At Age 67, Herbie Hancock Has A Musical Revelation

[umum_cypher]

I've never been all that impressed with Hancock.

A few times I've been astonished by (really good) pianists telling me that they don't rate Herbie. The complaint has generally been that they find his touch is too uniform, perfect, pearly. I can see what they mean. But I love his touch!

[bertrand]

There's a recording of the Miles Tribute band from Lugano (7/2/92) where they do a medley of 'Orbits' and 'Paraphernalia'. Wayne and Wallace take killer solos, but then Herbie comes in and goes somewhere else again, with Tony totally following him. You can really hear him take-off. It's really mind-blowing. They should have released this instead of the somewhat lackluster studio album (not bad, just not the group at their best). I saw them in Paris the day before Lugano, and it was good, but nothing like the Lugano gig. The DC gig two weeks before was amazing, however.

Herbie's intro to 'Ceora' is stunning - very relaxed, just sets up the piece perfectly. They first tried to record it the day before (9/17/65). I wonder if Herbie went home and thought about it overnight. On 9/17, it was probably the first time he'd seen the tune since Lee had most likely scribbled it down on the subway on the way to the session, in this case bootlegging some bits form the standard 'If Someone Had Told Me' (I also hear a bit of Herbie's 'A Tribute To Someone' in the bridge, but no one agrees with me on that). After the (rejected) session, did Herbie say to himself: 'that was a nice tune. Since we're going to try it again tomorrow, I wonder if there's anything I can add'? I sure would like to hear that rejected session (cf chewy's other thread).

He's written some very nice pieces after the sixties too, e.g. 'Joanna's Theme' from Native Dancer.

The Joni Mitchell tribute is a bit uneven, but at its best, it's fabulous. The highlight is 'Sweet Bird' - Wayne's tone is beautiful. It's amazing how much great music Herbie and Wayne have made in their 45+ years together.

Bertrand.

Edited December 24, 2007 by bertrand

[ValerieB]

It's amazing how much great music Herbie and Wayne have made in their 45+ years together.

Bertrand.

and they did it again a week ago today at ucla!! the most amazing concert with nathan east and vinnie c. and the ucla student wind orchestra. they mostly played wayne and herbie classics with new arrangements and it was breathtaking! and herbie actually played solo a new tune he wrote in tribute to dr. isaku ikeda, the buddhist leader. it was beautiful and i noticed many wet eyes around me! i predict herbie will start writing again in the future (at least many of us hope so)!!

[Michael Weiss]

and they did it again a week ago today at ucla!! the most amazing concert with nathan east and vinnie c. and the ucla student wind orchestra. they mostly played wayne and herbie classics with new arrangements and it was breathtaking! and herbie actually played solo a new tune he wrote in tribute to dr. isaku ikeda, the buddhist leader. it was beautiful and i noticed many wet eyes around me! i predict herbie will start writing again in the future (at least many of us hope so)!!

Hi Valerie,

Can you recall the tunes they played? I'm very curious. Wayne's arrangements of older tunes (Children of the Night, Serenata, Orbits, Angola, etc..) are as intricate, fleshed out and exciting as his new material.

[ValerieB]

and they did it again a week ago today at ucla!! the most amazing concert with nathan east and vinnie c. and the ucla student wind orchestra. they mostly played wayne and herbie classics with new arrangements and it was breathtaking! and herbie actually played solo a new tune he wrote in tribute to dr. daisaku ikeda, the buddhist leader. it was beautiful and i noticed many wet eyes around me! i predict herbie will start writing again in the future (at least many of us hope so)!!

Hi Valerie,

Can you recall the tunes they played? I'm very curious. Wayne's arrangements of older tunes (Children of the Night, Serenata, Orbits, Angola, etc..) are as intricate, fleshed out and exciting as his new material.

there is a don heckman review of the concert in the l.a. times of the other day. they did "speak like a child," "footprints," "prometheus unbound," "dai-nanko" for sure. when my old, tired brain thinks of some of the others, i'll edit this post. sorry.

[bertrand]

Wayne has been working with the Imani Winds wind quintet, and has written new arrangements of some of his pieces for this configuration (quartet + wind quintet). I saw Imani Winds in Baltimore in April (they played 'Terra Incognita', the piece he wrote for them). I asked one of the members after what pieces he arranged for them. She mentioned 'The Three Marias' but didn't know the other titles (?). I suspect these are the same arrangements done at UCLA.

Valerie, how can one find out where Wayne is playing? The listing at imnworld.com is incomplete (the UCLA gig was never mentioned). Whenever I call them they say everything booked is listed, but I attended a five-day Wayne festival in Paris (1/04) that was never listed on their site.

I wonder if Wayne is planning on recording again soon. 'Prometheus Unbound' and 'Terra Incognita' have still not been officially recorded. Another live record of these various collaborations (UCLA winds, Imani Winds, various symphony concerts) would be a satisfying alternative.

Bertrand.

[clifford_thornton]

It's amazing how much great music Herbie and Wayne have made in their 45+ years together.

Bertrand.

and they did it again a week ago today at ucla!! the most amazing concert with nathan east and vinnie c. and the ucla student wind orchestra. they mostly played wayne and herbie classics with new arrangements and it was breathtaking! and herbie actually played solo a new tune he wrote in tribute to dr. isaku ikeda, the buddhist leader. it was beautiful and i noticed many wet eyes around me! i predict herbie will start writing again in the future (at least many of us hope so)!!

Vinnie C. = Vinnie Colaiuta? Great drummer, have him on a disc with Buell Neidlinger that is fantastic.

Herbie's music of the '60s is fantastic, but of course he at some point made the decision to a) make money and b) choose how he did that, within an idiom of (somewhat) his own devising. Now, I'm not a huge fan of what he's done since maybe the early '70s, but I do give him props.

The Joni thing would've made more sense in 1975 to my ears, but...

[bertrand]

Colaiuta is the drummer on the Joni tribute.

Bertrand.

[Kari S]

In regards to the original topic, in my opinion it's just marketing. You can go to Amazon's website to watch a video about it...http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/641...layer_2_preplay . In the Jazztimes article he says: "...That’s very typical of jazz instrumentalists; we’re so dazzled by melody, harmony, textures, all those kinds of nuances, that when we hear a vocal in English it might as well be in Polish. I can’t understand the lyrics as they’re sung by anybody. I have to shove the music out to understand that it’s English, and I have a hard time doing that because the music pulls me in like a magnet.”

And that sounds utterly ridiculous. "Might as well be in Polish"?

...

In regards to the current "state" of Hancock...I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's anxiously waiting for him to return to jazz, maybe with a brand new CD of new compositions. However, I have a theory. Herbie, like his mentor Miles, has always been very decisive about moving forwards, "afraid" of staying in a safe place. Maybe he's having a writer's block (in terms of jazz), and he's discovered this Pop-Jazz thing (with Possibilities and now River) is a good venue for keeping active? He also didn't write any of the music on either of those CD's. In fact - I don't think he's written any new music since the 70's..?? Also, this doesn't mean that there isn't anything worthwhile on these albums, because there is.

[clifford_thornton]

Colaiuta is the drummer on the Joni tribute.

Bertrand.

OK, thanks for the clarification.

I probably won't consciously make an effort to hear this anyway.

Herbie, Wayne, Colaiuta and Pattitucci might be another story.

[bertrand]

Dave Holland is the bassist on the Joni tribute. Does this whet your appetite more

Bertrand.

[clifford_thornton]

Less.

If it were David Holland, I might be interested...

[papsrus]

Taken for what it is -- an affectionate reading of Mitchell's music -- River is a great album, IMO. And Shorter is near-perfecto.

As for Hancock since the 60s ... ehhh. Saw him at the Atlanta Jazz fest last spring and he pulled out the shoulder-strap keyboard ... or moog ... or whatever that funky thing is, and launched into some Head Hunters stuff. I headed for the exits.

[trane_fanatic]

He'll perform with Lang Lang & John Mauceri at the Grammys.

[7/4]

He'll perform with Lang Lang & John Mauceri at the Grammys.

His album is nominated for album of the year.

[Jim Alfredson]

Taken for what it is -- an affectionate reading of Mitchell's music -- River is a great album, IMO. And Shorter is near-perfecto.

As for Hancock since the 60s ... ehhh. Saw him at the Atlanta Jazz fest last spring and he pulled out the shoulder-strap keyboard ... or moog ... or whatever that funky thing is, and launched into some Head Hunters stuff. I headed for the exits.

THE KEYTAR!!!!!!!

I saw Herbie headline the 2003 Clearwater Jazz Holiday (organissimo played as well) on piano with just bass (Scott Colley) and drums (Terri-Lynn Carrington). It was phenomenal.

[David Gitin]

Wayne has been working with the Imani Winds wind quintet, and has written new arrangements of some of his pieces for this configuration (quartet + wind quintet). I saw Imani Winds in Baltimore in April (they played 'Terra Incognita', the piece he wrote for them). I asked one of the members after what pieces he arranged for them. She mentioned 'The Three Marias' but didn't know the other titles (?). I suspect these are the same arrangements done at UCLA.

Valerie, how can one find out where Wayne is playing? The listing at imnworld.com is incomplete (the UCLA gig was never mentioned). Whenever I call them they say everything booked is listed, but I attended a five-day Wayne festival in Paris (1/04) that was never listed on their site.

I wonder if Wayne is planning on recording again soon. 'Prometheus Unbound' and 'Terra Incognita' have still not been officially recorded. Another live record of these various collaborations (UCLA winds, Imani Winds, various symphony concerts) would be a satisfying alternative.

Bertrand.

Bertrand, I'll catch Wayne with the Imani Winds on Friday, April 11 in San Francisco (Masonic Aud).

[papsrus]

Taken for what it is -- an affectionate reading of Mitchell's music -- River is a great album, IMO. And Shorter is near-perfecto.

As for Hancock since the 60s ... ehhh. Saw him at the Atlanta Jazz fest last spring and he pulled out the shoulder-strap keyboard ... or moog ... or whatever that funky thing is, and launched into some Head Hunters stuff. I headed for the exits.

THE KEYTAR!!!!!!!

I saw Herbie headline the 2003 Clearwater Jazz Holiday (organissimo played as well) on piano with just bass (Scott Colley) and drums (Terri-Lynn Carrington). It was phenomenal.

I'd love to see him in that combo. Clearwater is just up the road from me. Let us know if you ever head back there.

[GregK]

Surprisingly, I don't hate the Jone tribute album. I was expecting to, with Norah Jones, Tina Turner, and the ghastly Lenny Cohen warbling on it, but the music, particularly the instrumentals, are very good. Classic Herbie, in spots.

[7/4]

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...5&hl=herbie

[7/4]

February 11, 2008

Grammy Tradition of Weird Winners Abides

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:45 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- To the list of Jethro ''Say What?'' Tull and Steely ''Freaking'' Dan, we may now add Herbie ''Huh?'' Hancock.

With his surprise win for best album Sunday night, Hancock joined a rich tradition of infamous Grammy winners that immediately caused audience members to contort their faces in curiosity and disbelief.

The 67-year-old jazz pianist wasn't only the surprise winner, he was a surprise nominee. When the Grammy nominations were announced in December, a blogger for Spin Magazine wrote: ''This award is meant to expand beyond the reach of pop and rock, but Herbie Hancock? Really?''

As it turns out: Yes, really.

Hancock's Joni Mitchell tribute album, ''River: The Joni Letters,'' was neither a financial success (it has sold a paltry 56,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan) nor a particular critical darling.

Amy Winehouse, on the other hand, was one of the most common selections among critics' top-ten lists. Though she won for best record (''Rehab''), best song (''Rehab,'' again) and best new artist, Winehouse failed to sweep.

If Grammy voters had wanted to take a more populist approach, Kanye West was the favorite. The Chicago rapper's ''Graduation'' was one of the year's biggest sellers. He still collected four awards, but again left the Grammys disappointed in losing best album.

Instead, Hancock came out of left field to win the night's big award. Even he was shocked, rating his surprise as ''immeasurable.''

Hancock's upset immediately recalled past Grammy wins that have roundly been mocked. In 2001, Steely Dan (then long past its prime) won best album over Eminem, Radiohead and Beck.

The most oft-cited example of the Grammys being out-of-touch is Jethro Tull (a classic rock band that made their biggest flute-accompanied impression in the `70s) winning for best hard rock or metal performance in 1989, while Metallica waited in the wings.

That still doesn't include the dozens if not hundreds of decisions by Grammy voters that in hindsight look downright foolish. In 1985, for instance, Lionel Richie's ''Can't Slow Down'' beat two albums so legendary that their authors need no mention: ''Purple Rain'' and ''Born in the USA.''

And then there's Milli Vanilli winning best new artist in 1990, which the Grammys and everyone else would prefer to simply forget. (The award was withdrawn four days after the ceremony.)

Hancock, undeniably, is no Milli Vanilli. His skills are undiminished with age and he remains one of few living jazz greats. But he's also arguably long past his heyday, which spanned his early work in Miles Davis' band in the `60s and his revolutionary synthesizer-heavy fusion work in the `70s.

On Monday, following his Grammy win, fans were rushing to buy ''River: The Joni Letters,'' which ranked as the no. 1 album on Amazon.com and was fast climbing the most-purchased albums list on iTunes. New listeners, though, would likely be better served reaching for Hancock's ''Maiden Voyage,'' released in 1965, or his 1973 classic ''Head Hunters.''

The appeal of ''River: The Joni Letters'' is in its more overt pop structures. As covers of Mitchell's songs, the album is also full of luminary guests, including Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae and Mitchell herself.

In his acceptance speech, Hancock may have characterized his win as the first for a jazz album in over 40 years, but it's not a typical jazz album. Given its material and guests, ''River'' may have more in common with, say, Ray Charles' ''Genius Loves Company,'' the duet-laden best album winner of 2005.

As an institution, the Grammys -- which was celebrating its 50th anniversary Sunday -- have never been renown for progressivism or even common sense. They've often struck devoted music fans as irrelevant; it's not difficult to take shots at any grand award ceremony that has lavished honors on Alvin and the Chipmunks and Christopher Cross.

But as the 100-plus categories attest, music is an incredibly expansive and subjective art form.

In recent years, the Grammys have tried to shake off any stodginess and could point to best albums winners like OutKast, U2, Lauryn Hill and the sensational ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack as proof.

Recording academy president Neil Portnow defended Hancock's win backstage on Sunday:

''I don't think sales has anything to do with what the academy decides in awarding albums or records. It's about excellence in music,'' he said. ''It was a very respectable choice.''

[7/4]

February 12, 2008

A Victory for Jazz, or Just Grammy Being Grammy?

By BEN RATLIFF

When something newsworthy or popular or positive happens to a jazz musician — a big award, say — many in the jazz world feel astonished for about four seconds, then quickly act very smug. You know: We’ve been sitting here patiently, full of our aesthetic virtue, so used to being ignored, and the world has finally come around to our point of view. Are we happy about it? More to the point, what took you so long?

Are we entitled to feel that way about “River: The Joni Letters,” by Herbie Hancock, being named album of the year at the Grammys on Sunday ? We could, but it would be silly. Perhaps the speculation is true that Amy Winehouse and Kanye West split the vote. And yes, it is very unusual to see a record of such modest sales win the big prize. But inasmuch as it is a jazz album, it is precisely the kind of jazz album that would win this award.

First, let’s just get this over with: Where were you in 1965, Recording Academy, when Mr. Hancock made his venerated album “Maiden Voyage”?

But look one year further back to 1964. “Getz/Gilberto” won, and besides “River,” it is the only more or less jazz album in 50 years of the Grammys to have earned this award. There might be instructive logic there to unravel why “River” beat some records that are far more successful and far more emblematic of their time. (“River” has sold around 55,000 copies, whereas Kanye West’s “Graduation” has sold two million.)

“Getz/Gilberto” was a collaboration between the jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and the bossa nova musician João Gilberto, with his wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, as occasional singer. It shares some important qualities with “River.”

Both are quite beautiful, though practical: experiments with strong ideas made moderate. Both are syncretist collaborations between a flexible jazz musician and a famously uncompromising genius who invented his or her own style — two musicians of putatively different worlds. Both feature light-voiced singing on a little less than half the tracks.

And on both, the drums sound chastened. (When a jazz record with really assertive, swinging rhythm wins album of the year, then jazz enthusiasts can feel smug. “Good taste” — an idea that means quite a lot in this category of the Grammys — can be telegraphed quickly by reducing the role of the drums.)

“River” isn’t just a jazz record. It is a singer-songwriter record. (Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen and Luciana Souza are on it, all singing Joni Mitchell songs, as is Ms. Mitchell herself.) It is soft-edged and literate and respectable. It seems, at least, intended as an audience bridger. And it also a very Grammy-ish record, not just because Mr. Hancock, and others on it, have won various Grammys in the past.

Institutions like to congratulate themselves, and giving the prize to “River” can be understood as a celebration of the academy’s more high-minded pop impulses. The best album category, in particular, is often a corrective or an apology for any excesses or shortcomings of the present.

It can amount to a sentimental, history-minded celebration of album culture. At this point it can conjure and lament a lost world of musicians and styles from the 1970s or before, those who actually played instruments, sometimes very well, and trusted their listeners to pay attention to them in 40-minute chunks. From the last 15 years of the award this idea could explain the victories of Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Steely Dan, Santana, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett and Eric Clapton. (It doesn’t explain Celine Dion, but if we perfectly understood the mind-set of academy members we wouldn’t watch the show.)

Some of what “River” accomplishes as a jazz record is serious indeed. Mr. Hancock’s version of Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” is the modern jazz process itself: a complete reharmonization of a familiar song, with rhythm that keeps vanishing and reappearing. Wayne Shorter’s saxophone playing on many tracks, including his own “Nefertiti” and Ms. Mitchell’s “Edith and the Kingpin,” is casually brilliant — some kind of strange, subconscious vernacular. And though Ms. Mitchell has never called herself a jazz singer, her vocal performance on “The Tea Leaf Prophecy” has a rhythmic assurance that a lot of self-identifying jazz singers could use.

It’s a cool-tempered album, almost drowsy. In so many ways it does seem a strange choice, not just in its modest commercial profile but in that it’s the first album to win this particular award for either Mr. Hancock or Ms. Mitchell. Yet it is also august and exquisitely acceptable: precisely the qualities that this category of the Grammy Awards tends to orient itself around.