Herbie Hancock

HERBIE HANCOCK
"POSSIBILITIES"
(WEA, 2005)


"Stitched Up" (featuring John Mayer)


Legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock, who started out as a member of Miles Davis' quintet in the 1960s, has dabbled in rock and pop music from time to time, most notably with his huge crossover hit, "Rockit", in 1983. Since jazz hasn't been a favorite genre of mine for quite a few years now, I admit that I've never paid much attention to him before. But as soon as I happened upon this disc and read the list of guest artists -- a veritable who's-who of the rock and pop music world -- I knew I had to have it.

Much like Santana's recent albums, this is a collaboration project, but whereas Santana brings his guest artists into his enchanted world of Latin music, Hancock allows the featured players on his album to mostly stay in their familiar genres, but injects a bit of his trademark jazz arrangements and magical piano work into them. The result is a more free-flowing and relaxed album -- though no less enjoyable -- than Santana's last few.

Christina Aguilera shines on the sultry, torchy "A Song For You" (which earned a Grammy nomination); gifted young Latin guitarist Raul Midón breathes beautiful new life into Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You"; soul-singing powerhouse Joss Stone and blues prodigy Jonny Lang are an explosive combination on "When Love Comes To Town"; and the vocals of Grammy-winning Beninese chanteuse Angélique Kidjo along with the Latin guitar mastery of Carlos Santana make "Safiatou" a true world-music tour-de-force. And that's not even mentioning the equally fantastic tracks featuring John Mayer, Annie Lennox, Sting, and Paul Simon!

I recently happened upon a documentary film (which I didn't know existed) about the making of this album, showing how each of the tracks came about. The movie gave me a new appreciation for the album. Suffice to say, if I hadn't known about the album before I'd seen the documentary, I would have run out and grabbed it immediately. I don't remember exactly how I found out about the album, but boy, am I glad I did.