Hancock's 'Future 2 Future' Features Range Of Styles

06/15/2001 1:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(6/15/01, 1 p.m. ET) -- Keyboardist extraordinaire Herbie Hancock has long been interested in the interplay between jazz and other forms of commercial music, including dance, hip-hop, and rock. His Grammy-winning composition "Rockit" has been credited with helping to popularize hip-hop as a legitimate musical form. The single won a Grammy in 1983 as best instrumental R&B song.

Now Hancock has gathered an array of artists from various idioms for his new CD Future 2 Future, produced by Bill Laswell, who worked with Hancock on Future Shock and Rockit. Featuring Chaka Khan, DJ Rob Swift, A Guy Called Gerald, Carl Craig, and poet Dana Bryant, as well as longtime associates Wayne Shorter, Jack DeJohnette, and the late Tony Williams, the CD has been described on his label's website as capturing "Herbie's take on the new progressive music of the 21st century from the DJ/dancefloor culture that is transforming music as we speak." The new album bows on September 25.

Hancock, who contributed a tune to hip-hop maestro Guru's 2000 CD Jazzmatazz 3, says that his ongoing mission--reflected on the new album--is similar to that expressed by Guru for his album. "Between newer musicians and the older established musician there's really no gap," Hancock told LAUNCH. "We respect each other. And people kinda would expect that the old guys would be kind of very cynical about what some of the new people are doing. And we're not. No. As long as it's good. You know there's a lot of bad stuff out there. I mean, there's a lot of great potential out there. What I'm about is wanting to be part of the force to encourage people to make good music, quality music using the new technologies and the new creative minds."

Hancock will tour in the fall with his new trio, with Roy Hargrove and Michael Brecker. The tour kicks off September 19 at Kuumba's in Santa Cruz, California.

-- Janine Coveney, Los Angeles

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