Herbie Hancock On Making Anything Valuable

They were mid-song, mid-solo really.

Herbie Hancock was on piano, comping along, Miles Davis was on trumpet, weaving a melody, just like they’d done a million times before.

Hancock went in for the next chord in the changes and… got it dead wrong. Worse than dead wrong, actually. Dreadfully wrong and in the middle of a very live moment.

It was the type of chord that just sounds out of place and harsh. Like when you’re in a restaurant and somebody drops a tray of plates and silverware. That “somebody’s about to get fired” type of crash.

If you’re not a musician, think of it like tasting something you’re not expecting in a meal. You’re halfway through a slice of pizza and you accidentally take a sip of orange juice. In a second you know the error of your ways, and you brace for what happens next.

But Herbie got a surprise. Miles took a breath, and played with the off-color chord. Miles made it right. As Herbie explained it, with the caveat he’s thought about this moment A LOT since it happened,

I judged what I had played. Miles, didn’t. Miles just accepted it as something new that happened. And he did what any jazz musician should always try to do, and that is—try to make anything that happens into something of value.

Words to live by. Watch Herbie tell it here: