When Herbie Hancock Went Disco

It's awesome that Herbie was doing stuff like Rockit and then going over to Japan and just blowing the hell out of some postbop jazz. Bad MF'er.

The Wire wrote a snooty review of his duet album with Wayne Shorter in 1998 or so while dumping on his more obviously commercial work. It prompted me to write a letter about how they were totally ignoring all of his Japanese-only releases—ie, Dedication, Directstep, and all those trips with Tony Williams and Ron Carter—that kind of demonstrated a much broader spectrum of interests than they suggested and how they often converged.

Herbie’s Columbia deal was great in the sense that it allowed him to record almost anything he wanted. But because they limited which market saw what, it often gave off the impression that he was just a jazz guy who wanted to make some money too.

Also: he jumped in the air with the keytar at my show too. And it was awesome.