Herbie Hancock on Jazz and Life

Glenn Quagmire

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Apr 30, 2012
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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
 
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I can remember seeing an interview with him in the mid-90's (ish), and being amazed at what he had to say/his outlook on life. I was also surprised to see that he had this huge volume of work out there. I should've known better, but I had never really looked past "Rockit."
 
I just downloaded his book and have begun reading. Hard to put down. Nice way to start the new year by reading about someone with such a positive outlook on life.
 
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Pittsburgh has been a center of Jazz for over a hundred years or so with many fine Jazz musicians playing here. I remember as a kid, downtown, a door going up to 'Walt Harper's Attic' . Anybody who was somebody jammed there at one time or another. Herbie Hancock was a frequent visitor as were many others.
 
Harper passed too soon in 2006 but left behind several new Jazz venues in our cultural district featuring fine food and music.
 
We have a Kool Jazz Festival every year here at Point State Park. We all need more Jazz.
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDVkjNj36og

And some one who has heard a lot of jazz. Missing New Orleans and traditional jazz tonight. RIP Lionel Ferbos, who passed this year and Uncle Lionel who passed alt year.
 
delldude said:
 We all need more Jazz.
Indeed, we do.  I learned to play drums in the late 60's and early 70's.  My instructor was a "cool cat" jazz drummer, who was big into jazz.  While he taught me all the various rhythm's and beats - he gave me a love of jazz I've carried with me for the past 40+ years.
 
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KCFlyer said:
Indeed, we do.  I learned to play drums in the late 60's and early 70's.  My instructor was a "cool cat" jazz drummer, who was big into jazz.  While he taught me all the various rhythm's and beats - he gave me a love of jazz I've carried with me for the past 40+ years.
 
In seventh grade, Mom and Dad asked if I would like to learn to play a musical instrument. I said 'yes, drums'.
You could hear their jaws hit the floor.
Ended up with a Harmony electric geetar and some clown teacher coming every week teaching me Nick Manoloff Spanish Guitar. This is the exact book. Local rock and roll station didn't have any of Nicks top 40 hits.
51blA1jG6XL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

My instructor boinked me in the head twice passing the guitar to me....that was it.
Meanwhile my buddy was doing the same thing but had an instructor teaching him but using top 40 as a tool. I lost interest. Always wanted a set of skins, but other toys came onto the radar as time went on.
 
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delldude said:
 
In seventh grade, Mom and Dad asked if I would like to learn to play a musical instrument. I said 'yes, drums'.
You could hear their jaws hit the floor.
Ended up with a Harmony electric geetar and some clown teacher coming every week teaching me Nick Manoloff Spanish Guitar. This is the exact book. Local rock and roll station didn't have any of Nicks top 40 hits.
51blA1jG6XL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

My instructor boinked me in the head twice passing the guitar to me....that was it.
Meanwhile my buddy was doing the same thing but had an instructor teaching him but using top 40 as a tool. I lost interest. Always wanted a set of skins, but other toys came onto the radar as time went on.
 
I played until I was 15 - we moved to Texas and into an apartment for a while.  Drums don't play well in an apartment.  But I continued to drum to songs in the car all these years and finally bought another set about 6 years ago.  Set them up and started playing along to some old albums.  My daughter was watching and I apologized for being a little rusty.  She looked at me and said "you call that rusty?".
 
Ralph (my drum teacher) was the best.  After a couple of years he said "you know you're just wasting your money now....you're doing every thing I can do - there's nothing more I can teach you".   It's tough today...so much music uses "drum machines", which are completely soulless.  Put up a good jazz band and feel the music.   I found this on youtube after reading this.  It's kind of long, but Herbie Hancock discusses buddhism and creativity in jazz.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSFMkJQKigk#t=549
 
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Kev3188 said:
Another drum player here. Stopped due to an apartment as well, and got rid of my set when we moved to the other side of the country. Some days I really miss it...
 
It DOES feel kind of good after an exasperating day to go down and hit something that loves to be hit.   If you have a chance to sit down at a set some time, you'll be surprised at how quickly it all comes back to you.   I remember trying to show a friend how to play - they couldn't get past the part where every hand and foot was doing something different.  IT's why drummers excel at patting their head and rubbing their stomachs (while tapping their foot)
 
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