Herbie Hancock Joins Harvard As 2014 Guest Lecturer [BBC Radio Interview & Full Schedule / Ticket Info]

One of the all-time great keyboard players, Herbie Hancock, will be making 6 guest lectures at Harvard University during the spring of 2014 as part of a program called The Ethics Of Jazz. This is part of the Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry, where poetry extends to music as well. Previous masters to hold this position as the Norton Chair at Harvard include T.S. Eliot (1932-33), Igor Stravinsky (1939-40), Leonard Bernstein (1972-73), and John Cage (1988-89).

Herbie discussed the program in a fantastic 15 minute interview with BBC Radio's Up All Night:

Harvard has kept documentation of past lectures, including audio and video, so hopefully it will be possible for people to access who aren't able to make it to Cambridge in person for the lectures. Jazz historians will be particularly interested in the first lecture, The Wisdom of Miles Davis, since Hancock was part of Davis's quintet from 1963-1968 and also participated in the groundbreaking Miles albums In A Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and On the Corner, that created a fusion between jazz, rock, funk, classical, and electronic music styles. From that point in his career, Hancock created his own revolutionary music that took things even farther with incredibly original compositions like "Chameleon" and "Rockit" (just to name a couple).

Here is the full schedule and ticket info from Harvard's website.

THE ETHICS OF JAZZ

4pm, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street

Set 1 - THE WISDOM OF MILES DAVIS
Monday, February 3

Set 2 - BREAKING THE RULES
Wednesday, February 12

Set 3 - CULTURAL DIPLOMACY AND THE VOICE OF FREEDOM
Thursday, February 27

Set 4 - INNOVATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Monday, March 10

Set 5 - BUDDHISM AND CREATIVITY
Monday, March 24

Set 6 - ONCE UPON A TIME…
Monday, March 31

Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture at Sanders Theatre and online (handling fee applies). Limit of 2 tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m. on the day of the event.

Source: Harvard Norton Lectures & BBC Radio