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Herbie Hancock: Possibilities


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The crack thing is "funny" to me, because I figured it would have come around the early 80s, the time of Monster & Magic Windows, that stuff, neither particularly interesting for any reason, nor particularly inspired in any way. But no, it came in the early 90s, when Herbie was making ok-enough records for Verve, like the Massey Hall thing with Brecker. So, ok, don't blame the drugs then. And besides, there were some other things going on in those years, like Mr. Hands, that were actually pretty good. But Monster in particular, I'd prefer to think that that was the work of a crackhead gone wrong than to think that it was the best Herbie (or anybody) could come up with at the time. That's just depressing.

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The crack thing is "funny" to me, because I figured it would have come around the early 80s, the time of Monster & Magic Windows, that stuff, neither particularly interesting for any reason, nor particularly inspired in any way. But no, it came in the early 90s, when Herbie was making ok-enough records for Verve, like the Massey Hall thing with Brecker. So, ok, don't blame the drugs then. And besides, there were some other things going on in those years, like Mr. Hands, that were actually pretty good. But Monster in particular, I'd prefer to think that that was the work of a crackhead gone wrong than to think that it was the best Herbie (or anybody) could come up with at the time. That's just depressing.

I think he still had a sense of direction in the 1980's, although you could argue about its musical value. That vision kind of got lost after 1990, that he didn't have a real working band may be a symptom. His "projects" after 1990 never convinced me that much, and if they did, there were bandmates from the Headhunters involved. His playing on the Joe Henderson Jobim CD on Verve was much more loose and ispired than on his own Standards CD, IMO. The crack use may be a symptom of his rather low level of inspiration, or be (at least be part of) the reason for it. That whole process of drug acquisition and hiding its use, the double life, consumes so much energy ... before that, Herbie was a maker, just creating the ideas he got. After it, less dreams, and less energy to make them come true. Just my two cents.

What's depressing to me is that it took away so much of his potential from us, and himself.

Creative potential = Possibilities ?

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