![]() Yolandra Hancock Director of Community Impact Division for United Planning Organizationĭr. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that he discloses so much about himself in "Possibilities."Īs always, he's out there on a limb, risking it all.Dr. "No wonder our audience was limited."īut more than many musicians, Hancock always has been willing to risk failure, then risk it again. Hancock didn't always succeed: His rippy Mwandishi band, for instance, became too rarefied to reach much of audience: "We were requiring a tremendous amount of attention and patience from our listeners," writes Hancock in the book. Perhaps because Hancock was just in his early 20s when he began working with Davis, the trumpeter's boldness shaped who Hancock became as a mature artist: a searcher. Every conductor in the world that I know, that conducts any orchestra, always turns his back to the audience, because he has to face the orchestra. Hancock cited Davis' "defiance in the way that he really wanted to always present the best show he could for an audience, even if it meant that he would have to – in order to have a musical dialogue along with the drummer – he would face the drummer, which would mean he would have his back to the audience, right? Well, critics … would say, 'You know Miles, he never respected people, he's a racist, and he's always turning his back to the audience,' and things like that. Once our conversation had turned to Davis, Hancock riffed freely, taking on criticisms that are still hurled at the trumpeter long after his death in 1991, at age 65. "I mean, how many bosses tell you to explore new territory? It doesn't happen that often." And he told us that he paid us not just to play perfect all the time, and not just to be in the background, but he paid us to work on stuff all the time and explore new territory. As a matter of fact, he encouraged us to help shape the sound of the band. Miles freely worked together with his musicians. "You know where a lot of teachers just talk about hierarchal viewpoint, where the teacher presents him or herself as the person who knows, and the student doesn't know? Miles wasn't like that. "Miles was a great mentor that taught me a lot of lessons by not actually teaching me," Hancock said, somewhat paradoxically. Above all, Hancock attributes his fearlessness in investigating musical genres that were unfamiliar to him to the influence of Davis, who emerges as Hancock's guiding spirit throughout he book. The volume takes us inside Hancock's creative process, explaining how and why he constantly changed artistic directions, and how he tried to stay true to the inquisitiveness that is at the core of any great jazz musician's art. ![]() "Possibilities" surely is that, but it's much more, as well. … And I thought this book is going to be an opportunity perhaps to help someone else who may be struggling with some kind of addiction." But, anyway, I wrestled with that demon and I conquered it. And it wasn't a relief from anything: something missing from my life. "And there are different forms of that, too, of course. Herbie's not that kind of guy, right? … There is no 'that kind of guy' that is immune to substance abuse. "I mean, people don't believe, wouldn't believe that I actually went to that (smoking crack cocaine). "And that is to take this circumstance" and draw something positive from it, added Hancock. "With this book, I thought this was a great opportunity to turn poison into medicine – that's a phrase from Buddhism," said Hancock, who has been practicing that faith for more than four decades. But considering his status as one of the most universally beloved figures in jazz, as well as one of the most innovative, why did he choose to reveal this? Why not just move on with life, preserving a rather exalted reputation? Hancock checked into rehab that night late in 1999, and since 2000 he has been free of drugs, alcohol and smoking, he said. … This was an intervention, and I was so embarrassed, but there was another feeling creeping in, too: relief." 'If you continue this way, you are going to have to move out.' I just looked at her, my heart aching. 'Herbie, I'm not going to watch you die,' she said. "It all just came crashing down on me in that moment, and I burst into tears," he writes, recalling that his wife, Gigi, told him that she knew what was going on. Hancock describes what happened in a riveting scene in the book. ![]() And I realized at that first time (smoking crack) that I should have never done this."Įventually, Hancock's family found out and confronted him as he came home after another binge. "Well, I found out that sometimes curiosity kills the cat. "But I was wondering, what is this about, smoking it, that everybody is kind of going nuts about? ![]()
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