You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 8 GREAT Herbie Hancock Moments

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

In honor of the jazz legend's birthday, Peter and Adam list some of their favorite moments from Herbie Hancock's storied career.Links from this episode:Check out all of the tunes mentioned in this episode with our Spotify playlistHave a question? Leave us a SpeakPipeWatch Live: YHI LIVE Mondays at 4pm ET on YouTubeWant more of Adam and Peter? Check out Open Studio Pro hereSupport the pod by spreading the word with the link youllhearit.com Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Do you know today is a special day? I absolutely do know that today is a special day. What's so special about it? Herbie Hancock's birthday. Herbie Hancock's birthday. I mean, don't ruin it, bud.

I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music advice coming at you. Coming at you today. Sponsored by Open Studio. Go to Open Studiojazz.com. Check out all of our jazz lessons.

Peter, today is a very special day. It's a very special day. Very, very special day. Herbie Hancock's birthday. He's 81 years old. We want to send out much love, much appreciation. We hope that you're having an amazing day and surrounded by loved ones like I'm sure you are. And just a lot of appreciation and love.

Man, it is a special day. I mean, you know, as we kind of alluded to in our thumbnail here, it's always Herbie Day around here at Open Studio. It's never not Herbie Hancock. We're always appreciative. But this is really fun because we thought we would share eight great moments from Herbie. And these are really eight of our favorite moments. Now, this has morphed into something else because we couldn't really come to an agreement on the eight favorite. So we really have 16.

We have eight categories. That's right. And each one of us is going to take a swing at it with our favorite moments. Well, it was funny, too, because when you first brought this up, I was even thinking eight great Herbie Hancock moments, I was like, is that going to be enough to fill up this episode today? Because I was thinking like we took a solo. And then the eight great moments, that might be just the first eight phrases he plays. We're one chorus in. Bam, there's your great moments.

He's always right there giving us great moments. So let me just go over what the categories are going to be, right, before we get to it. What was the great game show? Categories are... Categories are one, solos. Solos. Two, comping. Comping.

Three intros. Three intros. Four grooves. Groves. Five road solos, which we're distinguishing from piano solos. Now, not on the road, but on the roads. On the Fender Roads, yes. Obviously, he has so many iconic Fender Road solos.

Yes. There's plenty of the choose from there. So the other solo is piano solo, I would assume. Yeah, or just, yeah. Okay, yeah. Number six, duos. Duos. Yes.

Uh-oh, he's making a, he's calling it audible. Okay, those of you that are not watching. you're listening on the podcast. I'm looking over at Adam. Number seven. Oh, he's moving on already. Number seven. I'm just making notes.

Number seven, albums. Albums. Our favorite great Herbie Hancock albums. And number eight, as a guest, that's a weird category. But that's a, I'll explain. Did we have another wording for it? We've been playing around with this. Guesting?

Because one of them is as a featured guest and the other is as a sample. And so we just kind of like merge the. merge those two things but what's the Disney movie the kids movie be my guess be my guess beauty and the beast okay beauty of the beast that's what they call this podcast sometimes it'll make sense when we get there

it'll make sense we get there so be my guest or guesting what are we deciding on here as a guest be my guest that's very cute okay let me do let me noodle behind that oh don't don't do it Peter you know the haters come out all right I'm so excited can you tell

he's shoe gaze noodling he's got noodles in his shoes and he's gazing at him look at him he's a tortured European soul look at him he's stuck in the EU in quarantine so let's get right to it so uh solos so we're gonna kick it off with your favorite Herbie Hancock solo interestingly okay but now we got it we got to preface all this and just to say that running low on time people no we're not come on it's her it's on Herbie Hancock's birth it's like time stops man it's it's like no I mean, because the way you're saying it now, that your favorite solo, I mean, don't put me in a box, man.

Don't put me in a box. It's hard, right? It's hard to choose, boy, because I'll put you in a box. There's no way you could choose one. There's no, so I don't know about you. I don't know your history with the solo you chose, but for me, it was the first Herbie solo I ever transcribed. And so I just chose that, I mean,

because it literally could be two dozen of my favorites. Exactly, exactly. It's like choosing your child or something. And we're just saying great moments. We're not saying, so let's go back to that title. because that takes a little pressure off that our favorite. These are great moments. There could be, and there are 800 other great moments.

Totally, totally. Okay. Okay, so we'll kick it off with Peter's favorite Herbie solo. This is his solo from Riot from the album, Speak Like a Child, 1968's Blue Note album, Speak Like a Child. There it is, cued up there. Let's check out Herbie's solo. I think it's first.

Are you going right to the solo? I'm going to hear the head, because his solo is fairly quick into the tune here. And you're not, you're not super familiar with this album. We'll talk about that after. What are you being? What you mean? Here we go.

Ready? Here's Riot from Speak Like a Child. That is Riot from Herbie's 1968 album. Speak Like a Child. Couldn't miss gracious. Oh, I love that solo. That is a riot, man. I love that soul.

Sorry that we're going to have to kind of pull some things back. But we'll have a Spotify playlist. Will we? Yeah, we'll have it by the third, by the audio podcast to be able to check these things out. And I mean, this stuff is out there. It's super available, which is, which is beautiful. And you know what I love about that solo?

I mean, it's so many things. It's just the clarity of it. First of all, shout out to Ron Carter. I know it's not his birthday today, but bass players... It might as well be. I mean, bass players, this might be the best Ron Carter solo to learn.

The clearest... I mean, piano players, just genius level. His intonation, the swing, the lines, the clarity of his lines. Incredible. I know it's so funny. As you appreciate Herbie Hancock,

we're going to be also appreciating a lot of other great musicians but no more than Ron Carter, Tony Williams, and Wayne Shorter as we get through all of these. Because something about the chemistry of that band with Miles and other projects, too. Herbie's own projects is just amazing. And I mean, speak like a child. I think it's one of his finest albums from beginning to end. It's just a genius the way it's put together.

The orchestra. Yeah, I'm going to get you a copy. I'm going to get you a copy. But the thing about it, too, that solo, I would highly recommend as, as a initial solo. I would actually say this, if you're going to learn some Herbie souls and you've never learned.

It's a good one. This might be your first one, especially like, you know, your great suggestions about learn a course, learn a phrase. Learn a phrase. And the way this solo works, as many solos do,

but this one probably even more so than most Herbie solo is very progressive. So like the difficulty level for transcribing the solo from the first course to the last is a big, it's a huge difference, which is great because you're learning as you go, you're getting better.

So it's already, set in a pedagogical order for you, you know, so you can kind of go as far as, and once you start being unable to kind of keep up, you've gotten a lot out of it already. And this is a clarity there. If I have one, can I have one little, one little qualm on this one? You're giving feedback? A little feedback. No, the only thing about this solo.

You get a note starby Hancock on his 81st birthday? Yeah, but check it out. No, Rudy Van Gelder's piano sound on this. You know what I mean? It doesn't quite, yeah, yeah, but it's good. I mean, it's great. And it's classic Rudy VG. But, you know, it's a little bit small.

And so for a pianist like Herbie that, you know, you're thinking about him, well, he wasn't on the Fazioli then, but now he is. Could you imagine some of these albums like... Could you imagine Rudy Van Gelder recording a Faziole making it sound like this? I think the country of Italy would ban him. That's right, right. All right. My favorite Herbie solo, and again, there's no real favorite, but one of my favorites. Great. These are great moments.

Great moments. This great moment for me is his solo on. one-finger snap. It's the first Herbie Hancock solo I ever learned by ear, and I remember this being a huge moment of growth for me in my playing, learning this. And there's so many light bulb moments happening as I was figuring it out about how to sound good and how to make music out of some of these more ethereal changes, right? So this is Herbie solo from One Finger's Snap. Nice. Freddy's is pretty good, too.

Yeah, there you. I remember I learned Freddy's solo first. you could totally transcript Fred's too. Yeah, I did. Almost embarrassing how much I've just directly I know. I know. I know. But it's a lot of people. I mean, this is probably his most influential for vocabulary solo.

You can imagine, yeah, 1964 for this? Ron just killing it with the bass. Baysline for me and, of course, Tony. And left-hand comping. Like, my whole concept is based on this. Glad nobody else checked out this record. Yeah, I know. We're so little snowflakes.

We're just our own stars here. Yeah. You know, it's listening to this for the first time in a while. You know what strikes me is how there's nothing like crazy, weird or complicated or super complex about like the theory behind what he's doing or anything like that. But it's like all things, man. It's the way he's doing it. It's not the content. It's how he plays those simple ideas and these, you know, he gets so much music out of some sense.

simple concepts, it's always a good lesson to remind yourself of. Yeah, absolutely. It's all the elements. This is another great solo, of course, to learn and to take all those and to really pay attention to, you know, his feel. I think this is a great example of that. I think that, you know, you look at somebody like Kenny Kirkland, who, you know, is, it's just another just massive influence for me and for you and for many pianists, but you can hear what he got from Herbie on this solo, not to say that I have no idea if he learned this or was attached to it or not, but you can hear the elements in Herbie's playing very clearly

and you can attach yourself to those and latch onto that heritage and tradition in the way that Kenny Kirkland and many great masters did. And that's the fun of this, of the lineage. It's like, you know, following the origins of words and how people say them in phrases and stuff. And, you know, as much as that, you can also hear the Winton Kelly in here

and, like, his kind of reordering of that. The sound is very, red garland. I know, yeah. And then Bill Evans and, you know, you know, like even more contemporaries of Herbie's too. Yeah, you're listening to him. Is it Korea maybe? Yeah, you're listening to him change some things here in those two solos.

That's great, man. I'm glad we chose those great moments. So let's move on to our second. And it's interesting we chose, too, and we didn't like collate these in any way. No. Very similar. We couldn't agree on anything. No, no, but very similar in that we chose two solos.

I think with Herbie, the pressure's off in terms of like, I really could not tell you a bad solo. No, I can think of one. but, or even a lesser solo. So it's not like, like he really maintained a high level. So it's not about like, oh, he went, you know, Herbie Hancock. And that one time he went next level. You could close your eyes and just like put your finger on any solo. And you'd be like, that one's, that'll work.

That's right. But we both chose ones that are very accessible from the standpoint of transcription, vocabulary, really, really influenced as pianists. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So our second category is comping. And I'm going to stick around. Second category.

comping. Before we move on to a whole different era, we'll stay in this sort of mid-60s era that really was when Herbie was cutting his teeth and making it stuck in the 60s. It's a very boomerish of me, even though I was not born anywhere near there. But this is from Eddie Murphy's a boomer. So we learned that. That's a crazy thing. You could, I didn't actually, I picked this track, but you could really pick any track from Miles Davis's Live at the Plug Nickel in 1965. I pick milestones because it's, kind of a modal tune. And I am so influenced, by the way,

Herbie plays his modal comping through this entire album. On all of like the sort of two core tunes on this album. This is Milesones. We'll hear a bit of him playing after the head supporting the great Wayne Shorter. Who? Wayne Shorter. Of course.

It's not his birthday today. It's his birthday every day. Yeah, that's right. Here you go. Here's Milestones from Live at the Plug Nicol. Miles, another head. You forgot the head, man. What's up?

He wrote it. I know. Peter's listening. I forgot how great this is. Wait, we got to go back. We got to go back. Hold on. Hold on.

We got to go back. Not yet finished one phrase of Wayne's soul. No, because this is comping, right? It is. Okay. This is why there's just a huge orchestra happening underneath. Yes, but space. Okay, so when you lay out that long...

Oh, we got them, guys. We got her. No, no. Hold on. When you lay out that long, he played three. Two things. Both of them next level, right? Blue my mind.

We got to listen to that again. Just to the comp. And just shout out to Tony Williams and Ron Carter. Oh, my God. And you know what? Tony is really like doing a lot of the comping. Yeah. So Herbie's like, okay.

There's not much to do. Yeah. But then when he comes in, man, come on. Here we go. He's setting it up already. He's doing the hipster cluster before they were even looking at his shoes before he even looks up. Ah, right there.

But after he gets into the soul, it transition. Listen to how he transitions from the bridge to get back. This is perfect hopping here. He's not playing. And to the bridge, right? Like, that's what he's doing. So great. You're talking about marking the form a couple weeks ago? Yeah. Lessing. So there it is. The whole thing is full of comping like that.

It's a real masterclass in space. And, you know, there's so many stories written about Herbie with Miles' band. And he didn't know what to play sometimes. And he'd say, Miles, I don't know what to play. And Miles would say, don't play anything. You know, he's right in the middle of that. You can hear a young man working it out. But there's some real magic happening.

Yeah. Well, I'm wondering if on this, he's not even, is this 67? 68, 67? This is 65. 65, okay. Yeah, so, but he's already passed that, like, you can feel in his playing, he's past that point of intimidation. I mean, I'm sure it's a sliding scale of being super intimidated by Miles as much as anyone ever gets past that. But there's, like a freedom, even though he's leaving more space than some things that we're going to listen to, like 63, 64, 62.

But, like, there's very much there's, and this is as much from the rhythm section standpoint, which, You can't even say with this rhythm section that Herbie was the leader. I mean, this was such a cohesive, like, I mean, Tony in a lot of ways was, but really, I would say, if anything, Ron Carter, I mean, like, that's the consistent, you know, force that's there. And that's what gives Tony and Herbie that ability and that space to be able to just go crazy and leaves a space and the, bang, bang, bang. And I mean, Herbie's super rhythmic and architectural with what he's playing there. Yeah, Tony Williams, he's just the ocean in that scenario. He's just like, just filling all this. space with this like amazing texture.

Yeah. Man. So you picked for your favorite comping, one of your favorite, no, for you a great comping moment. I'm sorry. That's one of my favorites. It's great. This is one of your favorite.

This is also, this is an amazing album. This is River the Joni Letters. Yes. This is from, sorry, 2007. So this is one of the more recent entries here on our list. And this is Edith and the Kingpin featuring Tina Turner. Yes. And so I would just say to note his comping, um, and,

And look, this is, again, so many different examples. This one's something attractive. Folks don't know as much, but his comping behind a vocalist, which is something that Herbie is a master of, but he's not necessarily talked about a lot, and there's not a huge amount of until you get to some of his laterish recordings, examples of this. But, you know, his comping is just part of,

it's just wrapped up with his pianism and his musicianship. It's just so brilliant. And this record is engineered so well. Like the clarity of which with you and the active mixing on it. So it's as much on this great comping like as usual, but you can hear it in a way the details of it, I think. That's what's super exciting. Beautiful.

This is from Herbie Hancock's Grammy Award winning album, River, the Joni Letters. This is Edith in the Kingpin featuring Tina Turner. St. Louis's own. Yes. Disco dancers greet him. Plain clothes, cops greet him. Small-time big man. Fresh lipstick listening

Soft moorja From victims of typewriters The band sounds like typewriters The big man He's not listening His eyes hold it His left hand holds his right Can you go back to just that chord right there?

Sorry So, okay, pause for just a second. Please. So check out the next chord he plays. This is just textbook Herbie comping genius next level. I think it's either the next quarter of the one after the comping court. He breaks it up. And so it's such a great voicing.

But check out how he breaks it up. And by that, I mean, he doesn't strike every note exactly together. It's sloppy, so to speak. But it's very, very much fits in the moment. His eyes whole need him. His left hand holds his right. Ah. Well, did you hear the lyric for that?

His left hand holds his right. And did you hear he went from his left to his right? Oh, I didn't even check that. Layers, layers. His left hand holds is right. Ah. So great. Thank you, Adam.

Wayne Shorter's doing some nice copy too. I'll tell you what. So first of all, damn, Tina Turner. I know. She's just floating through all this. Holy smokes. I want to. Yeah, man.

Anyway, but there is definitely a thread here between the plug nickel and this, as different as these recordings are, obviously. You know, Joni Mitchell song sung by one of the biggest pop stars. I know, of all time. Rock and roll, pop, I mean. With like a brushes, you know, folk pop groove behind them or whatever. But his, the spirit is right there from the plug nickel. You can hear the space. I mean, although here he's personality.

Personality. All he hears he's like, you know, 40 years later. and there's all that 40 years of life in there too. Right. And it's just, man. Can we just jump? I know we got a lot to go still. Can we just jump to the end when Wayne is kind of playing?

You can jump anywhere because there's some great comping to. So need. I encourage everybody to check this out and just bathe in the... It's all about your choices, Peter. Here we go. Come on. We're going to do the same one. Here we go.

They dare. No, they dare not look away. And he pulls back a little here and wade. and Wayne moves forward to a little bit, you know. That's Edith and the Kingpin from his 2007 Grammy Award winning, album of the year award winning. Yes. River the Joni Letters, that's amazing that, you know,

in 2007, after a long illustrious career, he makes an album that wins the Grammy for Album of the Year is unbelievable. And note that that is not the Jazz album of the year. That was, this was a seminal moment. Yeah, it's like album of the year. I think it's the only jazz. Somebody can correct us in the comments, I'm sure they will. I believe this is the only jazz record.

I think that in my mind there's one other one at some point, but I think this might have been the first or the first in a while. The first jazz record, the one album of the year? Album of the year, yeah. Maybe Louis Armstrong, but I think that was like for What a Wonderful World, not for an album. I don't know. Grammy heads, let us know.

That's right. Let us know. So next up is our next category. Only category number three. It's going to be a long one. This might be a two-party here. You got to keep things moving. You're the master's ceremony.

The next category is intros, our favorite intros. Category four. Category three or four? Three. Oh my God. Category three intro. Intros. And you picked a great one.

This is from My Funny Valentine. This is going to be short. Live Miles Davis in concert. This is his intro in Stella by Starlight. This is from 1965. Here we go. Yeah. So that, this intro.

Oh, come on. Come on, Miles. We're talking about the intro. It's not your birthday today. No. So that is. intro I think is

this is very early young Herbie obviously or relatively young really showcases there's none of the there's so many more intros that he's done that are like super long and exploratory and just getting to some really advanced

harmony this has just peaks of that but this one just gives you such a clear this was actually the first Herbie Hancock anything that I learned like both hands really yeah this was the first solo I learned I mean part of it or whatever, two hands of.

And it took a long time, I remember, and I learned so much just ear training. But then I also, I was trying to match his sound so much that I think that this is an incredible example of just his extreme pianistic skills, like that we don't talk about enough because he's got all this other stuff, the tunes and the grooves and the roads and all.

Just his, just straight up piano, his ability to control and pull out wonderful, like you hear the way he can voice the instrument. Let's hear it again. Let's hear it again from the top. That. Yeah, I mean, it's gorgeous. Yeah.

Great stuff. So mine is a much different vibe. Just from Secrets, Spirits? You know, Secrets is, well, there's, spoiler alert, it's my favorite album of Herbys. But this intro to Spider, it's quite a bit longer. And it involves the whole band, but this is my favorite part about Herbie's Headhunters era,

that whole 70s era, electric, you know, Rhodes era. And just check out the beauty of the Spider intro. Okay. I'm gonna get comfortable. It's like the Paramount logo comes up. Yeah, exactly. Starsky, hutch, coming to the big screen. What?

Oh, look, whoever made this video here put some comic sands up in that. Blockbuster intro, man. This is like six intros in one. Still the intro. Not at the head yet. Hadn't hit the A. Now we're stuck.

Paul Jackson's in. We're in. RIP Paul Jackson, one of the greatest bass players ever live. And he's going to be all up in here too, Paul Jackson. I had ramen and sake with Paul Jackson. You're kidding. No, you did not.

Shut up. Yes, I did. That was fun. He's a fun wish. He's a fun. I'm not jealous. It's cool. It's all good.

That's my favorite Herbie intro ever. Okay. Next category is our favorite. Hold on Herbs. I was getting nervous here because we're all number three. Our next category is Groves. And category four. Groves.

So you chose one from an album called Gershwin's World. Ever heard of it? Actually, I don't know this album very well at all. Man, this is, I wanted to pull out a few hidden gems just because... Well, it looks like here from the photo, you picked it right out of your car. That's laying on your floor of the car. Yeah. Well, it's got that kind of vintage look, as I recall to it.

Oh, at least the version you have up there. Yeah, yeah. This is a great record, man. A lot of people slept on this. I love, you know, the 90s Verve Herbie records. Yeah. Very good. So this, I don't know this.

I've heard it, but I don't really know it very well. This is partly a little tribute to you, St. Louis' own, but also because I know you like this song and you've got a cool arrangement on it. I love this tune. This is St. Louis Blues, Herbie Hancock. You said... Featuring a gentleman out of the Detroit area who makes a cameo named... Original name, Steve Lynn Morris. All right.

We'll just leave it at that. Yeah, we'll leave it at that. That is a nice. Nice groove. You like that crew? I like that. Favorite grooves. Favorite grooves.

Great groove. Who, which you want to do. He's on the organ? I think it's a good feeling games. Oh, I'm not sure. I'm going to tell you. Man, you know this is right up my alley. It's my speed.

I know. That's right. Come on, man. Herbie's on organ also. I mean, I'm seriously. Herbie's on organ. Is he really? Yeah.

All right. Well, I know what I'm listening to to celebrate tonight. No, this whole record is killing it. Oh. That's the same. Oh, okay. So I've got to stop. I got him.

I got him. I can't. I can't stop. I got him. Oh, come on, man. So great, man. Where does the voice end and the harmonica begin? I know.

Oh, hello. Yeah, keep it going. Yeah, keep it going. Come on, man. We don't do that in St. Louis. Yeah, come on. I think that's illegal in Missouri. Check the way it goes here.

Yeah. Oh. Optimism. The Missouri State Legislature banned that years ago. That's the St. Louis Blues from Gershwin's World. That is unbelievable. Okay, I'm seriously listening to that whole album later tonight. That's incredible.

Oh, man, it's killer. And this has got the Ravel, his explorations over the Revelle, what is it, concerto and G. Or whatever the Rebell, piano concerto. He does Embraceable You. It's a lot of Gershwin stuff. But I mean, I love, like, Herbie will do Gershwin record and be like, let's do St. Louis Blues. You know what I mean? Like, and he'll make it work.

That's not Gershwin? Yeah, exactly. But it's just like the Joni record with all the great John. I mean, not that he couldn't find another Joe. Joni tune, but he's got solitude on there. I mean, Herbie... Hugh Gallington. It's so great. Herbie needs a carousel of comments.

I know. What he needs for that to tell him to set him straight on that. Well, I would be... This is... I think you've really... You've thrown down the gauntlet with that one. That is a good one. And I don't really know that one.

And I'd be nervous if I hadn't picked what I picked for my favorite groove of a Herbie Hancock song. And it's from Thrust. I don't know if you ever heard about it. But he's driving a spaceship with a curved keyboard. I don't know if you could put the album cover up there, but it's one of the greatest album covers of all. That is certainly the greatest Herbie Hancock, if not the greatest Herbie or album cover in general ever.

It was so great. Fun fact, when I was little, I got confused and thought that was like a bubble. That I didn't catch the... A bubble of funk, are you kidding me? It smells terrible in there. You know what I'm saying? Like it was a glass bubble. I didn't even catch the keyboard round.

Oh, my God. Keyboard in the round. It's going to be great. So I'm not nervous as all because I've got the... Is Stevie on this track? No. Paul Jackson and Mike Clark are, and they're doing this. That's actual proof.

You know what was happening. That's actual proof from 1974's thrust one of the great albums of the 70s, certainly one of the great Herbie moments for sure is that groove. It's just unbelievable. So while we're here, Peter, while we're in the 1970s, let's talk our number five, favorite or great Herbie Road solo. because it's kind of its own subcategory here. Great Rhodes Solos.

Now, for this one, for me, I'm going to need you to go wide angle here on the screen showing the video because I have a special thing. Oh, we're going on video, okay. Yeah, so I chose, first of all, you could have chose his road solo on actual proof, really anything from any of the head hunters. There's so many.

Sure. But I chose one that I actually made a little YouTube video on a couple of weeks ago from his... An award-winning YouTube video, as I recall. They don't hand out awards for those things, man. UBs? YouTubees Jizbees

It's jazz The jazz YouTube award Jazzbies But this is from people music It's off of secrets You ever heard of secrets? I've heard a secret I've heard you like that record

Do you want to hear more about it? Oh, I love it So I transcribed it And we did a whole little Got a Practice session We'll link here below In the description To that GPS

If you want to spend some time Learning this solo It's really good Here it is from People music Check out the notation here Kind of hard cut. Hard cut. Hard cut.

Edit. Yeah, awkward edit. The whole thing. But isn't that great? Isn't that great? It's not very long. It's really easy to learn. We had a great time over there on the GPS.

I remember it. You looped it about a hundred times. I wasn't even at my keyboard, but I learned it just by osmosis. Dude, we learned this Jones over there. Like, for real, for real. Yeah, man. So check it out.

That's Herbie's... Check out the Open Studio Sound Slice channel. We might link below or you might just have to go on the web and find it, but there's great stuff like this available for free over there. It's pretty damn good. That's pretty damn good. Okay, so your favorite road solo was from, this is a lesser known album called Headhunters. And this is a lesser known Herbie track called Camellions.

Yeah, and look, he's playing all over this track and all over this album. This part, did I give you the time on it, a little time code on it? No. Oh, no, no, I got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. I was going to text you again, but we're on there. So it's all good. I thought we would listen to the whole eight minutes and 30 seconds leading up to it.

Well, I'd be fine with that, but you seemed nervous they were on number five. As I was queuing this up, actually, I was like, this could have been greatest groove. This could have been the greatest everything. And there's a bunch of places in there. And this part, I can't even remember exactly like when which parts solos. Because he sold on on another keyboard. But this just roads, like the way he played the roads. And this was a time when I first had my own roads and it was like trying to cop some of the stuff.

And I remember being like, well, and actually, think about that last secrets track, like the vibrato. Like the verbat, like the, was that the vibrato? I mean, the tremolo. That slow tremolo. Did you hear that? Hearing of the headphones. Yeah. I was hearing.

man, he was a master of that of the sounds, too. But on here, I mean, this influenced everybody. You know, I mean, you talk about Chickaria, Herbie Hancock, on the roads. George Duke, Stevie Wonder. I mean, he's some big influences, but probably no more so than this particular track. It's pretty good. This is Chameleon from Herbie's Headhunter's album, Peter's pick for a great Herbie moment, his road solo. Yeah.

We got his Herbie stuff together. Man, Peter, Herbie's really ripped off all your stuff. I know. Me too. Me too. Oh, man. Great stuff there. But yeah, there's some more, you know,

well-known parts of that track with her, but I love that. I just love the way he's kind of like, he's just sort of vamping and riffing, you know, but just like each line. And you know what? Herbie with the keyboards in general,

but especially the roads, the clavinet, I mean, everything he did, the ARP, like he had such a great ability to not turn it into like, I don't know,

like these kind of grooves in this period and this fusion funk, whatever you want to call it, just music. Like it had such a wide and it was masculine and feminine and musical and like everything together Sometimes this kind of music in the hands of lesser artists became a real sort of dude fest type of thing It was just like hard hitting yeah come on and you know I don't know just herbie is just so many different musical angles that he's coming at it With electronic music he brings the human element just as strongly as he does with a fazioli nine and a half foot

Beautiful instrument you know he brings that he's able to just like pull that out of these instruments in such a great great way even with these hard hitting grooves you know it's just brilliant no no doubt greatest rhodes soloists of all time i mean really has has defined the instrument i'll put it out there yeah i'm not it is that controversial sorry well not on his birthday for sure but i mean hey when it's george duke's birthday we can talk about george d't that's right yeah it doesn't get any better that didn't get any better okay so speaking of not getting better one of the one of my favorite parts about wait speaking of not getting any better could this broadcast this youtube this podcast get any better at this point no Okay, no. If you're enjoying this on YouTube,

smash that like button. If you're enjoying this... I mean, philosophically, it's impossible. It has to be the way it is, right? There could be no other way. If you're joined this on the audio podcast, you know, leave us a rating or review. It's not going to kill you? If you're on the YouTube... It's going to kill you if you try to do while you're driving. Don't do that. It's a little complicated.

If you're on the YouTube and you enjoy the Herbie birthday stuff, go and smash that like button right now. Give us a little like. If you love Herbie Hancock, like our video. Just know that we do this like all the time. Like, we overdo it with Herbie Hancock because... Sue us because we love Herbie Hancock. So one of my favorite things about watching, following Harvey Hancock's career over the years

is his friendships with really great musician. And I think there's no other friendship that I love more than watching him play with Chick Korea, who we just lost recently. And still kind of reeling from that. But they had so many great moments, so many great duo concerts. And just you could tell they genuinely respected

and liked each other and loved each other. And like we're very friends. friendly, you know, off and on the bandstand. Yeah. I found a great moment. I was working on chicks, this thing with chicken, his killer B sound, you know? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

That kind of thing. And I found this video of Chick and Herbie. This is at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival in 1988. This is Chick and Herbie playing Liza. And there's this little passage here where they just, they just, they just kill or be it to each other. Check it out. This is Chick and Herbie playing Liza a little back and forth in the middle of of the tune.

Man, it's like, oh, this is so great. You see what, is herbie playing the Yamaha too? Yep. This is a big Yamaha festival. Ah, chick, man, wow. You don't relax they both.

I know. I mean, you're like, you're looking across at Chick-Haree or Herbie Hancock. There's that, you know. Isn't that fun? There's no like, can you walk a baseline for me, dude?

Man, can be a little more supportive? Isn't that fun? And you know what's great about that is, It's like they both in that little, and I've never seen that before, it's so fun. And I remember being at Mount Fuji Festival long.

It's been over for a long time. It's a really special place because you can actually see the Mount Fuji there. But they kind of both morphed into like a combination of both of them the way they were playing. You know what I mean? Like Herbie was kind of playing like Herbie and Chick was kind of playing like Herbie.

Like they almost became one on that the way they were playing stylistically. You couldn't, it was hard to tell eventually. That's so cool. That's so cool. I know, I know. But they were definitely, know, part of the mutual admiration society, but I think even more so, you know, they, I think for Herbie, Chick-Korea, and I don't want to speak out of turn, this is just kind

of my observation and what I heard, and I have no special insight beyond anybody else. But I think that Chick was one of those that was very, the closest to kind of parallel career and age and trajectory with Herbie in that, I mean, Herbie, you know, I think was in New York a little bit before Chick-Korea, but when, but Chick actually took over as a sub for my, in Miles's band for her because Herbie was on his honeymoon in South America and got like food poisoning. Is that what happened? Yeah, he had to stay down there because he was sick and didn't want to get on the long flight. And I don't know if he even knew Chick then, but he certainly knew of him, you know, the reputation or whatever.

And he subbed with him. And that was the first time Chick played with Miles. He didn't like steal his gig or anything. Herbie came back and played. But they always like had this, you know, played a lot of the same gigs. I ended up playing together. obviously numerous times did these dual albums and tours. I got to see them live, I think on the last one,

which I believe was like, I don't know, 2005, 2008, something like that. But, I mean, yeah, such a special thing to be able to see, you know, them interacting that way. Amazing. So your pick for your great duos in Herbie Hancock History, this is another partnership that he's had for many, many years, and one that we all benefit from since they were young men. Herbie and Wayne Shorter have been making music.

together and they keep coming back together every few years and doing something special and I remember this album very, very well. This is from 1997's one plus... Dang, is that old? It's that old. Are you serious? It's that old. 97's...

1999s. This is another verb. This is another verb. This is the new standard. Richard Seidel produced. The Gershwin one, this one. I remember seeing this, they were touring this album. Yeah. Do-o, I saw it across the street here at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Shout out to the Sheldon. Yeah. And it was just

I just remember, I went there with my dad and I just remember leaving thinking like those two are just on a different planet from everybody who is here tonight. It's just, they're just living in a whole different world from all of us. And there was a lot of musicians there. I know. You know, it was just, it was an incredible connection that they have. And so this is

Aung San Suu Kai from Herbie, Hancock, and Wayne Shorter's 1 plus 1. Is Wayne's too. And it's just, stuff the charts, the both of them. Both of them, man. Someone here in the chat is saying, like, I saw that when they toured this album, which was amazing,

not only because it was great, because also the white hairs in the crowd were expecting 1960s something. But I have to say, I was, you know, I was 18 when that tour was happening. And I was one of those white hairs

only I was more of like a jazz bro at the time. And I really wanted to hear like, you know, Herbie and Wayne from Miles Davis's quintet. And you want to plug nickel like just balls to the wall. That's where I was. You know, that's where I was.

But I also left just completely uplifted and learned something new about myself. self and about music. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. And that record is very, and I was just looking back over at the compositions.

And I used to listen to the entire record back when we used to do that. And, well, no, it was like almost none of these. And I saw it live as well first. I think even before the record, before I heard the record, maybe. I can't remember. I saw them in play together like three times

in Europe that summer on that tour, which was amazing because there was one tune from Native dancer, which has been like one of my favorite Wayne records from all time. on there. But I didn't even remember the name of that because that was another record that I listened to without really paying, not paying attention, but knowing the

names of the tunes, I just knew the music, you know. And this record, everything, like you say, it's like none of the, there's not like, you know, O'Liouillequay Valley and dolphin dance or whatever. Like, they're going with new tunes. They even played something from that Dutch composer, I think, that won the monk, the first monk composition

test or something that they heard because they liked his tune. And it was like all, it wasn't like, oh, we got to throw in a couple hits now or anything like that. but it was just the beauty of it, the interaction and the places that they took you on that, on this album and hearing it live. But don't feel like because you missed the live tour that you can't get it. Because this album is like, it's special. It gives it all to you.

It's special. Another thing I remember about that. One plus one. One plus one. Yeah. Another thing about, I remember about that concert is the whole album is like that. It's duo. It's very sparse.

It's very contemplative. And at the end of the show, they're getting a standing o. And you know the Sheldon, man. Yeah. You were right there for it. It was beautiful. It was started off as a speaking venue in the early 20th. century so it's just like you're they're right there it's a low stage the audience is right on top

you it's like 700 seat theater and i remember they're getting there standing out at the end of the concert it was a very like som not somber but very you know meditative state everybody's kind of getting out of important and these two young dudes come straight down the middle aisle and this one guy you know and they're like young like they were my age and they like this one guy just like bam hands her be a tape like here man here's my demo here's my demo and i was just like wow come on young Dude. You listen to that and you still did it. All right.

Cool. And that young man was Nelly. And it's my cousin. That's my cousin Nelly. So there you go. All right. So we're on to number seven. These are our favorite albums.

We already know mine. It's secrets. We don't have to- Are we back to secrets, man? It's no secret. It's no secret. It will always be. I mean, secrets is good, but really?

Peter. I don't have it pulled up now, but don't make me pull it up because I will listen to more of it. It's amazing. It's my favorite. You know what it is? Here's the thing.

Wait, I'm sorry. What is the name of this episode? Adam's favorite albums or Adam's favorite anything? No. I guess I can't have an opinion. You can have an opinion, but let's think, eight grade Herbie Hancock moments. First of all, we're way over eight.

Let's talk about that. Yeah, we're at like 20. Mr. Truth in Advertising. Bro. Dude. Jazz bro. If I'm looking inside and I say, what's my all-time favorite Herbie Alum's secrets is up there.

And it's probably, yes, of course, it's sentimental and because it's like the first, you know, like, album from that era that I discovered and I was like 16 and driving around on my first, you know, beat up pickup truck by myself. You know what I mean? And of course,

I'm going to romanticize it. But that's what I'm going to do with it. Yeah, I think there's a romantic angle connection that you have with this album that you're not sharing. That's me on the bonus episode. Well, yours is good old, tried and true. If not a little boring.

Wait, wait, what, Maiden Voyage is a safe piece. Okay, hold on. That's a safe. No,

at the last minute, you're like, we need one more album. And I was like, We didn't have anything with Maiden Boyd. Don't blame your choice. It's a good record. It's a great record.

It's a great record. It's one of my favorites ever. Okay. But this guy. I mean, this is your favorite. Okay. No, it's a great Herbie Hancock album. And this is your, I asked you to pick your favorite. What did you pick?

Secrets. Okay, really? We've done, we've, how many. Cue it. Cue it. Made voyage. This guy. I just teased.

Great album coverage. Man, you know, it's like he was so young when he made this. Dude, this is... You're not laughing at me now, are you? But you heard that again. This is 1965. You know, so he's 25 years old. And I think most musicians would work a lifetime to write something so simple and so good.

That's the two hardest things to conjoin together, right? Simple and really, really high quality. And Maine Voyage has that all over the place. Yeah, and it's such a vibe, this record. It's such a... Actually, this, I would say two records would come to mind. The reason I think this is such an important one, If someone would be like, I've never heard Herbie Hancock before.

I'd love to listen to an album of his. Would you recommend something? I think I would say this. Not to say that it's the greatest or that there aren't other. I think it's a great entry point to Herbie Hancock. Totally great. It's a little bit funny that we're going back so far, but not really from a performer and an artist that has remained so relevant and consistent,

you really could pick any time period. This or maybe Empry and Isles. Both good. Or maybe Joni River, the Joni letters in that, but that's, I mean, there's a lot. Maybe headh hunters. Maybe headh hunters. Maybe secrets. Maybe secrets. I'm just saying. There's a lot. Absolutely. There's all good. Yeah. It's all good. But in terms of just like Herbby and you want to see where he's coming from and where he went and everything. And also this is just a fantastic album in that like from beginning to end like it has such a great flow to it. You know, it starts so brilliantly as we just heard it. It's just like where it goes. George Coleman, Freddie Hubbard. I'm sorry. I love those guys. I love those guys. Sue me. You done?

Yeah, I'm done. No, I'm not. What are we doing next? So next, okay, this is the weird one. This is our final category. Thanks everybody for hanging with us. That's right. This is on our longer side of an episode, but it's really, it's very fun to spend this time with Herbie. So I wanted to find something that was a little different, a category that might have been just like hit us outside the box. A category.

A category. A category. We have two kind of different versions of this. We're going to call it guesting as a guest. What do we say? I forget what we said. It was an hour ago. A category as a guest.

As a guest. No, be my guest. Be my guest. Be my guest. My guest, we're at Disney movie. Put the service to the test. Put the service, yeah. So this is Be My Guest, and this is when Herbie has made an appearance.

Now, my choice for this is actually Herbie is not as a guest on this album, but he has been sampled here. Well, that's a guest. You might be an uninvited but heavily paid guest. Or maybe you are a legally authorized guest, although not physically there. This is from a Janet Jackson, 2004 single all night. This is a really interesting single. So this was poised to be a hit single for her, but she was at the time being blacklisted

for her Super Bowl halftime performance. So I... J.T. Which isn't right. It's not right that she got blacklisted and took all the heat for that. And so we're going to bring this actually kind of club banger out. Because I remember hearing this at the time and remember being like, why isn't this bigger? Because I was so excited. Yeah.

Because the whole thing is based... This is a club, a Janet Jackson pop club hit that's based around Herbie's Hang Up Your Hangups from Manchild. we got to check this out. Listen to this, Peter. You don't know this. You have no idea what this is. You ready?

Yes. This is sick. I know that. I like those strings. Back up in the club. That sounds dangerous. Isn't it a shame that this didn't get more, like, you know. Well, and this record, I do remember this record.

And it did. That was kind of like her alter. I used to be a big Janet Jackson. fan. I'm still a big janitor. The velvet rope. Are you kidding? Yeah. Amazing. De Nita Joe, that was like her alter ego. Remember? It was like her alterative name or whatever. She was at a very high point in her career. She's kind of like at the height of her second phase here. I know. Right? And she got, she got that

Super Bowl thing that's so stupid. I mean, could you imagine now it's such a tame thing. It would be such a tame thing. She was such a corporate, it was such a corporate scapegotery. And I'm, we're all missed out because we could have had a huge pop hit that was based off of Manchild. And we still have it. Herbie could have bought another cobra. another four AC Cobra That's right So that's my

Be my guest Yes But yours is even better I will give you that you won this Well I gave you two Which one did you decide on As the obvious one The sun revolves around the earth

Buddy I feel like this is obvious But you won the day with this You won the entire podcast episode This is everybody This is well this is everybody This is Herbie guesting There's a few

There's a few great Herbie guesting moments Actually we could have chosen from but I think you chose by far the best. This is from Herbie. Herbie Wonders. He's an amalgamation of Stevie and Herbie. You put him together. You get this.

So this is from Stevie Wonders. Songs at the Key of Life. By the way, 1976, same year that Secrets came out. So you know it's Herbie in Prime Form. Same year of the Bicentanyl of the United States. Same year that I moved to St. Louis as a young five-year-old. Look at you, man. Look at you go.

So if you didn't know this, you probably have heard this track before, but if you didn't know, Herbie is playing all the roads Right Are we doing Because he goes The solo's very It's like very late in the thing

Just I thought we would just play Because he's even up in the beginning Right So you know We'll have a Yeah we'll have a Spotify playlist For all this by the end

He does a great To be too But one of his classic Very Herbie stuff Going on in this But this is Stevie Wonder's ass From the King of Life

Check it out From the top Yep You check out These two roads Parts It's great too Yeah

I think about that one too I know. That's As from 1976's song is The Key of Life. Stevie Wonder featuring Herbie Hancock on the Fender Roads. And I think that... The extended version, man, they go deep on the road solo. Do you get in all that. I think that Stevie is...

If we have any Stevie scholars, I'm a Stevie lover and a low-level Stevie scholar. Your bachelor's in Steve... I have a... Yeah, I have like an associate's degree. Steveology? Steveology. I'm not top level. loving him, yes, I am top level.

But no, if anybody maybe knows the precision on this, but I believe that both Stevie and Herbie are playing roads on this. It sounds like there's definitely two roads parts. I think I can hear Stevie doing that and then, but there's so much great stuff and it gets into a lot of fun. They extended, well, it's really the original

version. It just wasn't the radio airplay one. Like they would cut it off before that when he goes into that whole thing at the end. Yeah, there's just that deep thing at the end where they're just kind of looping the chorus and Herbie, you know, the, that's so good. It's so good. The whole out, that whole of them is so good. but happy birthday Herbie Hancock

Thank you brother For all that you've given All of us Piannists, musicians But mostly just listeners And humanity And all the compositions The solos, the smiles

You know, it's a beautiful thing To put things into the world That uplift people Constantly thousands, tens of thousands Hundreds of thousands, millions of people That's right You know what I mean And that's Herbie Hancock

So we celebrate you every day Here at the podcast For sure but especially today. Thanks for everybody for tuning in, for watching, for listening. If you're on the podcast app, just go ahead and leave us a rating and review. If you're watching on YouTube, why not hit the like and subscribe. I looked right in the camera.

You did. I tried to get... Like and subscribe. Smash that like button. How about you? You like and subscribe. But yeah, no, on the podcast, a rating review would be beautiful because we love that. Totally.

And until next episode. You'll hear it.