Herbie Hancock - Hopes and Dreams....

This month Herbie Hancock makes his presence felt in the UK by playing five eagerly anticipated live shows, including two concerts at the London Jazz Festival that coincide with the release of Then and Now: The Definitive Herbie Hancock, a 12-track career retrospective covering his work for the Blue Note, Warner, Columbia and Verve record labels. In this exclusive interview with Stuart Nicholson, Hancock talks about his new band, his time with Miles Davis and his support for Barack Obama in the US elections on 4 November.


Accompanying Herbie on his UK tour will be a brand new band comprising Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Gregoire Maret on harmonica, Lionel Loueke on guitar, James Genus on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums. In a unique first for a major artist, he makes two appearances in the London Jazz Festival, one at the Royal Festival Hall and the other at the Barbican, plus dates at The Sage in Gateshead, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

“The tour that I just finished was called ‘The River of Possibilities Tour,’” says Hancock, down the line from his California home. “We carried two singers, and we did many songs from my last new record River: The Joni Letters, but this is an instrumental tour so we’re leaning towards a more jazz approach. We haven’t had any rehearsals nor have we met, I only just got off the tour two days ago so I haven’t really put specifics about what we’re going to do together yet.

“However, I have known Terence for a very, very long time – since he worked in a quintet with Donald Harrison several years ago – and from that beginning through to Terence’s work with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz as director of the collegiate programme we have. I say “we” because I’m the chairman of the Monk Institute and Terence has been the musical director of that programme for several years now. He’s such a talented trumpet player and composer, writing wonderful movie scores.

“Lionel Loueke amazes me with his talent on the guitar, but not just the guitar, he sings and does multiple things, and he’s like an octopus on that instrument. And I’ll be introducing a new talent called Gregoire Maret, who is a harmonica player. Now why would Herbie Hancock hire a harmonica player? Wait until you hear what Gregoire can do with the harmonica, he’s from Paris, France and he is phenomenal, his playing is comparable to a saxophone player. He is absolutely pushing the instrument in new directions, and I have never heard anybody play that instrument in any way or fashion that he does, and he plays with great emotion.”

Hancock says it’s his intention to write new material for the group, “I don’t know what songs we’re going to do at this moment, but I know the overview of what we’ll be doing, and I hope to find time to write something new, or at least rework some of my other material in a new way.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #125