The Icons: Herbie Hancock | Exclusive Savage Content Interview transcript

first of all it was Donald bird that discovered me great trumpet player he brought me out of Chicago to join his band and I moved to New York and it was Donald bird that introduced me to Miles uh I came to New York in January of 1961 I think Donald took me over to to miles's house maybe it was 62 I don't remember exactly but um I remember now I had seen Miles before but had never been introduced to him I I'd seen him in in Chicago at concerts uh and I had met wion Kelly I had met before Paul Chambers I had met Jimmy cob I had met um but I was always afraid to introduce myself to miles but anyway so all of a sudden I met miles in miles's house and and we were in this Recreation room and I said play something so I was so nervous I I knew I couldn't play anything faster than a ballot so I think I maybe I played stal by Starlight or something and M said nice touch and I was so thrilled that Miles complimented me he said nice touch you know it just stuck with me it kind of hung with me you know so gave me a like warm and fuzzy feeling so that was the first time done that that I met miles but the way I I actually um found out that uh he wanted to he was interested in in and me being in this group there were rumors floating around New York in 1963 that Miles was looking for me and and I would always say yeah all right miles was they was looking for me I don't think so so um but you know as the weeks went actually even months went by uh I was hearing that more and more offering from from people and um so Donald bird who actually um he was my roommate we he he asked me to share his apartment and I I I slept on the hi of bed in the in the living room and then he had the it was just a one-bedroom apartment so so he and I were roommates for for two years and um Donald one day and and Donald by the way he really raised me in New York so he treated me like like I was his student or I was his Protegé or his apprentice and and U miles one day said okay um Herby when when miles calls you uh you have to tell him that you're not working with anybody I said first of all miles is not going to call me secondly How can I do that to you Donald I've been working with you for two years you know he says shut up man he said he said I could not sleep at night if I knew that I stood in the way of you having an opportunity like that work with miles so he said do what I said funny thing was within hours miles called and the first question he said was you working with anybody I said no and uh he said can you come by my house tomorrow at 1:30 or something and uh click he hung up now I had been to his house but I didn't remember where it was and so I didn't know where I was going to go but I knew Donald knew where where he lived but I was starting to panic a little bit and about a half hour later Tony Williams the drummer who uh I had worked with on and off with u Jackie McLean right uh outto saxophonist who also used to work with Miles um Tony called me up he said did Miles call you I said yeah he said he called me too and uh uh so he had miles as a dress and and so we both showed up the next day and Ron Carter was there on base and um George Coleman was aop phonus and so we wound up being at miles's house for 3 days I thought I was auditioning by the way on the second day um and we were in miles's Recreation room which is in his basement the second day uh we saw two men coming down the stairs in the middle of our you know running over some tunes and it was Gil Evans and Philly Joe Jones and and of two of my heroes right and um they came they stayed a little while and miles came down came downstairs by the way most of the time miles wasn't even there he was there the first day for about three minutes he played three or four those and went dud was horing on on the couch and ran upstairs and we never saw him till like when when when Gil and miles came Gil and and Philly Joe came by the next day miles came down and said something to them and then he went away again so we didn't see miles again until the third day and um I found out later years later that Miles had called Philly Joe up who was one of his best and trusted friends and Gil Evans who was like his brother right uh uh and said hey come over and listen to my new band that's what he said to them that's why they showed up I guess he must have told them that the first night you know because they showed up the second second day anyway uh what I also found out was that Miles was upstairs on on one of his upper floors listening to us played through the intercom because he knew that if he were down there we would have been too nervous to to com play so he wanted to hear us so in order to really hear us he had to remove himself for the from the room which was I that's wisdom which miles had a lot of um if you had to you had to kind of boil it down to the essence oh can I say one one more thing so so that third day miles comes down uh he he plays a few notes plays a few a few more than he did the first day and then he says okay tomorrow we have to meet at Columbia recording studios at 3:30 and I said does that does that mean I'm in the group miles and he said he looked at me he said you're making the record and another exploitive but he had kind of a little SL smile on his on his face and and uh so we made the the record called seven steps to heaven and uh and then the first gig was a week later we played at Bowden College in in Maine