Herbie Hancock is one of my favorite jazz pianists. He’s played with a lot of artists such as Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder. My introduction to him was through his improvisations in “As” from Stevie’s Songs In The Key Of Life.

This is my favorite acoustic piano driven album of his. Along with Maiden Voyage (which is a classic jazz recording from the 1960s), this album shows him taking the acoustic piano to other styles.

This album features Herbie collaborating with lots of artists from all styles of music and various cultures: John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, Annie Lennox, etc. Each song has its own adventure.

It’s hard to choose a favorite track out of all the songs on this album. One of my personal favorites is Leon Russell’s “A Song For You” featuring Christina Aguilera. Other favorites are “When Love Comes To Town,” “Sister Moon,” “Don’t Explain,” and “I Just Called To Say I Love You.” It’s pretty exciting how these songs are transformed into other musical places, plus the reharmonizations are pretty cool!

When I think of the fade out during the Paula Cole cover, “Hush Hush Hush,” my brain interprets it as entering into another place, like flying away.

It’s also fun hearing about the creative process for each song in the documentary.

Some other favorite Herbie albums include: Thrust, and the live Flood, from his electric phase with the Headhunters, Maiden Voyage, the Joni Mitchell tribute River which has several women putting their takes on her songs, and a compilation called Ken Burns Jazz which goes from early acoustic, to electric funk. I’d like to check out more of his albums some time.

You can watch the documentary about the making of Possibilities here on YouTube: