All language subtitles for Herbie.Hancock.Possibilities.2006

♪

[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

♪ 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

♪ Let's get together

♪ 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

♪ 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

♪ Hush, hush, hush

♪ Hush, hush, hush

♪ 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

♪ 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

♪ 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]

♪ [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.