Depending on your source, Herbie Hancock has been a pillar of the American music landscape for six or possibly seven decades.
Don’t ask the jazz legend to do the math; it’s not really his thing.
“I started just before my 21st birthday. Now in less than a week, I’ll be 84 years old. You do the math; I don’t want to think about it,” he said during a phone call from a concert stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend.
How is he celebrating his birthday on Friday, April 12 — two days before he plays an Arizona Arts Live concert at Centennial Hall on Sunday, April 14?
“By breathing,” he says with a laugh.
In a wide-ranging interview last week, Hancock talked about his music (he’s recorded more than 40 albums, won 14 Grammys and an Academy Award) and his legacy, which includes the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, both in 2013.
Here are excerpts from that conversation.
We haven’t seen you on a Tucson stage since 2018. What’s your show like these days?
“The scope of what we do is pretty broad. It’s not just playing the ‘hits;’ the arrangements of so many of my tunes are different and evolve when I perform live. It’s not just trying to play it like it is (on) the record. If you want to hear it like it is on the records, you should play the records.”
Is touring still fun for you? Do you ever get to the point where you think, I might not want to do this anymore?
“You know, you’re the first person who ever asked me that and it’s interesting because, I never thought I would ask myself that question. … At this age, I really should be opening the door for the next generation of musicians. But as far as making a decision about actually quitting playing, that’s going to be a hard thing for me to do. What do I do if I’m not playing music?”
So no golf? No basket weaving?
“Actually I watch a lot of YouTube videos of things like AI. I hope I will be able to make that transition and perhaps make some kind of headroom in this age of artificial intelligence that we are embarking on. There’s some room for this combination of human artistry in concert with artificial intelligence. I think anybody who comes up with some interesting ideas on how to use artificial intelligence and anything else that’s developing can carve out new territory for themselves and that combination. A lot of it has to do with the equipment I use, the synthesizers. Now you can get virtual keyboards that you use with your computer, which I could never do before. We didn’t have the technology.”
But do you worry that AI could be misused and abused? Do you worry it could become scary?
“It’s the human beings that are scary. … We have given birth to a new species and just like human beings … you have to raise a child and get it past the terrible twos, but that is what we have to do with AI. If we have the opportunity to do that, then I think that AI will eventually help us to learn ethics and to practice a more ethical and more inclusive lifestyle.”
Do you ever sit back and wonder, how did I get here?
“Sometimes I’m at home and I think, how did all this stuff happen? I feel really kind of blessed to have received the response and accolades I have received over the years. I want to be worthy of that as much as I can. But now it’s time for me to concentrate on bringing up these new musicians. That’s exciting for me.”
Where do you see jazz going?
“I’m going to kind of shift that question a little bit and tell you one of the things that I am really interested in being a part of and that is to teach classical musicians how to improvise. … A lot of classical musicians, especially the younger ones, are really interested in that.”
In what context would they improvise? If you’re playing a Beethoven symphony, there’s not a lot of wiggle room to go off-score.
“You’re right, but there are concertos for all the instruments, and in a concerto, there’s a cadenza at the end and there’s a space that used to be improvised. … Somehow certain players became known for what they did on a certain performance and that became the norm and improvisation just disappeared. I want to bring that back.”
What is something that you have not done in your 60-year career but would like to do?
“I have not (composed for) musical theater.”
Some skeptics say that jazz is going the way of classical music in terms of a graying audience. Do you see that?
“I’m amazed that so many young people show up for my concerts. ... I’ll say, ‘Here’s something that I did with the Headhunters years ago,’ and there will be teenagers who weren’t even born back then that will start screaming. It is extremely satisfying to get that kind of response from young people.”
About the concert: Hancock and his band take the stage at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd., on the University of Arizona campus, at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $45-$70, with discounts available through arizonaartslive.com.
About the band: He’s coming here with “Saturday Night Live” bass player James Genus, Devon Daniels on alto sax, Trevor Lawrence on drums and Chris Potter on tenor sax. This is the first time Potter has toured with Hancock’s band and it’s also a first time for Daniels, a former student of Hancock’s at his UCLA Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz.
“It’s a big thrill every night because everybody comes up with some new stuff and that’s what makes the excitement grow on the stage,” he said.
Volunteers painted street murals on Sat. Oct. 22 during an event hosted by the city of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility and Living Streets Alliance. The murals were designed by Tucson artist Yu Yu Shiratori.
DTM also installed two new crosswalks and a mid-block crosswalk with ADA ramps to enhance safety. The murals are located on South Sixth Avenue next to Armory Park. Video by Pascal Albright/Arizona Daily Star
