Herbie Hancock – Crossings

Released in 1972, Crossings is the middle chapter of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi trilogy, and arguably the most immersive and exploratory of the three. Departing even further from traditional jazz forms, Crossings dives headfirst into deep, cosmic fusion—melding electronic textures, African rhythms, and free-form improvisation into a sprawling, psychedelic soundscape. It’s spiritual, spacey, and sonically adventurous, pushing jazz into realms occupied more by Sun Ra or early Tangerine Dream than by Hancock’s former Blue Note contemporaries.

The album opens with “Sleeping Giant,” a 20-minute epic that morphs from tribal percussion into swirling electric chaos and back again, held together by Hancock’s Fender Rhodes and synth flourishes. “Quasar” and “Water Torture,” both composed by reedman Bennie Maupin, lean into the avant-garde, building atmosphere through subtle shifts, eerie textures, and meditative pacing. Crossings is less about solos and more about sonic exploration—an album to be absorbed, not just heard.

Reviews

“Crossings is a radical act of sonic imagination. It takes jazz’s harmonic language and dissolves it into liquid electricity, guided by Hancock’s keyboards and the Mwandishi ensemble’s intuitive interplay. It’s a dreamlike, dangerous, and visionary record.” – AllMusic

“With Crossings, Hancock fully committed to the avant-garde, crafting a dense, cinematic world where rhythm, tone, and texture speak louder than melody. It's one of his most courageous and creative statements.” – The Wire

“This is not jazz for cocktail lounges—it’s jazz for the outer rim of the galaxy. Crossings abandons the ego of soloing in favor of collective exploration, and the result is both hypnotic and profound.” – Pitchfork

“Moody, sprawling, and deeply psychedelic, Crossings captures a moment when jazz was colliding with cosmic consciousness. It’s a record that rewards patience and demands total surrender.” – Jazzwise

“A spiritual odyssey masked as an electric fusion album. The Mwandishi band dissolves boundaries between genres, continents, and mindstates. Crossings is a ritual, not a performance.” – Mojo