Oliloqui Valley is a modal jazz tune by Herbie Hancock from his 1964 Blue Note album Empyrean Isles. The piece expresses an internal journey rather than a real location, fitting the album’s theme of imagined lands and voyages. The track features Hancock on piano, Freddie Hubbard on cornet, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums, and it unfolds as a structured yet open-ended modal exploration built on a sequence of transposed chords. It opens with an unaccompanied bass lick and then Hubbard’s cornet floats above the others as Hancock threads motive and piano figures through the form. The original recording runs about 8 minutes and 28 seconds, and the album was recorded at Van Gelder Studio and released in November 1964. The sleeve notes describe Empyrean Isles as combining harmony, modes, grooves, and improvisation, with Oliloqui Valley standing as one of Hancock’s deepest cuts. The title and its possible links to East Africa and the Mwandishi era reflect Hancock’s interest in global culture and speculative topographies, while the piece’s stark, mid-range absent texture is a deliberate sonic choice noted by observers.
