“You make different colors by combining those colors that already exist.” This quote by Herbie Hancock could easily be his mantra. The Chicago-born pianist was already well on his way into this life-long process of searching and innovating when he released his debut album “Takin’ Off” in 1962.

By fusing the soulful sounds of his hometown with the compositional experiments he had started at his alma mater Grinnell and the hard-bop favoured by his room-mate Donald Byrd, Hancock created a new sound in jazz. This “fusion” of old sounds with new ideas (or was it the other way around?) can be experienced on the 10 CDs in this unique collection of original albums by some of his contemporaries, from The Jazz Crusaders via Les McCann to Eddie Harris via Oscar Brown Jr. and on to Herbie Mann and Hugh Masekela.

All of these musicians would probably say “Amen” to this quote by organist Larry Young from his debut album “Groove Street”: “I want to be myself, for one thing; and that’s when you catch the most hell.”