Bob Gluck's Blog

An interesting connection, largely unknown, formed between Herbie Hancock and British art rock group King Crimson (led by guitarist Robert Fripp) during the early days of the Headhunters’ band. This is noted by Sid Smith in his book about King Crimson. I thank guitarist James Keepnews for pointing me to it. In his book, Smith quotes bassist John Wetton about how Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford (best known for being the original drummer in Yes, followed by King Crimson, and then his more jazz oriented Earthworks) used to warm up playing vamps from ‘Crossings’. I decided to ask Bill Bruford about it, and found that he had rich and warm memories.

It turns out that Bruford had long followed Herbie’s work during the Miles period, and he attended an Mwandishi show in 1972, probably in Kansas City. This was shortly after the release of ‘Crossings’, a recording that Bruford says “to this day sends hairs up the back of my neck.” Herbie himself visited the Crimson band backstage, showing particular interest in their use of the Mellotron, long a staple in British rock of the period. Bruford had felt that American jazz was far ahead of British jazz, but he also had the impression that some British musicians (like King Crimson of the ‘Islands’ period) may have provided musical stimulus to Americans like Herbie Hancock, providing “some of our ideas on form and arrangement and texture” that furthered the move “out of the old head-solo-solo-solo-head cul-de-sac that jazz had got itself in to.” Of course, that shift emerges from a longer American history (Coltrane, Colemen, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and even Miles’s second Quintet), but my recollection of hearing King Crimson band several times during that period reminds me that something very musically significant and unusual was happening there, and the more I think about it, the greater seem the possibilities of cross fertilization between musical worlds – particularly textural – than we assume. Like Miles before him, Herbie Hancock was listening to a tremendous array of forms and styles of music, and had done so for much of his life.

On a slight side note, the current musical success of Cindy Blackman’s Another Lifetime band (with Vernon Reid and others) brings to mind the broader cross fertilization taking place. Another Lifetime captures the sensibility and renews the repertoire of Tony Williams Lifetime, the pioneering band that engaged elements of rock and jazz in the late 60s and early 70s. The guitarists that Williams recruited, first John McLaughlin, emerged from the British blues and jazz scene, as was the case for Dave Holland, who joined Miles around the same time. There were indeed interesting musical synergies brewing between musicians like King Crimson, Soft Machine, pianist Keith Tippet, and the more blues-rock scene that included McLaughlin and Jack Bruce, formerly band mates. But that’s really a side story, one worth telling on another occasion.

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One of the more interesting aspects to Herbie Hancock’s career during the Mwandishi period was his visits to Alain LeRoy Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles. I know of two visits, one while Ndugu Leon Chancler was in high school and the other when Patrice Rushen was there. In both cases, the visits were occasioned by an insightful teacher, Reggie Andrews, who directed the school’s jazz workshop during a time when nationally, jazz studies were largely undeveloped.

When Herbie Hancock visited the high school in 1969, Chancler was a student and a budding drummer. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry, Chancler was invited, along with a student bassist, to join Hancock in playing ‘Maiden Voyage’ for their fellow students. The students were already familiar with Hancock’s original Sextet’s music from attending shows at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach and Shelley’s Manne Hole in Los Angeles. Chancler had been particular struck by the playing of Joe Henderson. When the band was in the process of reforming, Chancler had the opportunity to join the band for a show at the Lighthouse and subsequently serve as a second drummer on the recording of the tune ‘Ostinato’ during the ‘Mwandishi’ sessions.

Two years later, all the members of the 1971 Mwandishi band visited Alain LeRoy Locke High School (right after the recording of the album Mwandishi) to listen to the student performances and meet the students. Rushen describes “our first hand encounter with these musicians away from the stage and there to visit us, interact and observe” as “profound”. In turn, the students then attended a show by the band at The Lighthouse. This time, the tables were turned and the students listened and soaked it all in. Clearly, the experience of hearing the band perform, having met the musicians, was also deeply important.

We now face a time of limited funding for the Arts in the schools. Where jazz is studied and heard, there is often a rather conservative view of the music. Student exposure to jazz in general may have grown over the years, although it is under threat due to funding cuts, but much of what they experience and play is older repertory. There is little contact with more cutting edge forms of expression. The foresight of Reggie Andrews and colleagues like him stands as continued inspiration for what is possible. All that it took was exposing students to more advanced music and then inviting forward thinking musicians, often happy to oblige, to visit. My own experience in college with the forward thinking teacher Donald J. Funes supports the same contention. A visionary teacher can have the power to inspire students to step beyond what they know and fellow musicians are often happy to come and share what they have to offer.

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There’s no better way to really dig into music than transcribing it. That’s the stage I’m up to with the Mwandishi book. So far this week, I’ve notated examples from Herbie’s early work – solos from ‘Pentacostal Feeling’ from Donald Byrd’s “Free Form” and Byrd’s ‘Marney’ from Jackie McLean’s “Vertigo,” and a clip from Horace Silver’s ‘Blowin’ the Blues Away’ (as an example of a kind of chordal riff that Herbie would come to adapt and adopt). From the Mwandishi band, I’ve done two examples from ‘Ostinato: Suite for Angela’, and I’m working on slices of ‘You’ll Know When You Get There’ and ‘Sleeping Giant’ (both of which I first notated two years ago so that I could create my own arrangements to play live). What’s ahead are examples from each of the three tunes on “Sextant.” You’ll be able to see these examples when the book is released, but I this process as a great way to listen more closely.

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My upcoming recording ‘Something Quiet’ (FMR Records), with Joe Giardullo (soprano sax) and Christopher Dean Sullivan (bass) includes an unusual arrangement of Herbie Hancock’s ‘Dolphin Dance’. Information: http://www.reverbnation.com/bobgluck and http://www.electricsongs.com/somethingquiet.html.

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