Herzog is an original composition by Bobby Hutcherson and opens his 1969 Blue Note album Total Eclipse. It was recorded July 12, 1968 in New York City with Hutcherson on vibraphone, Harold Land on tenor sax, Chick Corea on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass and Joe Chambers on drums. The tune is a showcase of Hutcherson’s adventurous post-bop and modal approach, with a head that is considered complex and a solo section whose form runs 8-8-3-3 bars in 4/4, sometimes heard as four bars of 3/4 for harmonic sense. Herzog runs about 6 minutes and 36 seconds and highlights Hutcherson’s innovative harmonic language and the interplay with Land and Corea. Total Eclipse is widely regarded as a landmark example of late 1960s jazz exploration on Blue Note.
