Takin' Off

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Takin' Off

| type = studio

| artist = Herbie Hancock

| cover = Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off.jpg

| border = yes

| alt =

| released = October 1962[https://books.google.com/books?id=5xcEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Hancock+Takin%27+Off&pg=PA40 Billboard Oct 22, 1962]

| recorded = May 28, 1962

| venue =

| studio = Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs

| genre = Soul jazz, hard bop{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTM8AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT243|page=243|title=Essential Jazz: The First 100 Years|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=1111794278|access-date=October 5, 2013|year=2004|quote=...Takin' Off was a typical hard bop LP...}}

| length = 39:01

| label = Blue Note

| producer = Alfred Lion

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title = My Point of View

| next_year = 1963

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/r140178 |title=Takin' Off - Herbie Hancock | AllMusic |first=Steve |last=Huey |work=allmusic.com |year=2011 |access-date=26 June 2011}}

| rev2 = Down Beat

| rev2Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}Down Beat: January 17, 1963 vol. 30, no. 2

|rev3 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

| rev3Score = {{rating|4|5}}{{Cite book|editor-last=Swenson|editor-first=J.| year = 1985| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide|url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen|url-access=registration| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone| location = U.S.| isbn = 0-394-72643-X| page = [https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen/page/93 93]}}

|rev4 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

|rev4score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=640}}

}}

Takin' Off is the debut album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock released in 1962{{Cite web|url=https://www.herbiehancock.com/music/discography/album/650/|title = Album}} by Blue Note Records. The album features veteran tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins. The album is a creative example of music in the hard bop idiom. The bluesy track "Watermelon Man" made it to the Top 100 of the singles charts,Martin, Henry; & Waters, Keith (2005). Jazz: The First 100 Years. Thomas Wadsworth. p. 311. {{ISBN|0-534-62804-4}} and went on to become a jazz standard. Hancock released a funk arrangement of “Watermelon Man” on his 1973 album Head Hunters. Takin' Off was initially released on CD in 1996 and then again in remastered form in 2007 by Rudy Van Gelder.