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D
uring a career that spans seven astonishing
decades, the Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based,
Grammy- and Oscar-winning pianist and com
poser Herbie Hancock has gone where no jazz
musician had gone before. He was a member of
Miles Daviss groundbreaking quin tet in the 1960s; he
a long list of seminal albums for the legendary Blue Note
jazz
label; and his compositions from Maiden Voyage and Wa
termelon Man to Cantaloupe Islandare recognized as jazz
standards. Chameleon, his synthesizer-driven smash hit, ush
ered in the jazz-fusion era of the 1970s. A decade later, he
scored
another hit with Rockit, a track inspired by hip-hop, and
won
an Oscar for the soundtrack to the film Round Midnight.And
in
recent years hes recorded and collaborated with a
star-studded
lineup of musicians, including Joni Mitchell, Sting, Stevie
Won
der, and classical pianist Lang Lang.
In Herbie Hancock: Possibilities,his first book, which will
be
released October 28 by Viking, the 74-year-old jazz master
chronicles the pioneering arc of his musical career,
describing
many aspects of his lifehis musicianship, his family, his
com
mitm ent to Buddhism, and his work with Unesco in eloquent
and honest detail.
Though Hancock had thought about writing a book for years,
Possibilities,which is named after his 2008 album, was slow
to
make the leap from his mind to the printed page. Quincy
Jones
was an instigator," Hancock says, laughing, during a phone
call
from his Los Angeles home-office, because he had written a
book
about his life [Q: The Autobiography o f QuincyJones'],He kept
prodding me, Herbie, you better get started on that book,
because
the older you get, the more youre going to forget. So you
better
start writing now.
Hancock tours constantly, so he could not simply stop, sit
down, and write the book. His agent, Robert Barnett,
enlisted
ghostwriter Lisa Dickey, who has worked on a number of
bestsell
ing books on the arts, business, and science (The Time of My
Life,
with Patrick Swayze;Remembering Whitney,with Cissy Houston),
to coauthorHerbie Hancock: Possibilities.We got together a
lot,
Hancock recalls fondly. She would write. I would read and
edit,
and sometimes shift the wording, or change phrases or delete
things. We would continually refine what was written. It
wasnt
like I just talked to her, and she wrote the book. It wasnt
that
simple. We were bothinvolved in writing the book.
With Dickeys assistance, Hancock writes about growing up
on Chicagos South Side with his brother, Waymon Jr., and
sister,
Jean. His parents came to the Windy City from Georgia. Intro
duced to the piano by a childhood friend, Hancock soon devel
oped impressive skill with the instrument and performed
Mozarts Concerto No. 26 in D Major with the Chicago Sym
phony Orchestra when he was 11 years old.
In the book, he writes lovingly about how he came under the
spell of jazz pianists George Shearing, Errol Garner, and
OscarPeterson. Hancock paid his dues playing numerous R&B
gigs
around Chicago before attending Grinnell College in Iowa,
orig-
l l e r b i e H a n c o c k
A u t h o r
A LITERARY
MAIDENVOYAG E
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A u t h o r P r o f i l e
inally as an engineering major before
switching to music. (Hancock has had a
lifeiong fascination with technology; he
eventually received degrees from Grin-
ned in both music and electrical engi-
neering.)The late jazz trumpeter Donald
Byrd discovered Hancock, brought him
to New York, and introduced him to
Davis, who would become his next musi-
cal mentor. Working with Davis
alongside tenor saxophonist Wayne
Shorter, bassist Ron Carter, and drum-
mer Tony Williams Hancock went on
to expand the compositional and impro
visational possibilities of the jazz idiom.
Hancock praises Davis for his musical leadership and musical
mentoring. Once, during a performance, when young Hancockplayed
an obviously wrong chord, Davis ins tantly played a
note that miraculously made my note sound right, and never
chided or reprimanded the pianist for the gaffe. Davis
encour-
aged his musicians to experiment and take chances even if
they
made mistakes. This incident, Hancock says, reinforced the
value of trus ting yourself to respond on the fly. If you can
al-
low yourself to do tha t, Hancock writes, you never stop
explor-
ing. yu never stop learning, in music or in life. It was an
important lesson for a jazz musician.
While the book outlines Hancocks adm iration of Daviss
musical influence and mentoring, it also acknowledges
Davisspersonal failings. I know Miles did some really rotten
things,
like beating up women, almost killing a woman who was a
friend of mine, Hancock admits. And he had huge problems
with coke. This is not praise for Miless everyday life; its
more
about his relationship to the musicians, and how he felt
about
his responsibilities as a musician, and his wisdom and trust
in
himself and in o thers.
Hancocks younger sister, Jean, a computer analyst who died
in a plane crash in 1985, also figured prominently
throughout
his artistic life. She named one of Hancocks most famous
com-
positions, Maiden Voyage, and wrote lyrics for it, as well
as
for several other Hancock songs, including Harvest Time,
andButterfly.
Hancocks success has not come without costs. He married
Gigi Meixner in 1968, and he writes about the challenges
that
touring can place on a marriage and on Jessica, their only
child.
But the biggest revelation to emerge from the book is that
Hancock was addicted to cocaine. It began with gradual use
in
the 1960s and escalated in the 1980s and 90s, until his wife
confronted him about his addiction. He entered rehab in 1999
and eventually managed to kick the habit.
I knew at some point, I was going to be talking about this ,
Hancock says. One of the main things in Buddhism is that youlook
at a challenge in your life and turn it into an opportunity.
That s what occurred to me when I was writing this book: now
I know why [the addiction] happened to
me. That happened at that point, so I
could write about it in the book, and pos-
sibly help other people. That turns it into
something positive.
Hancock was introduced to Nichiren
Buddhism by bassist Buster Williams,
who gave an inspired performance at a gig
with Hancock in 1972 in Seattle, rousing
the rest of the band, whose members were
hungover after too much partying the
night before. Williams credited his stellar
per fo rm an ce th at n ig h t to Buddhis t
chanting; Hancock was so impressed he
went to a Buddhist meeting with him the
next night.
Hancock writes passionately about his commitment to Bud-dhism.
Ever since I was seven years old, music has been the
number one thing in my life, he notes in the book. But as I
got into deeper into the practice of Buddhism, a new
realization
began to form inside me. I began thinking of myself as a
human
being first, removing any sense of separation between myself
and anyone else.
This realization has had a strong impact on Hancocks life.
Since the 1990s, he has worked to extend himself beyond the
confines of the jazz world. In 1998 Hancock released
Gershwin's
World, a tribute to George Gershwin, with Stevie Wonder;
The New Standard(1995) featured Hancocks reimagining ofthe music
of Prince, the Beatles, Sade, and Paul Simon; and
River: Thejoni Letters,Hancocks jazzy shoutout ro his friend
Joni Mitchell, earned him Grammy awards for Album of the
Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2008. He co-
founded the Rhythm of Life Foundation, dedicated to using
technology to aid humanity. In 2011, he was named Unesco
Goodwill Ambassador, and was instrumental in the creation
of the organizations first International Jazz Day. In 2013,
he
was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and this
year he was named Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry
at Harvard University the first AfricanAmerican (not to
mention the first jazz musician) to hold that position in
its
88year history.
As Hancock approaches his 75th birthday on April 12, 2015,
he continues to explore the infinite possibilities of his life.
I
like it when people tell me I cant do something, he says
with
a hearty laugh. That automatically makes me want to do it. I
ts
my nature. I m naturally curious. I like to combine two or
three
different things. My interest in science and technology
comes
into play throughout my life: seeing two things that look
like
oil and water, and me trying to figure out how to get them
to
interact and play nicely together.
Eugene Holle y Jr . is a free lance wr ite r on music who
contributes toDown
Beat, Wax Poetics, N P R s A Blo g Supreme, a ndPhiladelphia
Weekly.
H E R B I E
H a N C O C K
~~ A D i r .
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