Herbie Hancock returns to his Juan-les-Pins garden: "It's like an old family here"

Sometimes we tend to go overboard with words, to exaggerate, like good Southerners. But here, there's no risk of deception: Herbie Hancock is a legend.

On the other side of the screen for a video call, he welcomes us peacefully from his hotel room. Grown-ups definitely don't need to make a big deal out of it. Returning this Saturday, July 19, to Jazz à Juan , three years after his last performance at the Pinède Gould, the American will feel right at home.

As leader, this will be the fourteenth time he will take to this legendary stage (we're still not exaggerating).

Before flying solo, the Chicago native had already performed there in 1963, as a sideman for Miles Davis, accompanied by Ron Carter on double bass, George Coleman on saxophone and Tony Williams on drums. The recording of that evening of July 27 was released by the CBS label under two different names: Miles Davis in Europe and Miles in Antibes .

An Oscar (with Bertrand Tavernier's Autour de minuit in 1987), 14 Grammy Awards, and thousands of concerts later, Mister Hancock's memories are sometimes more vague. But his taste for the stage, and even more so for exploration, are intact.

What keeps you playing so much?

It's what I love doing, I enjoy it. It's work, it's hard, but that's what I'm here for. As I've progressed, I've found another form of pleasure in performing. I really feel something else when I see the audience, it's as if we all belong to the same family. We're all human beings!

Is Jazz à Juan like an old family to you?

Yes, because the first time I came here, in 1963, was also the first time I'd traveled to Europe. I had some incredible times there. Drummer Tony Williams and I were the youngest members of Miles' band. He was 17 and I was 23. Some time ago, I learned that Brigitte Bardot had attended one of our shows during that tour. Incredible, right?

You've come to Juan very often, with different projects and groups. In 2015, you offered an incredible moment to the public with another pianist, Chick Corea...

I've played a lot in my career... I don't have any memories of that particular concert. But with Chick [who passed away in 2021, editor's note] , we had a special connection, from the first moment we saw each other. It was a bit like he was my brother from another mother. We talked about everything together: music, technology, or religion. He was a Scientologist, I'm Buddhist. We had recorded an album together in the 1970s [An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert, 1978] . It was a shock when he left, suddenly.

Many of your contemporaries are deceased or retired. How do you choose the musicians who surround you?

The first condition is to have talent. (laughs) They all have to have a unique sound and know how to continue to surprise each night, both me and the audience (1). Then, it's on the road, through conversations, that I learn to discover their humanity.

The term "jazz" is subject to many interpretations. What does it take to understand it?

The most important thing about jazz for me is to be open, to keep your ears open. No, actually, the most important thing is to keep your heart open.

With time, and people like me bringing you back to your past, is it difficult to move forward?

But the past is not something that blocks me or crushes me. I have always learned, especially from the many negative things that have happened to me in my life. And that has allowed me to transform them into something that could help me help others [he has been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 2011, among other things] .

In the documentary Herbie , directed by Frenchman Patrick Savey, you look back on your period of crack addiction. Is this also to help others?

Yes, and I've already opened up about this in my autobiography [ Possibilities , Penguin Editions, 2017, unpublished in French] . I'm not better than anyone else, you know. We all have our good and bad sides. I used to think I couldn't fall into that. Drawing on my spirituality, I took these moments as an opportunity to learn more about myself.

1. Around him, Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Genus on bass, Lionel Loueke on guitar and Jaylen Petinaud on drums.