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♪
[Herbie Hancock] I began making this album,
and the idea came from my realizing
that so many musicians are putinto what we call a pigeonhole.
Whatever is the record that made them famous,
they were continually encouragedto do that same kind of thing
time and time again.
I'm looking for people from various genres
that I feel might be interestedin exploring the territory
that could possibly develop from a collaboration with me
and perhaps maybe somethingtotally different would happen.
Did you get a chance to listen to--
Of course. Yeah, I heard a few things.
Is it too high or too low?
I think it's right.
Can we go to the piano and just check it out?
The record is really a collaboration
between myself and a lot of different artists.
Right.
And the spirit of it is--
is that each artist brings what they bring to the table,
I bring what I bring to the table,
and then we see what happens when we get together.
Because, like, you know,
there's certain things that I bring to the table from my experience,
you know, coming from jazz,
and then there are things that you bring to the table:
your youth, your connections to the music of the era that you're born in.
- Okay. - And it's turning out to be really nice.
Good.
♪
♪ I've been in so many places in my life and times ♪
♪ I've sung a lot of songs
♪ I've made some bad rhyme
♪ I've acted out my life in stages ♪
♪ With 10,000 people watchin'
♪ We're alone now
♪ And I'm singing this song for you ♪
♪ I know your image of me is what I hope to be ♪
Can I have more reverb, please?
♪ I've treated you unkindly
♪ Baby, can't you see
♪ There's no one more important to me ♪
♪ So, darlin', can't you please see through me ♪
I can't hear myself.I need more reverb than we had.
Please.
♪ Don't you
♪ I love you in a place
♪ Where there's no space or time ♪
♪ I love you for my life
♪ 'Cause you're a friend of mine ♪
♪ And when my life is over
♪ Remember we were together
Whoo!
- [chuckles] - Hot.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, no lie. [laughs]
Great, man.
That's it. I better go back to the drawing board.
Do you want to listen to that?
Yeah, sure, let's go in.
I had to take off my sweater. I got too hot.
Yeah, right. I'm hot too.
I feel that many of our systems
that work to encourage creativity
are being challenged,
and there's more encouragement to stay where you are.
Don't make a wave.
I think the word that kind of captures
the spirit of what I believe in
and what I'm really about and what I hope to achieve
is the word "possibilities."
As children, we have that sensethat anything is possible
and we have that kind of openness; we're not jaded.
The older we get, the more closed-in we get,
the more frightened we get,the more set in our ways we get
because we're afraid of the unknown,
whereas as a child, everything is unknown.
What a beautiful place to reside in, you know,
in your own being,
you know, where you still have the wonder of a child.
♪ [vocalizing]
That's cool for the middle of the tune.
But when Herbie starts to play,you go with it.
I got a phone call: "You want to record with Herbie Hancock?"
"Yeah, absolutely. What can I do for Herbie?"
The only thing I can imagine is that,
"Okay, he must want me to play in my own little way."
So I really didn't get that nervous comin' in because...
I knew that I must've been askedfor something I've already done,
which is definitely not playing jazz because I'd just butcher it.
So I'm just kind of trying to do my thing, whatever that might be,
and see what that turns out to.
On that bridge part, what did you say, there's that popish thing?
Yeah.
I'm wondering if we could, on that D chord,
if we could make it like a B-flat chord with the D on the bottom.
- Okay.- You know like that B-flat too.
And then the G chord, put a B on the bottom.
I didn't know what to expect.I'd never met John Mayer before.
I had been told that John had an idea,
and I didn't know what that idea was.
I had written this groove on the guitar called "The Day Before."
So I started playing this groove.
♪ [scatting]
We just started. He's got a groove goin'.
And then little by little a lot of fragments formed.
To this day, I don't know exactly what he had
before we started playing.
But somehow, right away, things started to happen.
Amazing.
I like that beginning
where we don't do the drum thing.
It's more like just vocal, and that's very nice.
Now, when you did that, you said--
♪
[Herbie] I enjoy the process of collaborative effort.
Influence each other and share ideas,
pick off energy from the vibe of each other.
- Turn it up. - Give me that again.
♪ Girls like that don't sleep alone ♪
Yeah. That's nice.
All right. Keep that. Write that down.
♪ Girls like that don't sleep alone ♪
[John] When the moment is right,
you just have to really channel
what that song is all about
and stay there for as long as possible
in that pinhole of focus
and just write as fast as you can
'cause, you know, you get out of that and it's gone.
♪ Exactly how you see it
♪ It's exactly how it all went down ♪
♪ [singing, indistinct]
It could be that. It could be that.
Or it could be...
Yeah, I wish I could bend the notes.
[scatting]
[Herbie] The chordal structure's starting to be built.
Rhythmic structure, rhythmic ideas,
and then he was making up a melody.
He probably had some melody ideas before,
but he didn't have lyrics,
so he just started making up some words as he went along.
Some of them were really good.
♪ Don't move a thing now
♪ You cannot go I'll never go ♪
♪ But girls like that don't sleep alone ♪
[John]A friend of mine, Pino Paladino,a great bass player also.
Pino and I had lunch one day, and Pino says,
"Yeah, man. The last thing you need is a girl to stitch you up."
And I went, "What does that mean?"
"You know, stitch you up, like, you know, do you wrong."
And I went, "Wow, that's cool. Stitch me up."
♪ Stitched up Out of my mind ♪
♪ Feelin' strung out Laggin' behind ♪
♪ All trapped in I can't do a thing ♪
♪ Because I'm locked down
♪ Stitched up Feelin' the burn ♪
♪ All strung out I finally learned that ♪
♪ Trapped in you can't do a thing ♪
♪ Because you're locked down
♪ Stitched up
♪ Strung out
♪ Trap me in and lock me down
♪ Stitch me up and string me out ♪
♪ Trap me in and lock me down Lock me down ♪
♪ Stitch me up String me out ♪
♪ Lock me down
[applause]
Thank you.
No, no. Great lyrics.
He's out for a second. He'll be right back.
So when he comes back, let's have him and everybody meet.
There he is now. He's back. Hold on.
So we all know who's here.
Yeah, here I am.
- Great. - Hi.
- So here's Raul. - Hey, Greg.
Hey, Raul. How are you, man?
- Good. Excellent. - Hey, Raul?
- Hey. - Hey.
- Sounds real beautiful, man. - Oh, thank you.
In terms of, like, the phrasing,
is there room for--
Well, I'll just sing. Is there room for like going a little bit over?
It's very simple.
- Go ahead and try things. - Excellent.
We're doing a truly bicoastal session.
Herbie and Greg are in L.A., and we're here in New York.
And we're working together bicoastally in real time.
It's pretty amazing.
♪ [scatting]
- There goes your solo. - Yeah, right.
♪ [imitates trumpet]
- Whoa! - Tonguing and everything.
- Good thing Miles ain't here. - Yeah.
He'll have something to say about that.
♪ Yeah
Well, you know, Herbie doesn't haveto solo.
[all laughing]
You just really kicked Herbie out of his own solo.
I hope you feel good about that.
I mean, you know, forget his name's on the record.
He didn't really have to solo.
That's just in case nothing else came up.
Don't worry about it. I get all the credit for it. It's okay.
♪ No New Year's Day
♪ To celebrate
♪ No chocolate-covered candy hearts ♪
♪ To give away
♪ No first of spring
♪ No song to sing
♪ In fact, here's just another
♪ Ordinary day
♪ Ooh
♪ No April rain
♪ No...
- Sorry. - [music stops]
Do not be sorry, okay?
Bingo on the first verse.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Bingo on the first verse.
Let me get that entrance too.
Just for "No April rain."
- The first phrase was cool. - That was sweet.
He forgot the lyrics.
I just blanked out on the lyric there.
Does he have them in Braille?
He probably does, yeah.
♪ No New Year's Day
I like that.
♪ To celebrate
[Raul] This is an incredibly reworked version of this song.
I was so glad when I heard the track
because it's a different thing so that it doesn't sound like
the great Stevie Wonder track that it was.
It sounds like something completely different.
♪ I just called to say
♪ I love you
[Raul] Herbie is a major force
in terms of my inspiration as a musician and an artist.
Just the amazing arch of the career,
it's inspiring, you know, for me
and I'm sure for all of us who are of us doing this,
that somebody didn't rest on the incredible laurels
that he had just for being with Miles.
On piano, Herbie Hancock.
[Herbie]I joined his band when I was 23,
and I left when I was 28.
The majority of my twenties was spent playing with Mile Davis's band.
And here comes, Miles Davis.
There were certain things that he said
and certain things that he stood for
that had a profound influence on my music and on my life.
♪
There were so many things I learned from Miles
about standing up for what you believe in.
And I learned a lot about listening from Miles.
About turning whatever happens musically
into something of value.
That's what you try to do,
rather than be judgmental aboutwhat some other guy is playing.
Leave judgment out of the picture
and just take what's there and make something happen with it.
He told us that he paid us to practice on stage
in front of the people, not in our rooms.
We could practice in our rooms,but don't bring that down
and play that in front of peoplebecause that's not jazz.
Jazz is at the moment. You play the moment.
And it has, you know-- Each moment is fresh.
That's not an easy thing to do.It takes a lot of courage.
It takes a lot of trust,
and it takes a kind of nakedness
to be able to accomplish that.
At least to be able to approach it even.
But Miles provided a platform
for all the members of his then-young band
to exam that arena,
to reach beyond the comfort zone.
You know, and go into areas
that where we don't know intellectually or musically
what the result is.
Kind of go into that dark room and create something.
[applause]
Yoo-hoo.
Hello?
- [dog barking] - Shit!
See if there's another way in.
Well, there's one big dog. Heyn.
Well, there's one big dog. Hey!
- How you doin', man? - Nice to meet you.
Great, great.
Thanks for inviting me to this.
[Herbie] Trey told me that the inspiration for him
for a long time, for many, many years, since he was a kid,
was the Jack Johnson record of Miles Davis.
I was on that record.
He said that to him was the inspiration for...
for the whole jam band scene.
[Herbie] You know something?
It seems like everything is based on the same...
- Yeah. - And it's a horrible feeling.
But it was one of those times, and I think Miles noticed it.
So he leaned over to me and said,
"Don't play the butter notes."
And I said, "Okay." I had no idea what he was talking about.
♪
So I was thinking, "What does that mean, butter notes?"
I thought fat notes, fat notes.
Harmonically , I started thinking, "Well, what's obvious?"
The third and the seven.
It tells you if it's a major or a minor
or a diminish or major or-- you know.
I said, "Well, let me try leaving out the thirds and the sevenths as an exercise."
I knew that Miles didn't care how good you sounded.
You know, he wasn't about that.
He only cared that you were working on something.
Miles made us feel comfortable.
He would never tell us what to play. Never, never.
He would give us something to figure out
so we could figure out the solution ourselves.
Which is-- That's how a master teaches.
A master doesn't tell you what to do because a master wants you to reveal yourself.
[Herbie] This is real collaboration that we're doing here.
None of these arrangements are just finished
the night before or two or three nights before,
completely done,
the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed
and everything is all planned
and everybody gets told what to do.
None of this record so far has been like that.
It's all been really decided at the session.
[Trey] What I would naturally do
is I would start composing the stuff a little bit more.
So we have these jam band sections,
but you take some of those things,
and that would be my natural inclination,
if there's anything I could add.
Then I'd start thinking of trying to make it a little more structured,
whereas the Headhunters or even the Miles thing,
and Miles did it with that,for instance, wrote the themes.
Which is just a scrap. I can do that.
- Okay. - That's not why I'm here.
- Okay, great. - You know what I mean?
I'm here because of stuff that I don't know what to do.
I was trying to get more of what he's been doing
in the territory that he's been exploring lately .
I was trying to...
pull that out of him.
But he wasn't going that way.
If I wanted to do Headhunters,
I could call Paul Jackson and get the Headhunters.
Let's say you took-- and tell me if this is--
- I'm just talkin'. - No, go ahead.
- Let's say you took-- - No. Look, look.
- I'm open to all ideas.- Let's say took this idea here.
- ♪ [humming] - Mm-hmm.
Yeah. yeah. It does have that flavor and accent.
Very nice. So let's say you're--
♪ [continues improvising]
And then there's that thing that...
Even if they're just signposts.
♪ [humming]
Right. Right, right.
We could do that, like, 48 times and then--
[imitating drums]
Yeah. I'm down.
If you really want to get crazy,what you could do--
[Herbie] Everybody kept on getting more and more ideas about--
"Oh, why don't' we try this and put this track on? Try this track.
How about if we put this on top?"
Pretty soon, we buried the track.
You can't even hear what we originally had.
That's not at all--
That's pretty much what they're all dancing to out there.
That's what we're taking about, right?
[all improvising]
[Trey] When you look at the world,
there's so much stuff you're excited about,
it's really infectious
and it makes me think that... anything is possible.
'Cause I think that there's people I know that-- they just stop.
Soon as they latch on to something where people say,
"Hey, that's really good,"
then they want to stay there because there's security, there's acceptance.
Whatever there is, you know, and they feel comfortable.
And they don't want to move outside that comfort zone.
But the hip stuff is outside the comfort zone.
[Herbie] There's a discovery processof who you are as an individual.
At the end of the day,
nobody can take from you...
what's created by your own being.
Yeah, this is one of those songsthat has a lot of ways it could go.
It's actually C-sharp minus seven, flat 5 is that's what it is,
with an F-sharp on the bottom.
- Oh, that's what it is. - If that helps.
♪ You know that I love you
♪ You know that I love you ♪
♪ You know that I love you
I'm trying to figure out should I do it falsetto there or just--
Full voice, I think.
♪ You know that I love you
Yeah. More feeling.
♪ And there's love in your
Okay.
I brought my part out. [laughs]
♪ So hush now
♪ Don't explain
♪ There ain't nothin' to gain
♪ Well, I'm glad
♪ You're back
♪ But don't explain
They suggested the song "Don't Explain."
And I said, "Well, that's cool.
That's a Billie Holiday tune. Can they deliver that?"
These are two very young artists from Ireland.
♪ Quiet, baby
♪ Don't explain
♪ You know there ain't nothing to gain ♪
♪ Skip that lipstick
♪ Don't explain
And then it goes... [humming]
And when it comes back,
would it be better to go into, straight into the...
♪ You know that I love you
♪ And what love endures
♪ All my thoughts are of you
♪ I am so completely yours
♪ Don't wanna hear folks chatter ♪
♪ 'Cause I know you cheat
♪ Right or wrong don't matter ♪
♪ When I'm with you, sweet
When I hear blues singers sing,
I mean, that's sensitive, heartfelt stuff.
Damien and Lisa sound like that.
Just tears your heart out.
♪ Hush now
♪ Don't explain
♪ You know, you're my joy and you're my pain ♪
There's so much jazz in the notes and phrases that she picks.
She was singin' the ninthsand the elevenths of the chords.
I mean, some of the things sound like choices that Miles would have made.
♪ Don't explain
I like that. [harmonizing]
[chuckling]
Yeah. [humming]
- Whatever that was. - Huh? What?
Whatever that thing was.
- Oh, what I just did? - Yeah.
- I don't remember. - [all laugh]
Are we there yet? We're getting there.
It's a party, man!
♪ Let's get together
[Carlos] To be here right now with Herbie is very, very special.
It's the whole-- This is what I dream of all of my life to be around.
And it ain't about the color. I feel the same way about Bob Dylan.
[Herbie] Music doesn't just grow out of thin air.
It comes from the life of the people that are playin' it.
The human spirit of the artist,not just from the notes and harmonies
and from their musicality.
Yup. Great.
Yeah, I'm ready. I'm waiting for you.
♪ [foreign language]
Now the next one. Boom.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
My darling, my love.
- Oh, my darling. - My love, my darling.
My love, my darling. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which African language is this?
Safi, Safiis...
This one is... Bambara.
- Bambara. - From Mali.
Oh, from Mali. Oh. Bambara, okay.
How many languages do you speak?
- Eight. - Whew!
I'll write in "mina."
♪ [singing]
- What are you saying? - No.
Say, "Come. Let's all get together and be stronger."
Okay. Okay.
Perfect.
♪ [Bambara]
[Herbie] One of things that I want to do with this record
is have the music grow out of the realities of life.
We've taken some time to kind of get to know each other personally.
Talk about other kinds of things. Politics...
I think free thought in this country is at a loss.
Well, there's no thought.
- You're labeled unpatriotic to question. - Exactly.
If you are working toward touching the parts of a person's life
that have to do with elegance--
- Beauty, elegance, excellence,grace, dignity. - Exactly.
It's the opposite of those who are trying to touch
the part of a person's being that is about power for the sake of power.
This is the thing. We don't have to worry about anybody else's doing.
All you need to do is that every day is a battlefield.
But if you fight with anger, you're the problem.
If you fight with joy, you're the solution.
The craziness of genocide in Rwanda
shows you how cynical we human beings try to be
and how mean we can be by trying to call ourselves gods
because next to every embassy,
you find huge holes with a dead body in it because of the genocide.
Millions have been killed. Millions.
It's hard for me to find joy every day
because everywhere, every step you go,
you find on your way barriers that just hold you back.
It's like pounding on a wall that doesn't want to move.
But I will pound till it fallsbecause it has to be like that.
- But light is stronger than dark. - Oh.
And you have a lot of light in you.
- Conviction, it's from your soul. - Oh, definitely.
You have to have conviction to go out there and say,
"You can't stop me.
You cannot break my spirit.
Before I go and I'm done with this body,
there will be some hearts that will be touched by my spirit."
[all laughing]
That's what I call an ending.
[applause]
And now enjoy a real divine treat.
Mr. Herbie Hancock, Mr. Wayne Shorter.
♪
Of all the living musicians today,
[Herbie] Wayne Shorter is the one at the top of my list
that grabs my attention, and my respect, and my admiration.
I met Wayne back in the early '60s before I joined Miles's band.
I remember thinkin', "Wayne is brilliant,
but I can't tell whether it's that he's a genius or he's a madman."
[Herbie]Well, I find out he's a genius.
[Wayne] There's no plan.
It's just, you know, come out there...
vulnerable...
and walk the walk.
Thoughts, words and deeds.
♪ We were married on a rainy day ♪
♪ The sky was yellow and grass was gray ♪
♪ We signed the papers and drove away ♪
♪ I do it for your love
♪ The sky was yellow and the grass was gray ♪
The concept of the record is that it's a duet,
so... the vocals are only half of what's going on
and the other half Paul mentioned that maybe we could do it as a duet.
I said to Paul, "What if we had maybe two or three percussionists
create some kind of exotic rhythm track?"
Percussion certainly...
could allow the spirit of a duetand not interfere with it.
What are you guys thinking rhythmically?
[Herbie] Paul Simon came to the recording studio
a day earlier than he was scheduled.
Actually, I got to the studio, he was already there.
He offered to organize the percussion section.
♪ [humming]
♪ We were married on a rainy day ♪
♪ The sky was yellow and the grass was gray ♪
[Herbie] He did do Graceland,
combining a rhythmic track
that had North African, Middle Eastern influence.
It kind of triggered those memories in his head.
Even though Herbie says,
"Look, I don't want to make a jazz record," you know,
I think what he means is
he doesn't want to make a cliched jazz record.
♪ The sky was yellow the grass was gray ♪
[Herbie] The big surprise was that he said to me,
"Hey, Herbie, you think there's a way for you to do my tune in a minor key?"
And I went...
Hmm. Yeah, I think so."
Not only did Paul ask me if I could do this song in a minor key,
but the other suggestion he made was to do the song
and just have one minor cord.
And I thought about it,
and I said, "Well, there's a way to approach that."
♪ [scatting]
No, no, no. That's okay. That's okay.
[Herbie] If I were trying to do a record
just for the fans that already buy my records,
then I could just do the regular jazz record.
I'm looking to show other sides of me influenced by other people,
by the environment, by the times.
♪ [computerized]
[Brian] One, nine, five.
One, two...
[Herbie] I've been around science and technology for a number of years.
When I was a kid,when I was like five years old,
even before I started playing piano,
I used to take apart watches and put them back together,
and I tried to take apart my electric-- Lionel electric train
and put it back together.
Most of the time they didn't work when I put them back together,
but I was always this curious kind of kid.
I was an engineering major in college for my first two years.
♪
One, two.
Is that zero?
You got minus two, minus one, zero.
One, two.
[Herbie] Synthesizers didn't come on the scene till around the '70s,
very late '60s.
I was there, yeah.
♪
This is amazing.
This is not just a piano. It is a synthesizer.
This instrument, this keyboard,
which works with this computer here and this monitor here.
All these things work together.
And you can have so many other different kinds of things
that you can't do on a piano.
For example, I can play... ♪
See how fun?
I want you make laughter. How about that?
Play this note.
[electronic laughter]
[giggling]
[Man] Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!
[laughs]
Say it! Say that! Say it!
[women] ♪ Doo doo wop ♪
[laughs] What?
Herbie's exuberance about technology and his sense of adventurism,
just new ways to create, you know,
going into new possibilities is definitely contagious.
♪
Yeah!
[Herbie] I was becoming more and more frustrated
with the music that I was playing.
All of a sudden, I started to think about Sly Stone
when I was into Sly Stone.
And I started thinkin',
"Boy, thank you for letting me be myself again."
That's the funkiest thing I ever heard in my life."
♪
Would I like to play something that's funky?
The answer was yes.
♪
That's just funky.
- Damn. - Imagine if you had this during Headhunters.
♪
[Herbie] The idea of fusion was not a new concept.
But using fusion was rock and jazz and I think a little funk.
We started writing these tunes and did this record that we called Headhunters.
I was coming really from my Mwandishiside,
from the stuff I did back in the early '70s,
the avant-garde area that I worked in.
Back in the early '80s,
I was at the right place at the right time with the right people.
♪ [scratching]
I heard scratching as kind of an ambient kind of sound, you know,
but in a rhythmic fashion.
I said, "Yeah, I want to do something with that."
"Rockit" was a great turning point.
The origins of hip-hop started in the late '70s.
Herbie was certainly one of the first, if not thefirst
jazz artist to implement those elements.
[Herbie] I had no idea that anything would happen with it.
I remember one time somebody told me they went to...
a break-dance contest.
♪
There were 25 groups,
and they could each choose any piece of music
they wanted to break to.
24 of them chose "Rockit."
I said, "I'm glad I wasn't there.
I don't think I wanted to hear that thing 24 times."
♪
There have been changes in my music.
I would say that my music has gotten broader,
and for me, it's like...
expanding the colors that I can choose from
for expression.
♪
♪ Long white arms
♪ Losing their strength and form ♪
♪ Sixty-year man on twenty-year-old skin ♪
♪ Skeleton
♪ Your eyes have lost their warmth ♪
♪ Look to your father for some support ♪
[Herbie] I wanted to bring something to Annie,
so I asked Paula Cole if she had some things that maybe I could show to Annie.
And she told me that Annie was like...
probably themajor influence on her
musically and as a singer.
Anyway, I sent some things to Annie.
One piece in particular she really loved,
which was called "Hush Hush Hush."
♪ Hush, hush, hush
Beautiful. It's beautiful.
♪ Hush No, just--
'Cause I go like this--
♪ Hush, hush, hush
And then we get your chord change.
- ♪ Hush, hush, hush - Right, yeah.
Okay.
♪ Cruel joke
♪ You waited so long to show
♪ The one that you wanted wasn't a girl ♪
What's this line, "The one that you wanted wasn't a girl"?
You mean his father wanted a girl.
That why this line, "Look to your father for some support."
That's the one I never quite understood.
♪ Peace, peace, peace
♪ May you go in peace
Hey, Herbie?
Yeah, I'm here.
You know, I just had an idea just to do...
♪ Or maybe next time
♪ [hums]
♪ Wake up tomorrow
But it can be in the background.
It doesn't have to be too strong.
I love it, I love it.
Okay.
♪ Or maybe next time
♪ You'll be Henry the VIII
♪ Wake up tomorrow
♪ Alexander the Great
You know, that's odd, isn't it?
The male personas that where...
you'll come back as men-men, manly men.
- Right. - You know?
Henry the VIII, pretty manly man, apparently.
Alexander the Great, maybe you--
That's a funny little twist.
♪ Hush, hush, hush
I think the daughter is realizing
the father has this profound disappointment in his life,
which he's in basic denial
'cause he's going, "Hush. I'm the dad. Hush. No more."
- Oh! - That's how I see it.
- That makes the most sense. - Come on, Herbie, listen.
As the our leader, put that call in.
I actually have Herbie here, and he wants to ask you a question
if it's not a bad time for you.
Okay. Hold on.
Paula.
All right. How are you?
Great.
We've been doing "Hush Hush Hush" with Annie.
Everybody's been speculating
as to what the true meaning of the song is.
How many interpretations have we--
Six, seven, eight.
Six, seven or eight different interpretations.
And we wanted to know for sure. Right.
Yeah, here's Annie.
Hi, Paula.
[woman] That phone call was like a lighting bolt in my life.
I'll always remember that phone call.
I love them both so much,
and when I spoke to Annie on the phone,
she said, "Yeah, I guess you tried to meet me at one of my shows in Australia."
I said, "Annie, you don't understand.
I've been to every show of yours,
starting from 1983, the Sweet Dreams Tour."
Oh, it's such a wonderful song.
I love the song. It's very haunting.
We've been all so intrigued by it 'cause we were--
especially me--
desperate to know exactly what the story is behind it.
We're just trying to piece it together.
That's why I was saying all along,
"Herbie, you've got call her and find out really what this is about."
♪ Open your eyes
♪ In your new life again
♪ Oh, maybe next time
♪ You'll be given a chance
[Paula] Lyrically, it's complicated,
but chorally, it's different.
It's not the normal, especially at the end.
It goes into this cycle of major seven chords
that almost feels like--
I mean, the song, as it's revealed,
is about a young man dying of AIDS.
It's about a young man dying of AIDS.
That's what it is.
We never got that. Oh, God.
And her--
Oh, it's about somebody that you really knew.
I wanted to write about that because a friend of mine died from AIDS,
but it's such a heavy, big subject,
and how do you sing about such a thing
without it becoming morose or banal?
I had to do it in a way that was... tender.
[Herbie] His relationship with his father was never right.
Finally, as he's dying,
they're stumbling through trying to finally just,
"Come on, now."
Actually, now that we know what it is,
it does give it a hell of an anchor, doesn't it?
- Oh, yeah. - Hell of a context.
♪ All your life
♪ You kept it hidden inside
♪ Now when you step
♪ You stumble
♪ You die
♪ Hush, hush, hush
♪ Says your Daddy's touch
♪ Hush, hush, hush
This is a record without borders.
It'll be like a tapestry that's woven with many colors.
♪ [rock guitar]
- How you doing, Jonny? - Really glad to meet you.
Yeah, great pleasure, man. Thanks for makin' it all happen.
♪
♪ I was a sailor I was lost at sea ♪
♪ Under the waves before love rescued me ♪
♪ I was a fighter I could turn on a thread ♪
♪ Now I stand accused of the things I've said ♪
♪ When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train ♪
♪ When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame ♪
♪ Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down ♪
♪ But I did what I did
♪ Before love came to town
- ♪ Ooh, yeah - ♪ Yes, when love came down
I had an idea. I don't know if this'll work or not,
but when we do the vocal thing,
what if the kit drums were more like a...
[imitates drum]
It would be...
It would give it another flavor on top of it. I'd have to see how it is.
♪ [humming]
♪ I was there when they crucified my Lord ♪
♪ I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword ♪
♪ I threw the dice when--
[coughs]
- [music stops] - Sorry.
♪ I threw the dice when they pierced his side, but I... ♪
All right, yeah. Let's do that.
♪ Pierced his side
♪ But I seen love conquer the
- ♪ Great divide - Okay. All right.
- Right on. That's great. - Okay, let me try.
- I'm gonna forget by the time I get in there. - No, you won't. I got ya.
♪ I threw the dice when they pierced his side ♪
♪ But I seen love conquer the great divide ♪
♪ When love comes to town I'm gonna face that train ♪
♪ When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame ♪
♪
- Right? - Yeah.
♪
♪ [humming]
[all laughing]
That was sick right there.
[Herbie] I was in Paris in '85. I was doing 'Round Midnight.
I would go at night. I'd go down to the theater to hear Sting.
I sat in with him about three times.
All the models would come to the theater to see Sting.
Every night it was like fine chicks everywhere.
- Hi. How are you? - I'm fine. Nice to meet the other side.
Good. Oh, hey, Donna. How are you?
Oh, hi. Pearl? Pleasure.
- Hi. - Hey, how you doin'?
- Nice to see you. - I'm so glad you're here.
- Happy birthday. - I don't want to play that shit.
- When was it? - What?
My birthday was last Saturday.
- A belated happy birthday. - Thank you, everybody.
- So how old are you now? - I'm 53.
- 53? I figured around-- - Same age as you.
Yeah, right.
[Herbie] When Sting suggested "Sister Moon,"
at first I started to think, you know,
maybe we should writesomething specifically for this.
Something new. But...
Then I started to think, well, maybe we can come up with another way to do it.
So I called Lionel Loueke,
who is an amazing guitar playerfrom Benin, West Africa.
He was a member of the student band
for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
I called him and asked him, "You know, do you think...
you could come up with some kind of arrangement idea
that utilizes some of the stuff from Africa
with the tune "Sister Moon"?
So he made this arrangement, which--
I looked at it, but I haven't really played it.
But I looked at some of the chords and stuff.
- This is kind of cool. - Cool.
[Herbie] Because of the particular culture that he comes from
in Benin, West Africa,
there's some elementsthat he can lend to the music...
♪
that give it another kind of twist.
Yeah.
Yeah! That had some-- That was cool, man.
I'll set up Lionel.
I didn't know what Lionel was going to come up with.
♪ [humming]
Yeah. You got to get that push like that.
It's cool.
[Lionel] It's a lot about the rhythm.
It's a lot about the spirit too.
The way you--
The same phrase can be played from like ten musicians,
and they all will play differently.
Like the musicians from Africa,from America, from Europe,
they all gonna play differentbecause from where you grow up,
you have that background inside of you naturally.
It overlaps stuff we know,
but it's got this other stuff--
He cements it with his hand.
♪ Sister Moon
♪ Ah
[scatting]
That's right, that's right.
- Say, what's the number about?- It can change.
[Herbie] Something that took us "pros"
a while to really kind of...
grasp the heart of it, you know.
It wasn't--
Yes, we could play it, but to really, like, own it,
it took awhile.
[Herbie] I'm sorry. I keep screwing it up.
You got to pay attention.
Yeah, yeah.
[Sting] I tried to do a riff here. I couldn't really get it.
You saw how long it took us to find the meter.
- Oh, here, here. - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
♪
♪ Lying in
♪ a mother's arms
♪ A primal root
♪ Of a woman's charms
♪ I'm a stranger to the sun
♪ My eyes are too weak
♪ How cold is a heart
♪ When it's warmth that it seeks ♪
♪ You watch every night
♪ You don't care what I do
♪ I'd go out of my mind
but for you ♪
[clapping]
[Lionel] One of my dreams was to be in America.
And one of my highest dreams was to play with the best.
You know, Herbie, Wayne.
And you know, it's like, for me, I'm living my dream.
[Herbie] He's really talented.
I want him to get everything he deserves
'cause he's a sweetheart of a guy.
That's the kind of people we want to be big stars.
I'm sick of the assholes.
♪ My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ♪
♪ My hunger for her explains everything I've done ♪
♪ To howl at the moon
♪ The whole night through
♪ And they really don't care
♪ I'd go out of my mind
but for you ♪
I didn't know he was that bad.
I didn't know he was that happening.
I mean, I knew he can sing, but...
he was doing a lot of stuff I never heard him do.
You were killing it. I never heard you sing like that.
- Me, neither. - I mean, you--
♪ My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ♪
♪ My hunger for her explains everything I've done ♪
♪ To howl at the moon
♪ The whole night through
♪ And they really don't care
♪ I'd go out of my mind
♪ But for you
[chanting]
[Herbie] It really took my practice of Buddhism
to help me to realize
that those lessons that were taught to me about music,
these lessons are really applied to life.
I mean, isn't it a human being's highest goal
to be able to take whatever happens,
whether it's feast or famine,
whether it's pleasant things or unpleasant things,
to take those things and somehow turn them into something of value?
♪ [ethereal]
[Herbie] I used to have the opinion that I am a musician.
I used to think that. I don't think that anymore
because I realize,
because of this practice,
that I am a human being first.
Being a musician is something that I do.
It's not something that I am.
I'm much more interested in improving my life
and my life as a servant of humanity.
And I realize also
that that's the purpose of my music,
is to serve humanity.
[woman] What is your purpose for coming to Hiroshima?
We're hoping to throw as large a stone as we possibly can
into the ocean of ideas
to draw attention to the importance
of the establishment of a lasting peace.
[shouting]
[applause]
[Japanese announcer]
♪
[Herbie] For years, music--
in particular, jazz performers--
have been cultural ambassadors.
I mean, you know,
Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie
have played all over the planetand have written pieces
inspired by the different cultures that they've been exposed to.
[Herbie] So here we are, Americans,
members of the country that did this horrible, tragic act.
It was our way to represent
the American spirit of sorrow and apology.
Whew.
The world should see this museum.
It's so necessary to constantly be reminded
of the kind of results
that are a product of man's inhumanity toward man.
This is the replica of the actual bomb. It's call the Fat Man.
[Wayne] And when it's too late,
we find out about the beauty of something that we destroyed.
[Herbie] We must ensure that the lives who were lost,
their suffering was not in vain
for the future and survival of those who inhabit the earth.
Through my music, I've been able to realize
that there isn't just one way of looking at this,
or there isn't just one way to look at
the difficulties we have in life.
There's an infinite number of ways to look at things.
Sometimes we have to createthat vision or that possibility.
But the human spirit has the ability to be able to do that.
[applause]
♪
When you said Jew's harp, first I thought,
"Okay, maybe she's screwing around."
But you said, "No, I am really good at Jew's harp."
Then something told me,
"I wonder if she's telling the truth."
♪
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.- I like it when you conduct me.