This three-CD set brings together all the music Herbie Hancock recorded for Warners between leaving Miles Davis in 1969 and the beginning of his hitmaking Headhunters period in 1972. When the Mwandishi sextet (which recorded the second of these discs) came to Ronnie Scott's, it attracted surprisingly little attention, considering the pianist/composer, then 30, was already an international jazz star. But the reasons for that are fascinatingly clear in this sequence, which traces Hancock's shift from a commercial mix of James Brown-inspired horn-riff funk and Gil Evans-like ballad harmonies (Fat Albert Rotunda), to experimentally spacey Bitches Brew-era electronics – in which liquid Fender Rhodes sounds curl through bass-clarinet prowls and timbales patterns (Mwandishi) – to even more abstract and groove-avoiding music. In Crossings, for example, curtailed soloing mixes with pioneering synth sound-painting. Hancock's improvising and provocative accompaniments, and some trenchant soloing from his sidemen, including great saxophonist Joe Henderson, make the playing as distinctive as the writing. In all, this collection probably documents the most sustained period of undistracted pure creativity in this prolific genius's life. For completists, there are pop-single and promo versions of some tracks.