American musical legend Herbie Hancock appeared on WAMU 88.5’s The Diane Rehm Show today to discuss his new book, Possibilities, and chat about his career, including the five MTV Video Music Awards he won in 1984 for “Rockit.” (Michael Jackson only won three that year.)
“You have had me chanting all weekend long,” Rehm says at the beginning of the show, referring to Hancock’s practice of Buddhism. Later on, as the interview returns from a break, Hancock himself chants along with a recording of the “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” mantra. “Great sound, right?” he says, as only a jazz veteran can. (Side note: Buddhist imagery appears on the cover of Man-Child, one of his essentially funky 1970s albums and a Bandwidth favorite.)
Listen to the nearly hour-long interview with Hancock here, and see more from Hancock on The Diane Rehm Show‘s site, which also has an excerpt from Possibilities.
Photo by Flickr user Thomas Faivre-Duboz used under a Creative Commons license.