Keeping the Music Alive

I made my first music video long before MTV was around, back in the early seventies when it was just a dream in some experimental videographer's heads. Then MTV came along and my video for "Rockit" won the most MTV video awards that first year (five). I'm always intrigued by new ideas and cutting edge technologies. These days we are constantly exposed to new technologies. You can make a music video on your iPhone and promote it on Twitter in about 30 seconds. That's what got me thinking about how to create a music video for the digital generation, for the kids who live their lives online and create their own media on a daily basis.

I have been lucky enough to be friends with the folks over at Canon for years and as my own interest in photography has evolved, they have consistently come out with new technologies to complement my picture taking. The Canon folks presented me with an idea to involve my fans and photographers in the creation of a new music video which I am doing for my song "Chameleon," a fan favorite. On Wednesday night, while I performed the song, we gave out Canon EOS 5D MKII cameras to the audience. The photos they took will be printed on the new Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Printer, a machine that allows both professional and budding professional photographers to print their images exactly as they envisioned them right at home. The photos will be edited and synced together to create the music video. The idea of a print-inspired "crowd-sourced" video where people collaborate instead of just being shot by one person is an exciting concept for me, and I'm hoping we can use it to engage a younger, digitally savvy audience with jazz, which is very important to me. I'm young at heart but I realize I'm not getting any younger in age.

It is crucial that jazz continually grows a new audience or it will pass away when the musicians and fans do. And this music is too important for the freedom of the human spirit to let that happen. Connecting with young people is one of the primary ways to make this work. Not only is it important to connect with my younger fans, but I also believe in connecting with younger artists. The artists I know who have had the greatest longevity and the ability to have a long-standing career are those who reach out to the younger generation and who keep reinventing themselves. Tony Bennett has been around for years, but young people know him because of his collaborations with younger artists. Madonna has reinvented herself time after time -- she always comes up with something fresh and new. My last album, The Imagine Project, was in seven different languages and included well known artists from eleven different countries. Many of those artists are well known here -- like Pink and Seal and John Legend and Dave Matthews. The younger generation knows these artists and downloads their music. My record has a message about peace through global collaboration and was a meaningful way for me, as a jazz musician, to show my work within the framework of talented artists who are popular today.

Another project that I am hoping to embark on in the near future and am currently beginning to develop is a global hip hop/rap influenced record, coupled with electronics, containing the rhymes and rhythms of people of various countries. Even though I've been in the business 50 years, it is the youth who are the future of music. That's why it is exciting for me to work with young people doing cutting edge stuff.

If I could share something with young people seeking an artistic career it would be this: Be willing to go out of your comfort zone and explore new territory. Did I think that at age 71 I would be creating a "crowd-sourced" music video with digital cameras that capture images that can be blasted around the world in minutes? No. But shaking things up and getting out of your comfort zone is what is exciting about life and mark my words, it is what will keep you young.

 

Comments

[RusStyles]

09:48 PM on 11/01/2011

Herbie is a timeless wonder. His progressiveness throughout his stellar career--I believe--has contributed mightily to his staying power and youthfulness. Keep reaching and sharing your remarkable talents!

[Darryl Kay]

05:39 PM on 11/01/2011

Music education has a proven correlation with performance in other aspects of learning. Even if music education is drying up doesn't mean you cannot exercise your and your family's brains by listening to and appreciating what is the quintessential American art form - jazz. It has changed and morphed itself over the years, so you're bound to find something that catches you, and you might just be a little smarter for the effort.

[BoomerWiz]

01:07 PM on 11/01/2011

Herbie

I love this comment:
"But shaking things up and getting out of your comfort zone is what is exciting about life and mark my words, it is what will keep you young."

And I love your approach to life!
BoomerWiz

[TheEmptyMonty]

08:16 AM on 10/31/2011

Herbie---- Thank you for all the wonderful music over the years. Jazz is still popular among the right kinds of young people, and will remain that way!

[josefz]

10:34 PM on 10/30/2011

Herbie, I'll never forget in my younger years trading my Maynard Ferguson 'Primal Scream' for 'Headhunters'. It blew me away. You have given so much to the jazz scene. I'll never forget the story of Ben Webster kicking Zawinul out of his band because Joe wanted to introduce some electronics. Jazz continues to evolve thanks to musicians such as yourself, Billy Childs, Molvaer, Fly trio, Dhafer Youssef, and countless others. Those who think its nothing more than standards has no idea of the current crop of artists and their musical experimentation that could only be labeled jazz. My son currently has the privelege of learning from some of the greats at Oberlin. He is looking forward to your trip to the conservatory in April.

[headstrong]

10:54 AM on 10/30/2011

I hate to say this Herbie, but jazz as a musical genre is dying. The people who listened to jazz in earlier decades are mostly all gone, and younger generations, by and large, have not embraced it.
I think you're preaching to the wind.

[ThePeoriaKid]

02:49 PM on 10/30/2011

You're wrong.. but that's OK...

Try not to speak for the multitudes out there who don't "advertise" their tastes to you and yours.

You need to get "out" more.

[JohnT1919]

09:20 PM on 10/30/2011

Thank you! And you're right; headstrong is terribly mistaken.

[Alexandra Spinner]

09:41 PM on 10/30/2011

Hate is exact. You should hate to say something from a place of total oblivion. And headstrong, your head is not strong enough to wrap itself around how profound Mr. Hancock's work and message is...in the future educated comments are best served up brains.

[jstartup]

06:49 AM on 10/30/2011

Good evening Audience, What key are you in tonight? That is wild and wonderful. Call and response to the next level. Next all the cell phones will sing.

[jstartup]

06:44 AM on 10/30/2011

Crowd sourced music, That jazzes me! What dangerous free territory yet to try. What key are you in tonight, audience?

[patililac]

05:35 AM on 10/30/2011

I understand Mr. Hancock's fascination with technology and how it can stretch the limits, but--and I never though I'd say something like this--music videos have ruined music. At least popular music. It is no longer a pure form of music where someone scruffy and dressed down can have a message that the music complements. An unattractive woman cannot ever become famous (Susan Boyle being the exception) and women are horribly exploited in most rock videos; women even exploit their own sexuality and call it "empowerment,' another word for "no one will watch me if I don't show most of my body."

[andresforeman]

09:53 AM on 10/30/2011

Combining one medium with another does not (inherently) destroy either. Your issue, I think, is not with music videos but with the sexual exploitation manifested within them. Don't get me wrong, I take issue with that as well. But we must remember that art is (granted among other things) a delivery system for sentiment. MTV sucks; VH1 sucks; the objectification-sexualization-brainwashing-of-aesthetics system sucks - however music videos by themselves do not inherently suck, nor does any medium-based innovation born from technology. If anything, these inventions help keep art fresh and alive.

[methodman]

02:13 AM on 10/30/2011

I think an interesting discussion would be discussing jazz songs and industries that lend themselves to certain rhythms. Alan Sherman wrote a song "Automation " about replacing workers with a machine back in the fifties I think. It was quite funny. I think working with PG Music might benefit that as well as they certainly by buying their original Omni Pack had such a large variety of music. You should do a jazz piano playoff with Miles Black. Pick a random tune comp and take turns soloing with Lisa Simone calling out some type of quality change to respond to. Bring in Barry Manilow and Mary McPartland in the mix and I think it would be a great lesson for wanna be musicians. I think Musical Charades would be very clever to do 4 times a year to have National standards to work with that are somewhat complex but playable by most hands not Art Tatum or Rachmaninoff size, and not necessarily accessible unless repetitively listened to you. Some songs will produce 5 or 6 moods. We need more of those now. Especially since the line between elbow grease practice and recording knowledge is easier to figure out and learn from. I am healing a tremendous dexterity problem because of my struggle to improvise on Piano and confront my Math and science dyslexia..

[bluemirror]

01:45 AM on 10/30/2011

God Bless.

Thank you for your genius.

[TrippyWeekender]

01:30 PM on 10/29/2011

Thanks for all the great music Herbie. You have enriched my life with your art and remain one of the few icons who wholeheartedly embrace bringing this art form actively into the lives of the audience. I worry that Jazz is once again at a crossroads and risks fading into the background of contemporary cultural awareness because it runs from its roots. Collaboration among the giants of jazz used to be a huge part of the musical landscape. These gatherings created landmark events as well as buzz and helped put jazz on the map. I would love to see a high profile nationwide tour featuring multiple legends of jazz that included associated projects such as a star-studded television special (PBS, HBO, cable nets), academic seminars, free public concerts, multi-media presentations etc. It would also create outreach and sponsorship opportunities needed to finance the events and compete in today's entertainment landscape. Going BIG and embracing the wonder of discovering jazz through the talents of its heroes will help capture the hungry ears (and eyes) of today's music fans. Until we are prepared to celebrate our heritage proudly in contemporary terms across multiple platforms, we can look forward to a diminished presence of jazz in the lives of our audience both here in America and around the world. And that would be a shame. p.s. If you need volunteers, I'm raising my hand.

[Yes We CanCan]

06:13 AM on 10/29/2011

Mr. Hancock, I wasn't aware of your fascination with the visual arts.
You seem not only skilled and thrilled, but a pioneer who's melded
music and videography. Your Chameleon has given me many happy
hours, and now I'm just more impassioned that ever to follow it with
your new video.

The global trends in your art are thrilling. I once heard that there could be
no democracy without jazz. Perhaps someday it will be said that there could
be no global peace were it not for Herbie Hancock.

Carry on the exciting progress of your artistry in the 21st century.

[Neets101]

06:12 AM on 10/29/2011

I miss our local jazz station so badly - that switched to the pop auto tune dance format. We now have four stations with this format. : (

My sons enjoy jazz, despite their affections for bang yer head metal. When you want jazz, nothing else will do.

Over the years I've met a lot of young people who enjoy jazz, I wish these artists the best in the quest to include younger audiences, I doubt they will need any luck, I know how jazz has a way of finding that part of you where all the musical barriers and pretense regarding style doesn't exist, and I know the surprise and pleasure that a listener feels when they realize that a primal part of the appreciation of music, the "heart and soul" has been connected to.

I can listen to the new pop as well, but as an observation, I find myself appreciating the sound technician as the true artist in many of the popular hits. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but the technical choices in some of the most popular songs younger people enjoy seem to be crucial elements to the song's appeal.

Nothing beats jazz on variation and originality, and it is no wonder that many musicians turn to it once they master the elements of classical and popular styles. I can imagine it is the most fun to create, and it's finished product achieves a profound element that easily touches many listeners.

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

11:14 PM on 10/28/2011

I'm not much of a rap fan, but I'm a young person with a rock music love and an appreciation for other types of music including pop, blues, jazz, funk, classical, techno. I'll have to check out the Imagine Project and I look foward to listening to your new work.