Quote Blog

Herbie is telling a story about the time the Herbie Hancock Sextet played at the London House in Chicago. This series of shows was towards the beginning of Herbie's career when he was still figuring out full on show business. The most difficult part that he mentioned is that they were not playing conventional jazz. The music that they were playing was described as "far out" music. The best relation to this that I have posted so far may be Miles' Bitches Brew album. Herbie and some of the founding members of the later acclaimed V.S.O.P quintet formed the Herbie Sextet and played at the London House for a week or so. The first few days resulted in disappointed audiences and the manager of the club, Oscar, being angry at the waste of money that he had put into having the Sextet play. The problem that the sextet was having was that they were unable to connect with each other or the audience that they were playing for.

Once the word got out about the sextet playing out there sounding music, the audiences of people who wanted to listen started attending. Herbie recalls that the day the people came who were interested in the music that they were playing was the day that the feel and overall musicality changed. The positivity from the audience fueled the band to relax and lock up and play together properly. One of the things that Herbie stated was that when he looked down at his hands, he realized that he was not telling them what to play. It was almost as if they were moving completely on their own. This then lead into the quote that I picked below. The power of the music pushed Herbie's Sextet into becoming one unified brain almost. As music is a form of communication and collaboration, the group was working together and communicating in an unbreakable way. Looking back at my last quote blog, I had shared the quote from Herbie about what jazz was. He had stated that Jazz is open and sharing. The sharing became so close between these musicians as well as the connection through communication that they became a pulsating creature.



"As we got deeper into the music we became one big, pulsating creature - all of those guys somehow became me, and I became all of them"

This relates to me because I have been to this place before. The reason that I love playing music is for those few times a month that I am together with a group of musicians and we connect in a way through music that makes nothing else important but the music. The experience is an unbelievable natural high. All you can feel is the music. I can't describe the feeling... it is just something you have to feel for yourself! But a time that I have felt this is when I got the most amazing chance to play with   British Blues Hall Of Fame Matt Schofield! Here is the video Click!


When playing with other musicians, you learn how to anticipate. Anticipation is one of the largest skills that you can have as a musician. It allows for you to be able to understand where the music is going and what is needed from you to be able to achieve that direction. Half of anticipation is knowing the style of music that you are playing. The other half is knowing the people that you are playing with. After playing with a musician for a prolonged amount of time, you learn to expect what they are about to play next, kind of like how you know your best friends next reaction.