ProJazz.net

Crossings is the tenth album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released in 1972. It is the second album in his Mwandishi period, which saw him experimenting in electronics. The album is the band’s first to feature new member, synthesizer player Patrick Gleeson. He was scheduled to “set up his Moog synthesizer for Hancock to play.” However, Hancock was so impressed with Gleeson that he “asked Gleeson not only to do the overdubs on the album but join the group.”

Crossings, along with Fat Albert Rotunda and Mwandishi, was reissued in one set as Mwandishi: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings in 1994 and as The Warner Bros. Years (1969-1972) in 2014.

The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album 5 stars and stated: “With the frenzied knocking of what sounds like a clock shop gone berserk, Crossings takes the Herbie Hancock Sextet even further into the electric avant-garde, creating its own idiom.”

Track listing:
Side A
“Sleeping Giant” (Herbie Hancock) – 24:50
Side B
“Quasar” (Bennie Maupin) – 7:27
“Water Torture” (Maupin) – 14:04

Personnel:
Herbie Hancock – piano, electric piano, mellotron, percussion
Eddie Henderson – trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion
Bennie Maupin – soprano saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet, piccolo, percussion
Julian Priester – tenor and alto trombones, bass, percussion
Buster Williams – bass guitar, double bass, percussion
Billy Hart – drums, percussion

with:

Patrick Gleeson – Moog synthesizer
Victor Pantoja – congas
Candy Love, Sandra Stevens, Della Horne, Victoria Domagalski, Scott Breach – voices

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Released: End of May 1972
Recorded: February 15–17, 1972
Studio: Pacific Recording Studios, San Mateo; Different Fur Trading Company, San Francisco
Length: 46:21
Label: Warner Bros.
Producer: David Rubinson