1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,320
Speaker 1: Herbie Hancock, pianist, composer, educator, icon credited with redefining the

2
00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:10,400
Speaker 1: world of jazz and electronic jazz rock like this. Miles Davis,

3
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,320
Speaker 1: who employed him, said there's no better pianist who's come

4
00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:17,800
Speaker 1: after him. He was a member of miles most revered Quintet.

5
00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:20,759
Speaker 1: He's given us classic tunes like Cantaloup Island. He is

6
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,599
Speaker 1: a living legend and he's coming back to New Zealand.

7
00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:26,520
Speaker 1: He came here in twenty nineteen, but he's now going

8
00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:30,720
Speaker 1: to be here again. October Auckland and Wellington and Herbie

9
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:34,160
Speaker 1: Hancock joins me. Now, Hello, Herbie, Hey, how are you great?

10
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:34,879
Speaker 2: Great to see you.

11
00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,400
Speaker 1: I'm really good and really good to see you. You

12
00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,080
Speaker 1: look great. You are a living legend who looks very

13
00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 1: much alive, and you look very sharp my ad, though

14
00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,200
Speaker 1: I probably should say you're looking cool.

15
00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:50,680
Speaker 2: I'm glad to be lookable.

16
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 1: And how old are you these days?

17
00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:55,040
Speaker 2: Eighty four? Wow?

18
00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,720
Speaker 1: Your birthday's April the twelfth, which is one day after mine.

19
00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,480
Speaker 1: You're an aries bring child of the universe and you're

20
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:05,000
Speaker 1: still on the roads.

21
00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:12,840
Speaker 2: Why Because I'm crazy. That's why I like being on

22
00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:20,280
Speaker 2: the road. It's fun, it's hard work, but it's so rewarding.

23
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,400
Speaker 2: I get a chance to meet people from New Zealand,

24
00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:31,840
Speaker 2: you know, and people from all over the world, get

25
00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:37,400
Speaker 2: a chance to perform for them, express myself musically and

26
00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:44,160
Speaker 2: include them in the performance. You know. It's so the

27
00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:45,759
Speaker 2: performance is different every night.

28
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 1: Are you still pushing the boundaries?

29
00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:53,880
Speaker 2: I hope. So I try to challenge. If I'm not,

30
00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,520
Speaker 2: I just I try to challenge myself every night.

31
00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,320
Speaker 1: You were a child prodigy back in the day. You

32
00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,000
Speaker 1: played Mozart with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age

33
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,760
Speaker 1: of eleven. But somehow the you're classically trained, somehow the

34
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:12,040
Speaker 1: jazz got in. Now, how did the jazz get in?

35
00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,600
Speaker 2: And it snuck in somewhere and it just kind of

36
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:22,839
Speaker 2: captured me when I was in high school, even though

37
00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:30,920
Speaker 2: I was I started out actually in college as a

38
00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:37,040
Speaker 2: not as a music major, but electrical engineering. That was

39
00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:42,400
Speaker 2: That was the path I took, and which makes you know,

40
00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 2: it's technological age that we're living in now, so exciting

41
00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:47,200
Speaker 2: for me.

42
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,560
Speaker 1: And that came out later in new music too.

43
00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 2: I got it the synthesizers so easily because I understood

44
00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:57,799
Speaker 2: the language of how they work.

45
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, you played with Miles from sixty three to sixty eight.

46
00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,840
Speaker 1: It's I understand it's working with him is wonderful and

47
00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:07,880
Speaker 1: difficult all at the same time, very unique, and he

48
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:10,520
Speaker 1: always challenged you, what was it like working with Miles

49
00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:12,280
Speaker 1: Davis and his best band?

50
00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:19,600
Speaker 2: It could not have been better. Working with Miles actually

51
00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:26,160
Speaker 2: was beyond my wildest dreams I had, you know, thought

52
00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:31,600
Speaker 2: of and you know, maybe dreamed of playing with any

53
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:36,680
Speaker 2: other musician, but Miles. I never even dreamed of playing

54
00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,600
Speaker 2: with Miles because I thought it was that was impossible,

55
00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 2: so I've even considered it. So when I was actually

56
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,600
Speaker 2: hired by Miles, it was I'd already surpassed my dreams

57
00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:50,600
Speaker 2: and I couldn't believe it.

58
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,360
Speaker 1: I understand it. For a kind of Blue, for instance,

59
00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,360
Speaker 1: all the guides turned up and they never seen the music,

60
00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:59,040
Speaker 1: never seen any of it, and then he talked about

61
00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,720
Speaker 1: stuff and then set them down, and then seeing go

62
00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:04,680
Speaker 1: for Gold? Was it like that? And your itserration too.

63
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:14,520
Speaker 2: Uh. It was like as though somebody had bought a

64
00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:19,080
Speaker 2: basket of gold coins, you know, in front of me

65
00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:23,520
Speaker 2: were working with with Miles. But you know, I'll tell

66
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:30,480
Speaker 2: you one thing that really was a huge inspiration to me,

67
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,240
Speaker 2: What happened was I remember playing at the club in

68
00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:42,760
Speaker 2: New York called it the Village Vanguard, and I noticed

69
00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,760
Speaker 2: that Miles at one point in one of the songs,

70
00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:53,680
Speaker 2: he played something that I could tell that he heard

71
00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:58,400
Speaker 2: what I had done for him to play the notes

72
00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:04,359
Speaker 2: that he chose, And it dawned on me that Miles

73
00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:10,400
Speaker 2: was listening to me. If I hadn't comp to that realization,

74
00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:16,240
Speaker 2: I would have gotten I would have gotten fired. Yeah,

75
00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,400
Speaker 2: I found out Miles hired me because he wanted to

76
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:19,760
Speaker 2: hear me.

77
00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,039
Speaker 1: Boy, tell me a little bit about Rocket, because there's

78
00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,200
Speaker 1: a lot of New Zealanders who saw that on our

79
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,159
Speaker 1: TV shows. We saw the video on the TV shows

80
00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,040
Speaker 1: with the crazy old robots cutting half doing the crazy

81
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,839
Speaker 1: old dance, and we all crazy old danced around to

82
00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,279
Speaker 1: it and there was like nothing we'd ever heard before.

83
00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:42,080
Speaker 1: So tell me about Rocket. Where did that come from?

84
00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:47,800
Speaker 2: Well? Actually I had a guy working for me, sort

85
00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,360
Speaker 2: of an assistant, but he was a very bright guy,

86
00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:57,120
Speaker 2: verse and he loved all kinds of music, and he

87
00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:03,039
Speaker 2: was younger than me, and he always wanted to explore

88
00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:09,599
Speaker 2: what's happening with the underground scene. And he found these

89
00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:16,640
Speaker 2: two guys in New York that were part of that

90
00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:24,479
Speaker 2: the new underground scene that was happening, Bill Laswell and

91
00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,640
Speaker 2: Michael Beinhoan, and they had a group and they were

92
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,640
Speaker 2: producing other people's music and producing their own, and he

93
00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:39,400
Speaker 2: thought they would be great to do one of my records,

94
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:43,800
Speaker 2: one of my albums. And I had never heard of them.

95
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,440
Speaker 2: I didn't know what they had done, and so what

96
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,200
Speaker 2: I said was, okay, if they don't mind doing it

97
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,080
Speaker 2: on spec in other words, whatever they present to me,

98
00:06:55,600 --> 00:07:01,080
Speaker 2: if I don't have to use it with that that

99
00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:05,800
Speaker 2: they said great. Anyway, they prepared some stuff, recorded some

100
00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:11,520
Speaker 2: stuff on tape, and flew from New York to La

101
00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:17,000
Speaker 2: you know where I had my studio, and they started

102
00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 2: playing the tape of one of the things and I

103
00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:32,200
Speaker 2: I heard scratching on it. It wasn't the first time

104
00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,360
Speaker 2: I heard it. I actually only heard scratching for the

105
00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:39,280
Speaker 2: first time a few weeks before that, because some young

106
00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:43,239
Speaker 2: friend of mine turned me on to that that sound

107
00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:48,960
Speaker 2: to another record and by a guy named Malcolm McLaren's

108
00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:53,600
Speaker 2: a record called Buffalo Guess. That was the first record

109
00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:57,240
Speaker 2: I heard with scratching on it, right, And as soon

110
00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:00,280
Speaker 2: as I heard that sound, that sound actually reminded me

111
00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:02,600
Speaker 2: of some things we might have used with the One

112
00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,840
Speaker 2: DC Band, the Space Band, So I said, okay, let's

113
00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:10,440
Speaker 2: do this anyway. We continued. I wrote a melody for it.

114
00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:15,760
Speaker 2: We put the whole thing together, and when it was

115
00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 2: released much took all of our surprise was it was

116
00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:25,720
Speaker 2: a gigantic hit.

117
00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,680
Speaker 1: Gigantic we never.

118
00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:33,120
Speaker 2: Ever expected anything like that. And then people were all

119
00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:37,000
Speaker 2: breakdancing and they all wanted to break dance to Rocket.

120
00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 2: I was the thief I heard.

121
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 1: You actually took the type downtown and you stuck it

122
00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:44,400
Speaker 1: at in a boom box and you played it and

123
00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:46,320
Speaker 1: some kids started going off to it, and you suddenly

124
00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:47,400
Speaker 1: thought yourself dis.

125
00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:55,440
Speaker 2: Yeah it was I didn't know it was going to

126
00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:59,199
Speaker 2: be hit. I didn't know, but other people.

127
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,679
Speaker 1: Knew absolutely, the kids who wanted to dance it. Hey, Herbie,

128
00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:05,800
Speaker 1: it's fantastic that you're coming down, that you're bringing a

129
00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:08,160
Speaker 1: bit of history down to New Zealand so that we

130
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,720
Speaker 1: can all witness it in your first hand. You look great,

131
00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:13,800
Speaker 1: you sound great, You've always had a good Thank you

132
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:15,200
Speaker 1: so much for your time today.

133
00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:18,800
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, too, great talking to you.

134
00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,320
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. The tour is going to start at

135
00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:23,720
Speaker 1: Aucland's coming to kind of with Theater October the eighth,

136
00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,719
Speaker 1: then Michael Fowler Centser in Wellington October the ninth. Then

137
00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:30,760
Speaker 1: it's off to Australia. This is your chance to see

138
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,120
Speaker 1: a legend, probably the last time. For more from the

139
00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:37,199
Speaker 1: Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be

140
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:41,000
Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio