock record. This highly danceable album features instrumental arrangements every bit as engaging and complex as those found on The Prisoner, the final album he recorded for Blue Note earlier that year. But unlike The Prisoner, with its dark and brooding undercurrents, Fat Albert Rotunda is an exuberantly friendly and upbeat joy of an album. Far from being frivolous in tone, the album has a soulful depth which is generously fleshed out by a moody pair of down tempo tracks, “Tell Me A Bedtime Story” and “Jessica.”
Above all else, Fat Albert Rotunda is about the groove, which might explain why it is one of the most sampled jazz records in history. Brazenly blending the sounds of street with hard swinging jazz, Herbie kicks out chunky riffs and rhythms on his Fender Rhodes electric piano, content to lay low in the fatback pulse of bassist Buster Williams and drummer Tootie Heath. He peppers the albums’ super-tight vamps with brief bursts of virtuosity, stepping out with electrifying force on such tracks as “Wiggle Waggle,” “Fat Mama” and “Oh! Oh! Here He Comes.” Likewise, saxophonist Joe Henderson plays with uncharacteristic restraint in the band’s three-horn frontline (which also includes
Johnny Coles on trumpet and Garnett Brown on trombone). This impressive brass section engages Herbie in heated call-and-response exchanges that add much heft to the fanfare. And in those very few spots where Henderson is unleashed, his wild tenor ranges freely within the funky mood, taking things even higher.
