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Back In The Day For Me Was A Great Time In My Life - I Was In My 20s. Most People Refer To Their Experiences In Their Twenties As Being A Highlight In Their Life. It's A Period Of Time Where You Often Develop Your Own Way, Your Own Sound, Your Own Identity, And That Happened With Me, When I Was With A Great Teacher - Miles Davis.

-Herbie Hancock

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Back In The Day

Herbie Hancock

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Back In The Day For Me Was A Great Time In My Life - I Was In My 20s. Most People Refer To Their Experiences In Their Twenties As Being A Highlight In Their Life. It's A Period Of Time Where You Often Develop Your Own Way, Your Own Sound, Your Own Identity, And That Happened With Me, When I Was With A Great Teacher - Miles Davis.

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One Thing That Sticks In My Mind Is That Jazz Means Freedom And Openness. It's A Music That, Although It Developed Out Of The African American Experience, Speaks More About The Human Experience Than The Experience Of A Particular People.

African American

As A Human Being, I'm Concerned About The World That I Live In.so, I'm Concerned About Peace.i'm Concerned About Man's Inhumanity To Man. I'm Concerned About The Environment.

Inhumanity To Man

Of Course, It's Not The Technique That Makes The Music; It's The Sensitivity Of The Musician And His Ability To Be Able To Fuse His Life With The Rhythm Of The Times. This Is The Essence Of Music.

When You Struggle To Reach For Something You Don't Know, That's Where Most Of The Interesting Stuff Is.

I Like The Idea Of An Eclectic Approach, Incorporating Jazz With Other Forms And Other Genres Of Music.

Genres Of Music

Music Happens To Be An Art Form That Transcends Language.

I Have To Care And I Have To Be Honest And Have The Courage To Be Vulnerable. If That Happens, Then That's The Best I Can Do. To Just Be A Puppet For The Audience Is Not Very Courageous. Just To Do Whatever They Say They Want - Because A Lot Of Times People Will Hear Something New That They Hadn't Heard Before And Get Turned On By A New Experience And Will Want To Hear More Of That.

New Experiences

Music Is Not The Only Reason That I Practice Buddhism Anymore Because It Has Affected My Whole Life.

The True Artform Is Being A Human Being.

I Hope To Use Dialogue And Culture As A Means Of Bringing People Of Various Cultures Together, And Using That As A Way To Resolve Conflict.

Music Isn't About Music, It's About Life.

The Value Of Music Is Not Dazzling Yourself And Others With Technique.

Like No Matter What Happens, This Would Be The Ultimate, They Can Make Something Positive Happen.

I Keep Recycling And Repackaging Music That I've Done In The Past, As Though I Can't Write Anymore. Like, Okay, I'm Done With That. But I Need To Kind Of Prod Myself Again Into Come On, Herbie, Get Off Your Duff And Start Writing Some New Music.

While Knowledge May Provide Useful Point Of Reference, It Cannot Become A Force To Guide The Future.

I Like To Be On The Edge, On The Cutting Edge, Or Be Into The Unknown, Into The Territory Where I Have To Depend On Being In The Moment And Depending On My Instincts.

One Thing I Like About Jazz Is That It Emphasized Doing Things Differently From What Other People Were Doing.

I've Been Curious Ever Since I Was A Little Kid.

I've Had A Life That Has Taken Many Interesting Paths. I've Learned A Lot From Mentors Who Were Instrumental In Shaping Me, And I Want To Share What I've Learned.

One Thing That Attracted Me To Buddhism Was The Support For This Larger Vision Of Values.

I Think There's A Great Beauty To Having Problems. That's One Of The Ways We Learn.

But, The Truth Is That Everyone Is Somebody Already.

The Spirit Of Jazz Is The Spirit Of Openness.

A Jazz Musician Is Not A Jazz Musician When He Or She Is Eating Dinner Or When He Or She Is With His Parents Or Spouse Or Neighbors. He's Above All A Human Being . . . The True Artform Is Being A Human Being.

Being Vulnerable Is Allowing Yourself To Trust. That's Hard For A Lot Of People To Do. They Feel A Lot More Secure If They Kind Of Put Walls Around Themselves. Then They Don't Have To Trust Anybody But Themselves. But To Allow You To Trust Not Only Yourself But Trust Others Means - Is What's Required To Be Vulnerable, And To Have That Kind Of Trust Takes Courage.

It Might Be Something As Simple As Saying The Right Word To The Right Person At The Right Time-and That Could Change The Course Of History. You Never Really Know. But The Whole Thing Is To Work At The Process Of Being In Sync With The Universe, So That Everything Will Align At The Proper Time So That You Can Deliver That Which Is Your Life Mission. And That's Why We're Here As Individuals. And Then There's Our Contribution To The Collective. It Makes A Lot Of Sense, Doesn't It?

When I Was Young I Used To Listen To Everything.

Each Human Being Exists Because There's Something They Have To Offer For The Evolution Of The Universe That Only They Can Fulfill.

So In Other Words, We Were Constantly Challenged To Grow, And Thats What A Master Does.

You Can Change Your Character And, At The Same Time, Change Your Fortune.

Jazz Is About Being In The Moment.

We Need To Move Into A Culture Of Peace. What I Hope To Promote Is The Idea That We All Need Each Other And That The Greatest Happiness In Life Is Not How Much We Have But How Much We Give. That's A Wealth That's Priceless. You Can't Buy Compassion.

I Don't Mind Being Classified As A Jazz Artist, But I Do Mind Being Restricted To Being A Jazz Artist. My Foundation Has Been In Jazz, Though I Didn't Really Start Out That Way. I Started In Classical Music, But My Formative Years Were In Jazz, And It Makes A Great Foundation.

I Started Off With Classical Music, And I Got Into Jazz When I Was About 14 Years Old. And I've Been Playing Jazz Ever Since.

Music Truly Is The Universal Language.

Universal Language

When A Human Being Is Oppressed, The Natural Tendency Is To Feel Anger. Jazz Is A Response To Oppression That Is Not Bullets And Blood. Jazz Is The Expression Of Harmony ... And At The Same Time Of Hope And Freedom.

But I Have To Be Careful Not To Let The World Dazzle Me So Much That I Forget That I'm A Husband And A Father.

The Thing That We Possess, That Machines Don't, Is The Ability To Exhibit Wisdom.

So I Didn't Actually Change My Name The Way Some People Did.

In World War Ii, Jazz Absolutely Was The Music Of Freedom, And Then In The Cold War, Behind The Iron Curtain, Same Thing. It Was All Underground, But They Needed The Food Of Freedom That Jazz Offered.

You Can Practice To Attain Knowledge, But You Can't Practice To Attain Wisdom.

Forget About Trying To Compete With Someone Else. Create Your Own Pathway. Create Your Own New Vision.

It's Not The Style That Motivates Me, As Much As An Attitude Of Openness That I Have When I Go Into A Project.

All You Have To Do Is Play One Note. But It Needs To Be The Right Note.

I Think I Was Supposed To Play Jazz.

In The World Of Art There Are No Wrong Choices.

It Is People's Hearts That Move The Age.

One Of The Greatest Attributes Of Jazz, I Think, Is That It Is That Open.

I Try Stuff. I Synthesize What's Of Value With Some Of The Other Things I Have At My Disposal.

You Can Practice To Learn A Technique, But I'm More Interested In Conceiving Of Something In The Moment.

Being A Musician Is What I Do, But It's Not What I Am.

The Most Valuable Things In Life Are Priceless. They Are Courage, Compassion, Wisdom, Respect For Ourselves And Others, And A Host Of Characteristics That We Call The Beauty Of The Human Spirit.

Back In The Day For Me Was A Great Time In My Life - I Was In My 20s. Most People Refer To Their Experiences In Their Twenties As Being A Highlight In Their Life. It's A Period Of Time Where You Often Develop Your Own Way, Your Own Sound, Your Own Identity, And That Happened With Me, When I Was With A Great Teacher - Miles Davis.

Music Is The Tool To Express Life - And All That Makes A Difference.

Making A Difference

Without Wisdom, The Future Has No Meaning, No Valuable Purpose.

Jazz Is A Music That Is Open Enough To Borrow From Any Other Form Of Music, And Has The Strength To Influence Any Other Form Of Music.

I Spent Five Years, At Least, Working With Miles. Together, We Recorded Esp, Nefertiti, Sorcerer -- And I Can Tell You; Each Of These Albums Instantly Became Jazz Classics. Hey, We Had Wayne Shorter Playing Tenor Sax, Ron [carter] On Bass, Tony Williams Played Drums. That Was Great Band We Had.

If You're Not Judging What Happens, Then You're Trusting What Others Are Doing, What You're Playing, And Trusting What You're Playing.and It Can Lead You To Other Ideas, To Something Maybe You Hadn't Expressed Before.

I Look For What's Of Value And Extract That. I Don't Look To Criticize.

I Don't Think There Are Any Pure Africans Of The African Americans, But The African Part Of Our History Was Pretty Much Taken Away From Us During Slavery, So The 60s Gave Us A Chance, Because Of The Civil Rights Movement, To Kind Of Re-examine And Make Some Sort Of Formal Connection To Our African-ness.

It Pulled Me Like A Magnet, Jazz Did, Because It Was A Way That I Could Express Myself.

I'm One Of The People Who Was A Pioneer In Encouraging Musicians, Early In The Game, To Get Interested In Technology, And Now All The Musicians Are Getting Into It.

We Are Eternally Linked Not Just To Each Other But Our Environment.

The Cool Thing Is That Jazz Is Really A Wonderful Example Of The Great Characteristics Of Buddhism And Great Characteristics Of The Human Spirit. Because In Jazz We Share, We Listen To Each Other, We Respect Each Other, We Are Creating In The Moment. At Our Best, We're Non-judgmental.

Miles' Sessions Were Not Typical Of Anybody Else's Sessions. They Were Totally Unique.

My First Grammy Wasn't Even In A Jazz Category, But Of Course I Was Really Excited. 'rockit' Was The Beginning Of Kind Of A New Era For The Whole Hip-hop Movement.

I'm Aware That A Lot Of What Is Happening In Jazz Has Not Had A Very Dynamic Change In A Long Time.

I Hope That I Can Make Good Music Out Of Whatever Genre I Go Into. Just To Prove To Myself That I Can.

It's Not Exclusive, But Inclusive, Which Is The Whole Spirit Of Jazz.

You Make Different Colors By Combining Those Colors That Already Exist.

Life Is Not About Finding Our Limitations, It's About Finding Our Infinity.

At A Certain Point, I Became A Kind Of Musician That Has Tunnel Vision About Jazz. I Only Listened To Jazz And Classical Music.

Jazz Translates The Moment Into A Sense Of Inspiration For Not Only The Musicians But For The Listeners.

I've Been Practising Buddhism For Forty Years, And That's What Has Led Me To This Path Of Discovering My Own Humanity And Recognizing The Humanity In Others.

I Am Not Fundamentally A Musician, I Am Fundamentally A Human Being.

Fact Is That I Played Piano And Performed, As A Young Kid, A Mozart Piano Concerto With The Chicago Symphony Orchestra . Don't Forget I Was Only Eleven-years-old And To Be On The Stage At That Age Had Tremendous Impact On Me. Basically Love For Classical Music And Performing As A Kid On The Big Stage Probably Led Toward This Decision, Which Meant That Music Is Going To Be My Big Love But Also My Profession.

Wisdom Is The Key To Understanding The Age, Creating The Time.

You Don't Need The Fame To Be Vital.

Meaning Of Life

The Internet Opens Up A Whole New Range Of Possibilities In A Wide Range Of Areas.

Jazz Has Been The Voice Of Freedom For So Many Countries Over The Past Half Century.

We Need To Put Into Practice The Idea Of Embracing Other Cultures. We Need To Be Shaping The Kind Of World We Want To Live In Instead Of Waiting For Someone Else Or Some Other Entities To Do It For Us.

I'm Always Interested In Looking Forward Toward The Future. Carving Out New Ways Of Looking At Things.

Looking Forward

I Don't Go Around, The Way Many Musicians Do, With Earbuds In My Ear Listening To My Ipod All Day And Just Sticking My Head In The Music All The Time.

I've Been A Religious, Spiritual Person For A Long Time.

I've Always Been Interested In Science. I Used To Take Watches Apart And Clocks Apart, And There's Little Screws, And A Little This And That, And I Found Out If I Dropped One Of Them, That Thing Ain't Gonna Work.

Clare Fischer Was A Major Influence On My Harmonic Concept. He And Bill Evans, And Ravel And Gil Evans, Finally. You Know, That's Where It Really Came From. Almost All Of The Harmony That I Play Can Be Traced To One Of Those Four People And Whoever Their Influences Were.

Buddhism Has Turned Me On To My Humanness, And Is Challenging My Humanness So That I Can Become More Human.

In The Past, There's Always Been One Leader That Has Led The Pack To Development Of The Music.

Globalization Means We Have To Re-examine Some Of Our Ideas, And Look At Ideas From Other Countries, From Other Cultures, And Open Ourselves To Them. And That's Not Comfortable For The Average Person.

The Music Becomes Something That Is Its Own Entity.

We Can All Be Ourselves, Be True To Ourselves, And All Be Together.

Interconnection

I Got A Chance To Work With Miles Davis, And That Changed Everything For Me, 'cause Miles Really Encouraged All His Musicians To Reach Beyond What They Know, Go Into Unknown Territory And Explore. It's Made A Difference To Me And The Decisions That I've Made Over The Years About How To Approach A Project In This Music.

There Are A Lot Of Records Coming Out, In Every Field Of Music, Not Just Jazz.

The Strongest Thing That Any Human Being Has Going Is Their Own Integrity And Their Own Heart. As Soon As You Start Veering Away From That, The Solidity That You Need In Order To Be Able To Stand Up For What You Believe In And Deliver What's Really Inside, It's Just Not Going To Be There.

Wisdom Corresponds To The Future; It Is Philosophy.

My Father Was Really Good With Math. It's A Funny Thing, I Don't Remember My Father Or My Mother Being So Mechanical-minded. My Father Always Wanted To Be A Doctor, But He Came From A Really Poor Family In Georgia, And There Was No Way He Was Going To Be A Doctor.

I Learned The Importance Of Being Nonjudgmental, Taking What Happens And Trying To Make It Work.that's Something You Should Apply To Life.

The Arts Have Always Served Relationships Between People Of Different Cultures So Well. In A Way, The Arts Function As A Very Serious Kind Of Ambassador.

Don't Be Afraid To Expand Yourself, To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone. That's Where The Joy And The Adventure Lie.

I Try To Practice With My Life.

Most People Define Themselves By What They Do - 'i'm A Musician.' Then One Day It Occurred To Me That I'm Only A Musician When I'm Playing Music - Or Writing Music, Or Talking About Music. I Don't Do That 24 Hours A Day. I'm Also A Father, A Son, A Husband, A Citizen - I Mean, When I Go To Vote, I'm Not Thinking Of Myself As 'a Musician.'

People Always Want To Protect What's Really Going On Inside. They Want To Kind Of Make Visible Something That Looks More Pleasant Than What May Be Happening Inside Of Themselves.

I've Never Really Been Interested In Doing A Solo Piano Tour.

Jazz Is Really About The Human Experience. It’s About The Ability Of Human Beings To Take The Worst Of Circumstances And Struggles And Turn It Into Something Creative And Constructive. That’s Something That’s Built Into The Fiber Of Every Human Being. And I Think That’s Why People Can Respond To It. They Feel The Freedom In It. And The Attributes Of Jazz Are Also Admirable. It’s About Dialogue. It’s About Sharing. And Teamwork. It’s In The Moment, And It's Nonjudgmental.

I Feel A Lot More Secure About The Directions I Take, Than I Might Have, Had I Not Practiced Buddhism.

I'm Always Looking To Create New Avenues Or New Visions Of Music.

Technology Has Developed To A Whole Other Level And Theres The Scientist Part Of Me That Loves That Stuff.

There's So Much Spontaneity Involved, What Do You Practice? How Do You Practice Teamwork? How Do You Practice Sharing? How Do You Practice Daring? How Do You Practice Being Nonjudgmental?

A Great Teacher Is One Who Realizes That He Himself Is Also A Student And Whose Goal Is Not Dictate The Answers, But To Stimulate His Students' Creativity Enough So That They Go Out And Find The Answers Themselves.

The First Thing I Ever Heard About Synthesizers, They Were Being Used In Rock.

Inspiration Is Constantly In The Air. It's Up To Us To Develop The Sensitivity To Pick Up On It.

You Can Expand, Repeat, Even Change Keys And Do Other Things Electronically To Give Certain Elements And Phrases More Cohesiveness.

It's Part Of My Nature. I Get Excited When Trying Out New Stuff, Whether It Be An Idea Or Equipment. It Stimulates My Juices.

Creativity Shouldn't Be Following Radio; It Should Be The Other Way Around.

The Value Of Music Is To Be Able To Play One Note At The Right Time In The Right Way.

Getting The Oscar Had The Biggest Impression On Me.

I'm Very Conscious Of The Idea Of Trying To Each Time Present Something That I Haven't Presented Before. It's A Challenge To Me To Find Something New, To Find Something Innovative, But It's Also Very Exciting.

Oscar Peterson Is The Greatest Living Influence On Jazz Pianists Today.

I Don't View Myself As A Musician Anymore - I View Myself As A Human Being That Functions As A Musician When I'm Functioning As A Musician, But That's Not 24 Hours A Day. That's Really Opened Me Up To Even More Perspectives Because Now I Look At Music, Not From The Standpoint Of Being A Musician, But From The Standpoint Of Being A Human Being.

Jazz Has Borrowed From Other Genres Of Music And Also Has Lent Itself To Other Genres Of Music.

Jazz To Me Is The Spirit Of Freedom. I Mean Real Freedom. Freedom To Explore. Freedom To Express. Freedom To Pour Out Your Guts.

Creativity And Artistic Endeavors Have A Mission That Goes Far Beyond Just Making Music For The Sake Of Music.

World Peace Is No Longer Some Pie-in-the-sky Thing, Because No Single Person Or Country Is Going To Solve It On Their Own.

When I Was In My Early Teens, I Remember Coming To The Conclusion That Your Life Never Ends.

I Never Dreamed I Would Be A Goodwill Ambassador, And For Unesco. Perfect Organization. It Is Apolitical And It's About Education, Science And Culture. I Mean That Is What I Live. That Is What Unesco Is Really About; It's All About Bringing Human Beings Together With One Common Goal, Which Is To Move Human Kind Forward.

You Would Not Exist If You Did Not Have Something To Bring To The Table Of Life.

Meaning Of Life

I Think Risk-taking Is A Great Adventure. And Life Should Be Full Of Adventures.

People Are Afraid To Spend Money Now Because They Dont Know How Long Theyre Going To Be Working.

Nobody Told Me I Was A Child Prodigy.

I Don't Look At Music From The Standpoint Of Being A Musician; I Look At It From The Standpoint Of Being A Human Being.

One Of The Greatest Experiences I Ever Had Was Listening To A Conversation With Joni Mitchell And Wayne Shorter. Just To Hear Them Talking, My Mouth Was Open. They Understand Each Other Perfectly, And They Make These Leaps And Jumps Because They Don't Have To Explain Anything.

It's Part Of Life To Have Obstacles. It's About Overcoming Obstacles; That's The Key To Happiness.

So Much Of What I Create Has Been Due To The Influence Of Miles Davis And Donald Byrd, And So Many Of Those That Have Passed On. Their Music, Their Legacy Lives On With The Rest Of Us Because We Are So Highly Influenced By Their Experience And What They Have Given Us.

Since Time Is A Continuum, The Moment Is Always Different, So The Music Is Always Different.

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