Friday Fun: Who's your favorite Herbie Hancock?

Jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock is one of those musical artists who constantly looked to recreate himself musically, significantly changing his musical style multiple times throughout his long career. While I am a huge fan, myself, that doesn't mean that I entirely connect with every phase or facet of his career, but that's okay. And likely true of almost any fan of almost any artist, is it not? But I love much of it. And have respect for all of it.

A friend asked me recently, which phases of his career did I most connect with? Or to put it another way: Who's my favorite Herbie Hancock?

Here's my top three Herbie Hancock eras, in no particular order, each represented by a particularly well-known song from the era:

1. Cantaloupe Island: A jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded for his 1964 album Empyrean Isles. A fantastic album from a fantastic time in music, when Blue Note was king. Find the album cut here and a live version here.
2. Watermelon Man: From 1973, the album Head Hunters was a breakthrough album in jazz-funk fusion. This is an expression of his conscious desire to aim for something "lighter" compared to the "heavier" music he had been writing and playing shortly before this. So. Funky. Find the album cut here, and a live version here.
3. Rockit: From the 1983 album Future Shock, this was my first exposure to Herbie Hancock, and it was of so its time, with vocoder, samples, scratching, and a wonderfully weird music video that did its job at drawing me in. Only years later did I finally connect that this was the same guy as in the other eras, with such a long and varied career. It turns out that Madonna wasn't the first MTV star to re-invent herself. View the video here.

What say you? Are you a fan of Herbie Hancock? And if so, from what time or era? Any of the ones here? Or do you have a different favorite era, best represented by some other album? I hope you'll let me know in the comments!