Herbie Hancock has dissolved his old sextet and abandoned the extensive synthesizer overdubbing which marred his previous solo LPs. Headhunters, tight and concise, could be called soul-jazz (soul in a Sly, Seventies sense), but there's more to it than that. "Watermelon Man," Hancock's Sixties funk classic, gets a new arrangement that reveals the changes. It begins with an African-style flute-and-whistle ensemble. Electric piano, bass, drums, saxophone and percussion fade up from under the flutes with a stretched, but by no means spaced, reinterpretation of the tune's original line. The track then develops compositionally, with little improvisation, until the African flutes return. The longer pieces are just as direct. Hancock's masterful use of the ARP Odyssey creates a string section under his cooking electric piano solo on "Chameleon," while saxophonist Bennie Maupin, the only holdover from Hancock's previous group, finally gets enough solo space to demonstrate his considerable originality. Headhunters is Hancock's best album in several years and should give Stevie Wonder and Sly fans something to think about, since it uses their innovations as a basic premise from which to expand into coherent and captivating new ideas. (RS 157)

BOB PALMER