Blue Note · in the Kissa Kissa racks

The Prisoner

Herbie Hancock

Recorded	Apr 18-23, 1969
Label	Blue Note
Released	1969
Personnel	11 credited players
Discogs	master 163789

The record

A dense, brass-and-woodwind-heavy sextet-plus-arrangement date cut in tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., Hancock's writing here leans toward the somber, layered voicings of Gil Evans more than hard-bop economy. Joe Henderson and Johnny Coles solo through the mournful charts, closing out Hancock's run as a Blue Note leader on an unusually elegiac note.

Session personnel

Buster Williams — bass
Jerome Richardson — bass clarinet
Romeo Penque — bass clarinet
Jack Jeffers — bass trombone
Tony Studd — bass trombone
Albert Heath — drums
Johnny Coles — flugelhorn
Hubert Laws — flute
Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano
Joe Henderson — tenor saxophone, alto flute
Garnett Brown — trombone

Contemporary reception

No period review located yet. The vintage-press pipeline searches DownBeat, Cash Box, and Billboard for this session.

Pressings

The earliest pressing on file here is a 1970 US stereo BST 84321 with an RVG stamp -- nothing earlier is listed, so treat nothing here as an original. The same number was repressed in the US in 1973 and 1977, with a 1973 German stereo and a 1979 Japanese GXK-8138 alongside. Later reissues run through a 2015 European 180 gram BST 84321, also RVG-stamped. The catalog number barely changes, so judge by label style and stamp.

Showing the first pressing, audiophile reissues and copies carrying a collector marker, out of 49 pressings on file.

1970	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo earliest on file · RVG stamp
1970	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo · RVG stamp
1970	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, All Disc Pressing · RVG stamp
1973	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, Research Craft Pressing · RVG stamp
1973	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo · RVG stamp
1973	Blue Note · BST 84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo · RVG stamp
1977	Blue Note · BST-84321 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo · RVG stamp
1986	Blue Note · CP32-5220 — CD, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Stereo · RVG stamp
1987	Blue Note · CDP 7 46845 2 — CD, Album, Reissue · RVG stamp
1995	Blue Note · CDP 7 46845 2 — CD, Album, Reissue, Repress · RVG stamp
1998	Blue Note · TOCJ-4321 — CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo · RVG stamp
1998	Blue Note · TOCJ-4321 — CD, Album, Promo, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo · RVG stamp
2000	Blue Note · 7243 5 25649 2 7 — CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered · RVG stamp
2000	Blue Note · 7243 5 25649 2 7 — CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered · RVG stamp