Herbie Hancock unites pragmatism with progress

Mark Lepage, Canwest News Service

Do you think I look in the mirror and say ‘You’re a legend?’ ” Herbie Hancock asks.
No, but the mirror wouldn’t argue the point. Relaxed and professorial in a Manhattan hotel salon, Hancock drew laughs as he gently zinged the attempted flattery of an ingratiating Italian journalist.

We had gathered for The Imagine Project, an album of recast classics featuring an international musical cast and promoting “peace through global collaboration” — specifically, collaboration between Hancock and major-leaguers Pink, Seal, Dave Matthews, Jeff Beck, John Legend, Wayne Shorter, India.Aire, and a global who’s-who: Oumou Sangare (Mali), Konono No 1 (Congo), the Chieftains and Lisa Hannigan (Ireland), Juanes (Colombia), Ceu (Brazil), K.S. Chithra (India) and K’Naan (Somalia/Canada).
Imagine there’s no countries … or imagine all of them.

Stylistically, with a light-footed AfroCarib beat behind the title track, or a kora and the Chieftains behind Bob Dylan’s lyrics, the album flows from Hancock’s native omnivorousness and that one-world concept. It has potentially broad appeal — hence the New York news conference with heavily accented foreign journalists from Spain, Italy, Ireland and Mexico.
“This is the 21st century now, we don’t need to think ‘nationally’ anymore,” Hancock says. “We need to be open enough to respect cultures outside [our] own. I thought, ‘How many ways could I implement that?’ ”

“One of the ways — it hit me like a ton of bricks one day — is language.” And so, vocals include Irish Gaelic, Hindi and Bambara.

“In Buddhism, they say if you try to do something for the greater good, there’s no question that you’ll get obstacles,” the 70-year-old jazzman says. “Boy, did I get obstacles.”
Sting, Elton John and the Black Eyed Peas had all been possibilities who fell through for logistical reasons.
Scheduling was lunacy. And given the nature of the recording — which took place in seven countries — he never even met Track 9 singer James Morrison, “not even on the phone.” Those details were left to producer Larry Klein.
The music presented a more recognizable landscape. Since “jazz players don’t have any untouchable songs,” he was free to go after The Times They Are A-Changin’ and A Change Is Gonna Come.
And since we’re speaking of jazz now, the Italian writer tries to float back on a trail of bebop smoke to Hancock’s early days in the bohemian era, when everyone struck moody poses in the lone spotlight, and contrast it with current state of jazz that “looks like a business.”
“The way you look at it is very romantic, but it’s not real,” Hancock says.

“When I first started off, if you played with a trumpet player and a saxophone player, they had one mic. The piano had one mic that they stuck somewhere. No monitors. The singer had one — if there was a singer.” So no faux nostalgia here.
“I’ve been playing jazz so long I don’t have to think about it.”

When he does think about it, however, he thinks of former mentor Miles Davis.
“You asked me about missing Miles? I get that question a lot. I don’t feel like I’m missing him because I don’t feel like he’s gone anywhere. He feels present.”

“Miles never told us what to play. Never. In five-and-a-half years.” He then tells a story that seems to contradict it, but also affirms it.
During a gig, Davis tells Hancock to “put a B in the bass” on his keyboard. Hancock does, but can’t make it work with the piece. He fiddles around, finds an alternative, makes it cohere. Miles leans in and croaks “See?” “If I didn’t have that jazz background, I couldn’t make a record like [The Imagine Project],” he says, citing the freedom, courage and “being in the moment.”
So the jazz will be present and progressive, purists be damned. His upcoming dates at jazz festivals in Montreal and Ottawa will feature a first half of earlier material from his jazz/fusion/funk evolution — Actual Proof, Watermelon Man, Court and Spark, a medley of Maiden Voyage, Dolphin Dance, Round Midnight, Cantaloupe Island — and a second half focused on the new record.
He’s hopeful about today’s jazz scene. Despite a rising median audience age, “I’m seeing a lot of new young players emerging from high schools. And they’re good, and they want to play the music.”
And so, sharing in the generous spirit as Hancock hangs around to have lunch and chat with everyone, you’re reminded of another Miles quotation that sums up afternoon, project and career: “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”

Read more > :http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/Herbie+Hancock+unites+pragmatism+with+progress/3197428/story.html