"Empty Pockets" from Herbie Hancock's 1962 debut Takin' Off is a straight-ahead swinging blues in F that showcases the fundamental bebop language of Hancock's stellar sidemen. The 12-bar blues form at approximately 138 BPM provides the most traditional framework on the album, grounding the session in the hard bop idiom that defined Blue Note Records in the early 1960s. Freddie Hubbard opens with four inventive choruses of trumpet, demonstrating the harmonic sophistication and technical command that set him apart even among the extraordinary talent pool of Blue Note artists. Dexter Gordon follows with four spacious choruses of tenor saxophone, bringing the deep, warm tone and unhurried narrative approach that made him one of the most beloved figures in jazz. Hancock rounds out the solo section with four choruses of piano that reveal his deep feel for the blues, balancing sophisticated harmonic substitutions with the kind of earthy, rhythmic playing that connects him to the tradition of Horace Silver and other Blue Note piano stylists. The blues has always been the testing ground where jazz musicians reveal their most fundamental musical values, and this performance demonstrates that every member of the Takin' Off ensemble possessed both the technical facility and the emotional depth to play the blues at the highest level.
