Cracks not Doors
On finally meeting Herbie Hancock
What’s good everyone,
First off, thank you to everyone who has been a paid subscriber for this last year and for those who are signing up for another year. It is a tremendous gift to have this financial support as I write. Along those lines, I’ll be hosting my monthly Notes of Rest Fellowship group for subscribers Aug 27th at 7.15p central. This is an online place where we talk about our practice of rest, praying from and learning with each other. (This month we’ll be studying stillness.) I’ve really appreciated the accountability of this intimate gathering. The link is in the “What’s Next” section for those who’d like to sign up and join.
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A few months ago I wrote about how I wanted to meet fellow Chicagoan Herbie Hancock in- person but needed to learn to be content in the audience like everyone else. For sure that was a good spiritual lesson about the cautions of hero worship, but this past Saturday, at the San Jose Jazz Fest, God was kind enough to make a long-time dream come true of meeting one of the cats I admire most in music. After I played with my jazz-electronic fusion group The JuJu Exchange, I got to meet Herbie after my set and before his (and before Cory Henry’s). The encounter was set up by the piano phenom and fellow Chicagoan Jahari Stampley who was gracious enough to bring me backstage to meet him. Terence Blanchard (who scored the Spike Lee Joints) was also in Herbie’s band and thus chillin. Talk about an epic hang.
Shaking Herbie’s hand and saying thank you for everything he’s done for me was of course special, and the show was of course incredible (even more so because I was 10 feet behind him watching him the whole time.) But what really set the day apart was the interaction afterwards.