Harvard Lecture #1: ‘The Wisdom Of Miles Davis’

hmm friends I'm homi Bhabha the Mahindra humanities center and it's my great pleasure to welcome you to the Norton lectures Harvard singular tribute to the most creative minds in the arts and humanities even on such occasions it is rare to welcome a figure as pioneering and protein as Herbie Hancock the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton professor of poetry I want to thank my dear colleagues on the Norton committee he Archer knowin Ingrid Monson Carol ogia Martin pikna Alex reading and schaeffler and David shift for bringing us to this remarkable conclusion Herbie Hancock's presence here today establishes a landmark in the history of these lectures despite the series rich heritage of composers and musicians including Stravinsky Bernstein and John Cage professor Hancock's Norton lectures are the first to reflect on the history and the ethics of jazz what also makes his occasion a historic milestone is that Herbie Hancock is the first African American Norton professor his unsurpassed contribution to the history of music has revolutionized our conscious civic consciousness and our aesthetic and spiritual aspirations it would be no exaggeration to say that Herbie Hancock has defined cultural innovation in each decade of the last half-century the rich landscape the bees lectures promised from the wisdom of Miles Davis to cultural diplomacy and the voice of freedom were apparent to me from my first conversation with professor Hancock I was on the phone to him in Bombay and he was in Los Angeles sure I'm a musician he said but you know I have many other interests too it is difficult indeed to observe Herbie Hancock's career without marveling at his ability to direct his musical genius across an extraordinary array of genres collaborations and cultural institutions in the musical field alone he is ventured from post bop to hip hop funk to film soundtracks Miles Davis to Joni Mitchell ylang-ylang to pink in a world less happy and harmonious he has committed himself to causes ranging from World Peace to pediatric AIDS and his capacity as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador he has established International Jazz Day which brings together communities schools artists historians academics and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue mutual understanding and social transformation it is in the light of his capacious commitments and activities did we get a sense of what awaits us in his exploration of what he is called the ethics of jazz one particular aspect of his ethical temperament makes his presence crucial to the life of the university in several of his remarks on the ambivalent fate of the global world I have detected a profound dedication to the practice of collaboration collaboration on a transnational scale collaboration on the scale of the musical ensemble collaboration as a family of people religious collaboration collaboration in spiritual terms and collaboration devoted to social and cultural justice if we don't want globalization to be what we don't want it to be he has said why don't we create the globalization that we want good collaboration for professor Hancock goes beyond enlightened self-interest from his work we learn that what is crucial to our global survival within the Academy in civil society is an ethic and an aesthetic of neighborliness that allows us to collaborate across the diverse and disjunctive terrains of a world that is in some aspects synchronized and simultaneous while in other respects dramatically out of sync with itself and others successful collaboration depends upon the ability to learn together rather than to take a prescriptive and censorious attitude respecting one's neighbors requires that you work and play with them jazz is the moment Herbie Hancock tells us and it's non-judgmental when you're playing on the stage you're not judging what the other musician plays what you have in mind is to be able to enhance it whatever a musician plays your job and your desire is to be able to help it to blossom there's a sense of mutual cooperation those values are not only wonderful values to have to the creation of music they are wonderful values to have for daily life there is I bet no single person in this room today whose daily life has not been enlivened by the sheer soulfulness of cantaloupe Island nobody whose nights have not been drawn into the early dawn by the melancholic strains of maiden voyage and not one of us on this campus and I speak with some confidence on this matter not one of us hasn't torn off their academic regalia at the end of the commencement exercises to get down with the uber fun Keener's of chameleon you have to only see it across the car everybody throwing their guns off and boogying all around this campus in his autobiography Miles Davis wrote of Herbie Hancock's playing with his characteristic expressive phrasing which might offend some of you but I don't mess with miles of her Bheema of Herbie miles wrote the sounded good as a since that is possibly the most popular phrase of my entire introduction I should say it again the sounded as good as a see Herbie was the step after bad pal and Thelonious Monk and I haven't heard anybody yet who has come after him ladies and gentlemen thank you homie for your thoughtful and generous introduction and my heartfelt thanks to you president Faust and the entire Norton committee for making this lecture series of possibility it's an ultimate honor and a supreme privilege to be selected for the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton professorship and poetry joining the illustrious list of creative seminal writers poets artists scholars and musicians who have received this designation over the past almost 90 years is indeed a humbling experience and I look forward to encouraging and engaging in spirited discussions and debate among the students and audience members in attendance and I thank all of you for joining me this afternoon for my inaugural lecture when I began the process of crafting this opening lecture it reminded me of putting together taking off my very first record I wrote down everything I could think of because I had a subconscious feeling that it would be my last record so I tried to throw everything in there but my friend the late trumpet player Donald Byrd wisely said don't do that don't try to throw everything into the first record because you'll have many more so I'm following his very wise advice this afternoon over the course of the next few weeks I'd like to share a variety of my experiences and some conclusions I've drawn over the past six decades ideas and concepts that have helped me in all facets of my life but before I begin the six selected journey we have taken together I'd like to introduce myself to you in my words through my own eyes my full name is Herbert Jeffrey Hancock and I was named after the American singer and actor herb Jeffries I'm a musician that's not all I'm also a spouse a father a teacher friend Buddhist American world citizen peace advocate UNESCO goodwill ambassador the chairman of the felonious monk Institute of jazz but what is the single factor that connects all those aspects of me it's the fact that I'm a human being this less the lineage may seem obvious but it's no small thing in fact it's all encompassing let me explain why I think it's important most people to find themselves by the one or possibly two things they excel at and recognize for perhaps a job or hobby there's a tendency to live inside these self-made walls and not be open to the myriad opportunities that are waiting on the other side of the fortress in our society our external environment seems to encourage and feed this one-dimensional thought process by responding positively in support of this framework we create in our minds to develop wisdom that will turn on that legendary light bulb and foster creativity in every aspect of life it's essential to first entertain the idea of being open to possibilities second explore how you perceive yourself and then third recognize and investigate opportunities that lie outside of your comfort zone when you're receptive to the idea of multi-dimensional thinking or uncovering your infinite potential don't be quick don't be too quick to say no thanks I'm not interested because that keeps you locked out of adventures and wisdom which not only help you grow but positively trickles down to your friends family and community Albert Einstein said one should not pursue goals that are easily achieved one must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one's greatest efforts had I not been introduced to the idea of infinite potential forty-one years ago through my faith and it took more than two decades until I saw myself as a human being and not just as a musician I most likely would have understood and perceived that being a UNESCO goodwill ambassador was meant as a special award or support system for playing my music around the world because I had this epiphany in the perception of myself as a multi-dimensional thinker it led to UNESCO s perception of me and a broader framework than just being a musician and consequently when they asked if I might be interested in a possible appointment as a goodwill ambassador I jumped at the chance I've welcomed the opportunity to embrace and cultivate UNESCO's goals of creating peace to Education Science and culture and have employed intercultural dialogue music and other humanitarian efforts to encourage the enriched of our communal existence throughout these lectures I'll tell you stories about my life in jazz discuss my life outside of jazz and the path I've taken that has led me here to this very stage so about the title of my lecture series the ethics of jazz maybe some of you never thought about jazz having ethics first let's examine what our ethics the consensus because there may be varying views is ethics is a system of morals the study of right and wrong good and bad the wise and empathetic and how we use our power to protect the rights and self-respect of all people is how we behave in the world among society our brothers and sisters and the values we hold dear that enable us to collaborate and interact with curiosity compassion and righteousness without a moral code the world would be overflowing with selfishness apathy greed cruelty environmental problems violence well even with the majority of the world's citizens wanting to make a difference and contribute to a higher purpose the planet is on a slippery slope widespread hunger Wars poverty global warming and other environmental crises neocolonialism shameless consumption sexism and racism run rampant throughout societies whether we are Native Americans African Americans Christians Jews Buddhists Muslims northerners southerners Asians or Australians we all need and want to create ethical societies so now what are the ethics of jazz I've uncovered practical lessons and learn that the essential values in jazz and the values of Buddhism are similar and apply to my life on every level throughout my lectures I'll be interweaving and connecting those ideas and now let's get into the title of this first lecture the wisdom of Miles Davis sounds like I'm talking about some great sage well in a way I am the first time I met Myles I was introduced to him by one of my mentors to bring up musician Donal Berg who played a significant role in the early days of my career not only was responsible for me getting my first recording contract but he was in astute businessman who helped me start my own publishing company and shared some secrets about playing around Christmas time right after I graduated from college a local club owner in Chicago introduced me to Donal Bird and pepper Adams who needed a fill-in for their piano player who was stranded in a blizzard unfortunately that very same storm made it impossible for us to thrive in Milwaukee for the gig but we were able to get to a small jazz clubs jam session so they could hear me play so I said in I was really bad but instead of freaking out I had to courage to walk over to the table thank them for the opportunity even though I knew they wouldn't want to take me at that point McDonald said what are you talking about you're coming with us tomorrow I factored in that you were probably nervous when we got the Milwaukee I spent three challenging nights playing with the band and was invited to join as a permanent member but first I had to tell battle you have to ask my mother so he did and this was the beginning of my professional career when we finished the gig I headed up to New York City to start the next chapter of my life and it was Donald Byrd who introduced me to Miles Davis in 1962 one afternoon we drove over to Miles his house and Miles said play soccer he was a man of few words but he sure knows how to listen I was so scared my whole body was trembling my hands are literally shaking so I decided I better play a ballot I played Stella by starlight and miles have one comment nice touch that was it so I went back to the Bronx to live my life meanwhile being thrilled that miles gave me that compliment nice touch and that brought back some memories years before I met miles of wonderful wise and soulful mentor named mrs. Jordan my second piano teacher who taught me piano when I was 9 years old shaped my passion for music I remember being asked to play a piece for her she praised me for my reading of the music but let me know my hands were terrible as you said I like to play something for you she then sat down at the piano to play Chopin and blew my mind because she had this touch and this incredible feeling and her plane that moved me in a way that I hadn't experienced before it was a pivotal moment of inspiration and revelation in my musical life from that moment on I wanted to learn to play with passion and develop a nice touch she taught me how to sit at the instrument properly meaning my posture the placement of my feet when and how to breathe and more she also taught me valuable lessons using references from life to transmit and awakening in me about the importance of feeling and touch these were integral in the path toward becoming one with my instrument so I should have silently thanked mrs. Jordan when miles made his nice touch comment to me after I played my ballot now when you hear Miles play his trumpet or my friend Wayne Shorter play his sax what do you hear is that just the sound of a trumpet and a saxophone give you miles even Wayne and at that level the instruments are almost superfluous sometimes our creativity can be flowing but I'm sure that many of us have experienced periods when there has been some kind of blockage to our mechanic imagination many many years ago I was challenged and frustrated with my own playing and as a result became a bit depressed it's disheartening right I seem to be playing the same stuff over and over again I was stuck in familiarity and somehow couldn't get out of the rut this happened one night at Lenny's on the Turnpike a well-known jazz club and Peabody about half an hour or so from you I was on stage with the Miles Davis quintet which included Ron Carter Tony Williams and winning shorter I was really in a nut and a rut that night everything I played sounded the same miles consents my sense of frustration so he leaned over to me and said don't play to butter notes the butter notes what could he possibly mean but since it came from Miles I knew it had to mean something oh I figured that he'd meant don't play the obvious notes because I was thinking butter might mean fat and fat might mean obvious doesn't apply to the body so the most obvious notes might be the third and seventh of a chord because they define the nature of the chord I realized if I left out the third and seventh notes I'd have a lot of other notes that could work without confining my solos to the obvious restricted interpretation this would allow the harmonies to be opened up to various views so I'm going to show you what I mean by that and the way music is like math so if you're playing a scale this is one that's three that's fire and this is seven for major seventh that's a dominant seven so the third whether it's minor or major and a seventh can tell you well it might go here or it might be [Music] place where you might end up so in a song let's take something that might be and what we say d-minor the old way of thinking that got me into a rut was thinking being used to having the third and the seventh in the corn [Music] okay now if you leave out the third note and the seventh you have these other notes that you can play [Music] so it just gives you more possibilities of things you could play so that kind of freed me from just being kind of stuck in just plain now I didn't throw away playing that way but I included something brand-new for me at the time so even though when I played the next solo it felt cumbersome and sounded erratic to my surprise the audience responded positively it gave me excellent feedback I believe within this raw exploration they felt my openness and my desire to try something imaginative I use miles of suggestion as an exercise and this experience became groundbreaking for me and opened the doorway to the future of my performances not only did it affect my style of playing throughout the rest of my life it taught me the valuable lessons of courage conviction confidence and trust ethics miles could feel my frustration and through his compassion for me and his respect for my feelings he made the wisest of comments only a great master can provide a path to finding your own true answers I was then able to translate miles of guidance to my future bandmates and students reach up while reaching down grow while helping others while we're in the process of moving forward bring others with you this mentor apprentice relationship runs freely through the jazz world we don't hide our discoveries from other musicians in fact it's quite the opposite it's not unusual to hear a musician say hey I found a scale that's really cool or check out the voicing for this chord that's the spirit and the wisdom of Miles Davis and the ethics of jazz so always remember don't play the part notes in the springtime of 1963 a year after I met Myles he called me up wondering if I was working with anybody and it asked me to come to his house the next day on West 77th Street near Riverside Park in Manhattan I perceive this as an audition opportunity and heading down to the basement of Martha's house I saw bassist ron carter and saxophonist George Coleman who had already started working with Miles and drummer Tony Williams who like me had just been called by Miles sitting on the piano with some handwritten music that I didn't know and Miles played with us a little then who is Horne on the couch told Ryan to take over and ran upstairs we played we talked miles came back down and told us to come back tomorrow which we did for the next two days playing and conversing when Miles did join us he barely spoke and he played very little but on the last day he told us we're going to meet at Columbia recording studio the next day at 3:30 p.m. my eyes lit up like a bonfire on the beach and I said does that mean I'm in the band and Miles said with a slight twinkle in his eye you're making that record I was completely filled with elation in the next day we all met at the studio and recorded an album you might know seven steps to heaven by the way when Miles ran upstairs doing what I thought was an audition at his house I found out around 20 years later that Miles went upstairs and actually listened to us through the intercom system in his bedroom he knew his presence in front of us the new musicians would have been intimidating and he wanted to be able to hear hear us play unencumbered now that's the wisdom of Miles Davis but before I could have fish Lee joined the band I had one last gig to play with a small group led by trumpeter Clark Terry we were the backup group for Judy Hinske once known as the queen of the beatniks a lounge singer of bawdy blues and backroom ballets and believe it or not we were the opening act for comedian Woody Allen and yes in case you're wondering Woody Allen was full of angst too backstage and thought the audience hated him even though they were screaming with the music me we played for a while and towards the middle of the gig Miles showed up but he had quietly in the shadows after we finished our set just as I was walking towards the exit door of the club Miles offered me a ride home in his Maserati since I just purchased a new sports car I told miles I'd love to ride with him but I had my new car outside and Miles said but it ain't a Maserati and I replied I know I know meanwhile we were already on the deserted Street right in front of my car and Miles looked at me and said cute he walked a little further down the block got into his Maserati and since it was about 4 o'clock in the morning hours after last call there were almost no cars on the street so we both happen to meet up at the red stop light on 6th Avenue I knew exactly what was going to happen the light turned green I floored it when I got to the next red light I stopped lit up a cigarette slowly roll down the window waited and mile soon caught up with me I felt so that I cou right there I just beaten miles and his Maserati miles quickly rolled down his window and said what's that it's an AC Cobra and he replied get rid of it why I asked it's too dangerous and then he drove off into the night that was the kind of guy that miles was he loved fast cars boxing fast women and oh yeah music guess what I still have that AC Cobra it was the sixth one that was ever made don't even ask me what it's worth now speaking of boxing miles had to fight several battles that dealt with racism in the 1950s miles was working at Birdland and underground jazz club that was located on Broadway near 52nd Street in New York City it was called Birdland and recognition of saxophonist Charlie Yardbird Parker many of you know that Miles once said you can tell the history of jazz in four words Louie Armstrong Charlie Parker just a few months after Miles released his groundbreaking album kind of blue that later became one of his professional highlights and the largest selling recording in jazz history on a hot steamy muggy night between shows at Birdland miles walked upstairs to escort an attractive blonde woman into a cab and was outside talking to a few people this was before he lost his voice and there's a lot of speculation concerning how that happened the popular story alleges he was instructed not to speak for ten days following throat surgery but becoming furious with a record company owner or an associate of his miles being and shouting or as mild said I raised my voice to make a point and from that moment on he was not able to speak above the legendary horse grasping was book we know so well quite different from his warm crystal-clear trumpet tone so getting back to the story miles was taking a cigarette break outside Birdland after finishing up a Voice of America broadcast downstairs and a white policeman walked up and told him to move on miles instantly where the singing and since he was a pretty good boxer due to the lessons he was taken he considered hidden the cop but instead said move on for what I'm working downstairs pointed to his name on the marquee by this time a crowd of 200 was gathering and out of nowhere a white detective clobbered miles his head repeatedly with his nightstick and drew copious amounts of blood which later required five stitches he was arrested brought to police headquarters and finally acquitted but in doing months of legal hassles he expected racism racist treatment in his native East st. Louis but not so blatantly and supposedly tolerant New York racism takes different and often subtle forms two years after I began my piano lessons with mrs. Jordan she entered me and won the young people's concert series contests for piano and the grand prize was having the opportunity to play Mozart's Piano Concerto number 18 and b-flat major kV for 56 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall which is now called Symphony Center however there was a catch the postcard I received telling me I was a winner also mentioned that since they could not find the orchestral parts to the concerto the piece I knew so well I'd have to learn a new piece or forfeit my prize playing it with the Chicago Symphony sent off looks strange to me and also to mrs. Jordan but I practiced and learned a new concerto Mozart's Piano Concerto number 26 in D major the coronation concerto and I felt I was ready to perform it with the symphony would that's gear it again but after the performance was over I was very relieved and following the show I signed my very first autograph for a young girl about my age which was really cool now it's hooked the next week as a gift to me mrs. Jordan took me to see a renowned classical pianist play with the Chicago Symphony in the same Hall yes you might have guessed it she played the mozart and b-flat with all the officer parts that were supposedly unavailable we were stunned and mad was it just business I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions my dear parents Winnie and Wayman who came from Georgia had been faced with rampant racism during their lifetimes and growing up in Chicago I had a taste of it from my worldwide travels I continue to see a large segment of young black men and women with no direct connection to that part of our past which was dark and tragic and frankly my generation has failed to adequately pass on the stories of what our ancestors endured and the evolution of freedom for blacks in America consequently they are missing links in the chain and what discourages me is that this historical chapter was not that long ago when I read about gangs killing each other each other over drugs or interpersonal feuds I can't help but wonder that our four parents pay the price of slavery for this kind of behavior it said I wonder if experiencing even just one of the 28 West African slave castles the gates of no return the last stop what a slaves were held before they were loaded onto ships and traded in the Americas and the Caribbean would have had an effect a profound effect on their behavior I know it was a sobering and painful experience for me to see some of those slave castles when I was on the island of glory in Ghana and in Ghana the brutality of the African slave trade remains the most immoral and surreptitious Holocaust of black men women and children in history and we must never forget the Holocaust of nearly wiping out the existence of Native American population and they're rich in legendary culture that would have been instrumental in our growth as a nation and if left intact would have made indelible marks on society and perhaps been an aid and our quest to solve the problem of climate change when I was around 8 or 9 years of age my father the guy on the on your left and great-grandfather who's on on the right George Garlington took me to meet an important man we arrived at an apartment building I walked up the stairs to his apartment which consisted of one small dark room illuminated muted yellow by only a single light bulb hanging from a McCoy after the introductions I learned he was approximately 90 years old and then when he was a child he was a slave I was speechless it hit me like a ton of bricks and this was a profound moment for me he remembered shining the boots of a soldier during the Civil War and told me that when he tried to learn to read he'd be beaten I also remember a story told about telling his owner he was going to he was going out to work in the fields and owner said don't say going say Gwon it was another shackle a way to teach ignorance and encourage the impression that blacks were dumb a cowardly attempt to break this child's spirit a slave owners conniving words that we use as a threat and a weapon in Buddhism we believe that if any one of us has the ability to commit heinous crimes we are all capable of this kind of horrific behavior often what motivates people toward evil is a distorted view of the reality of life and the relationship between ourselves and the external environment coupled with one's own sense of powerlessness insecurity and the feeling of the lack of self-worth but the slaves turn those feelings brought on by oppression in the human and inhumanity into beauty into the blues jazz and popular music which spawned rock and roll and the most in-demand commercial music on the planet today hip-hop black culture became a primary source of the creation of American culture and a huge influence on international culture however we can all contribute to the L of to elevate in the consciousness of humankind results may not be immediate but on an individual basis you may see positive outcomes quickly before you know it being a Nichiren Buddhist and SGI a member means to believe that all people have the buddha nature or already have the potential of being awakened to their own infinite potential their greatness and recognize the greatness of others as human beings many of us have a tendency to think that the ultimate goal of the good life is happiness resulting from having a spouse a car the house the money the void of problems or challenges a life of ease sounds pretty good right but this is not what happened this is about happiness is not about getting to the finish line where you have no hurdles or going to the beach and watch the waves roll in with a rum punch in your hand nor can you find the answer to happiness in the thousands of books and audio recordings available for purchase on a box of tea or and the lightly carbonated grape flavored beverage drink with added tranquility you can't just read about it or pour it into your brain it's a transformation in your heart that you have to fight for turning your demons into allies uncovering an indestructible happiness occurs when you're not afraid of suffering when you're able to muster the courage to unleash the inner feelings of bring it on I can do this I have the confidence to win this fight we emerge victorious by turning suffering into the driving force for elevating our life condition transforming our perspective to one that looks for a path for utilizing the suffering to move our lives forward this is what is known in Buddhism as turning poison into medicine think about it who are the characters we find most interesting in movies books and for that matter real life heroes like Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean from Lamy Sahab Martin Luther King jr. Helen Keller Christopher Reeve Malala used offside Nelson Mandela we invest our time and effort in individuals who look conflict in the eye and embrace the struggle because they are riveting multi-dimensional and offer us opportunities to learn from their experiences struggles can take on many forms and I've had a few even as a teenager jazz walked into my life when I was 14 years old before that age I thought it was my parents music but something hit me doing a student variety show at Hyde Park High School in Chicago during a trio performance piano bass and drums and the student pianist Don Goldberg a class member was improvising on my instrument wow I had no idea how to do that I didn't quite understand it but I liked what I heard and so did the other kids in the school asking Don for advice after the show he suggested I listen to George hearing records so the minute I got home from school that day I begged my mother for the records and she reminded me they were already in my record cabinet records I never listened to this code this time I listened appreciated what I heard and tried to copy parts of our remember April and a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square hooked again when I entered in our College my first major was not music it was electrical engineering I loved science and math and to this day I'm known as the gadget guy and this course of study was a practical decision since expecting to have a career in jazz was that was way too iffy now Grinnell is a small liberal arts college in Iowa and when I was there in the late 1950s I want a whole lot of jazz musicians in the school however when I was a sophomore I decided I was going to produce a jazz concert for the students I was able to assemble a 15 piece band borrowed records and figured out the arrangement for different songs and shiny stockings was one accomplished in recording which by the way was inspiration for dolphin dance on my record maiden voyage I also borrowed arrangements from the University of Iowa and found a few other pieces at Iowa State I spent most of my time rehearsing the band for the confidence that I gone to my classes so I knew I had to age my finals in order to pass and I did except for one B after the concert I went back to my dorm room with dinner mirror and asked myself who was I trying to kid the very next day I changed my major from engineering to music and graduated with a BA and music composition upon leaving school I returned home resumed my job with the post office and also got a great gig playing with Coleman Hawkins a legendary pioneer on tenor saxophone Miles Davis said when I hired Hawke I learned to play ballets the gig with Hogg was strenuous and lasted 14 straight days no days off four sets a night five sets on Sunday and a Sunday breakfast show I was bone tired working both jobs and getting sick with a fever so after three days I quit the post office and I was as I was walking out the door the supervisor mr. Bishop called out to me you're going to regret this someday Hancock if was the first time I realized something about will commitment there was no plan be hidden deep in the recesses of my studio I recently found a tape recording of my Grinnell jazz concert and a photo I'd like to show you the recording is amateurish yeah see me ona left the recording is amateurish but would you like to use some of it [Music] I also wrote up a solo for the saxophone player [Music] those kind of things that's what took my time that's why I wasn't going to my classes for all you classical musicians on oh honey are you classical musicians in the audience embracing jazz is not like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel as amateurish as it sounds it only took me three years to get that far and I hope you enjoyed listening to it I learned about the importance of listening from Miles Davis once said I always listen to what I can leave out maybe West to your surprise he was generous and big-hearted open to listening to the younger less experienced members of his band Myles behavior was often misinterpreted for example most people now think that miles often disrespected his audience by turning his back to them while he was playing the truth is I never saw him do that ever I saw him facing the band the way any conductor is expected to do in order to make the music better that behavior is the opposite of disrespect he also learned from us it's an approach I take when working with the felonious monk Institute of jazz fellows who study at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA where I'm a professor I listen to their ideas and and often get inspired by them one thing I've learned is to always be a student especially a student of life and learn to listen and not just seek to be the center of attention the classroom of Miles Davis was potent intoxicating electrifying and stimulating and his influence lives and shines brightly in my heart body and soul beyond his death and the years I was a member of his quintet one vital lesson happened when a band was in Stockholm Sweden performing in a gigantic arena this particular night back in 1967 was absolutely magical and the audience was rapt with excitement the band was hot we were commuting communicating almost telepathically it was like a dream the kind the kind of night that every musician hopes for suspense and tension were building the performances were peaking we were right in the middle of playing miles as iconic composition so what Wayne Shorter had already taken his solo Tony Williams was firing away on his drums Ron Carter was smoking Myles was in the middle of his solo and it was building and building and miles gets to the peak of his solo and I played this card and it is 100% completely entirely wrong the wrong cord it was so so wrong I believe that utterly destroyed the evening like a house of cards and I knocked them all down in an instant time Stood Still I was shocked and I felt totally shattered oh no you know what happened next miles took a breath and played this phrase that made my chord right I was dumbfounded I couldn't believe it how did he do that was it some kind of magic potion or spell was i hypnotized how could he turn a wrong chord into a right chord it didn't seem possible it took me years to figure out what transpired miles didn't hear what I played as a wrong chord he merely heard it as an unexpected chord he didn't judge it I did miles took it upon himself to do what jazz musicians always hope to do and that is to make whatever happens worked and we all should be doing that throughout our lives as musicians we improvise miles then judge what I played he turned poison into medicine he taught me a great lesson but I didn't realize how it applied to life until I began practicing Buddhism and then I finally understood that life events good or bad have the potential for being learning experiences but if they're not perceived that way if you're not open to that perspective the lesson is invisible and that's potentially lost keep your eyes peeled your ears open your senses sharp feelers receptive and develop the wisdom to perceive the lesson perhaps you've heard the expression there are no wrong notes what happened to me that night would miles was not just an idiomatic phrase but visceral experience to this very day it affects the way I look at my performances from moment to moment both as a soloist and accompanist Thelonious Monk cleverly said there are no wrong notes just better choices and he also said the loudest noise in the world is silence and consequently one of the lessons I learned is to always take whatever happens nourish it and help it flourish and if you really pay attention sometimes that happens through silence doing nothing can sometimes be doing a great deal in disguise silence is a vital component of music it's as powerful as a surrounding notes and silence is a critical life skill actually think about how much of our lives our gestures or allow others to ponder and draw their own conclusions a person of wisdom knows how to provide that kind of space the sound of silence one can also find silence in literature design and architecture architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said less is more and I think we can all agree he was on to something important not just in his buildings within a philosophy of life before we get to the Q&A I'm going to close this lecture with a story about my father Wayman Hancock during my high school years in 1956 I was thrilled to get a job at a neighborhood mom-and-pop grocery store within walking distance from my home on the second day of my employment the owner told me he was going to show me something after he closed up the shop for the evening he locked the door and then instructed me how to pull a certain lever on the cash register that would not register on the receipt he was asking me to cheat to steal to defraud the poor people that I knew in the neighborhood this was unconscionable to me because I was never the kind of person who could swindle people however I felt conflicted confused and discouraged even so the next day I've feebly gave his scheme a try and completely screwed up in the process I failed at carrying out that scam I went home that evening and told my father about it and let him know that if I didn't cheat on the receipts the owner city would fire me and so I want since I wanted to keep my job I was at a loss as to what to do how to proceed my father succeeded vice was well son you don't have to figure that one out for yourself I went back into the store the next day and quit afraid that my father would be angry about me quitting my job I arrived back home and told them what I did and you know what he said to me he said son I'm proud of you leaving the decision on my shoulders was the wisest of choices reinforce his belief in me and Boyd my own self-confidence the sound of his silence was loud and clear and now it's time for me to embrace the silence listen to and learn from your questions and comments and thank all of you for spending this time with me and listening to my story Venna nada thank you

Channel: Herbie Hancock

Views: 151,443

Rating: 4.9170122 out of 5

Keywords: Herbie, Hancock

Id: awboZv5IiTE

Length: 70min 13sec (4213 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2017