Glenn Quagmire
Veteran
- Apr 30, 2012
- 4,809
- 4,343
I heard a fascinating interview of Herbie Hancock yesterday on the CBC show "Q". I am going to get his book. It sounds like a great read. He is a musical genius and I didn't know much about him. Here is a Amazon.com reader review of his book. He is an eternal optimist. I also didn't know he converted to Buddhism 41 years ago.
"In "Possibilities" (2014 publication; 350 pages), legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock (with an assist from co-writer Lisa Dickey) retells the story of his life, mostly in a chronological order. From his family's humble upbringing in South Chicago to his parents' (mostly his mom's) determination to give Herbie the best possible educational opportunities, amazing "opportunities" arise, even at an early age. Herbie's retelling of how he won a contest in early 1952 to play a piano piece accompanied by THE Chicago Symphony Orchestra, when he was only 11 years olds, just about floored me. Then there is this quote early on in the book: "I realized I had a choice: The easy road was to sit back and expect racist acts to happen--to see injustice and ill intent at every turn, to essentially say 'I'm black and I'm never going to get a fair shake' and to live my life accordingly. I made a choice to do the opposite." It is just one of countless examples of Herbie's never-wavering optimism, some might say at times misplaced naiveté, that comes back in his life's story time and again."
Here is link to the podcast of his interview yesterday (12/31/14).
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/12/31/best-of-q-herbie-hancock-on-embracing-the-boundless-possibilities/#
His book:
http://www.amazon.com/Herbie-Hancock-Possibilities-ebook/dp/B00ISEOMVI
"In "Possibilities" (2014 publication; 350 pages), legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock (with an assist from co-writer Lisa Dickey) retells the story of his life, mostly in a chronological order. From his family's humble upbringing in South Chicago to his parents' (mostly his mom's) determination to give Herbie the best possible educational opportunities, amazing "opportunities" arise, even at an early age. Herbie's retelling of how he won a contest in early 1952 to play a piano piece accompanied by THE Chicago Symphony Orchestra, when he was only 11 years olds, just about floored me. Then there is this quote early on in the book: "I realized I had a choice: The easy road was to sit back and expect racist acts to happen--to see injustice and ill intent at every turn, to essentially say 'I'm black and I'm never going to get a fair shake' and to live my life accordingly. I made a choice to do the opposite." It is just one of countless examples of Herbie's never-wavering optimism, some might say at times misplaced naiveté, that comes back in his life's story time and again."
Here is link to the podcast of his interview yesterday (12/31/14).
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/12/31/best-of-q-herbie-hancock-on-embracing-the-boundless-possibilities/#
His book:
http://www.amazon.com/Herbie-Hancock-Possibilities-ebook/dp/B00ISEOMVI