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What will Herbie Hancock’s new album with contributions from Flying Lotus and Thundercat sound like and who will be the final collaborators?

Herbie Hancock has a new interview with Billboard and he revealed his current work on the untitled follow-up to 2010’s Imagine Project. He says that he is committed to finishing the new album, but he was not firm on whether recent recordings with Thundercat and Flying Lotus would be included on the record. Flying Lotus and Hancock have worked together before as the legendary keyboardist is on the current FL album, You’re Dead. Hancock mentioned a new kind of jazz scene that’s taking place and inspiring some of his ideas. He has also reached out to Pharrell Williams for a possible collaboration. In addition to discussing his new work, he expressed his gratitude for the National Arts Award from the Americans for the Arts he accepted Monday of this week.

Devil’s Pie Presents: The Herbie Hancock Tribute by Mark de Clive-Lowe by Mark De Clive-Lowe (Mdcl) on Mixcloud

Mark de Clive-Lowe mixed together some of his favorite music from Herbie Hancock during a live show June 17th at the Lock & Key Bar in Los Angeles. The 90-minute playlist scanned Hancock’s 4-decades plus career. And he describes his feelings about Hancock’s work:

“The first time I heard Herbie Hancock was the Miles live album My Funny Valentine/Four and More. It was the first time I’d heard that era jazz music and I remember being so blown away with the way Herbie and Tony Williams played together and interacted on that concert. That was the start of a deep admiration and love for the art, creativity and music of Herbie Hancock. I consumed everything I could that he turned his hand to – all of his work with Miles, his own solo records for Blue Note, sideman recordings with every jazz great in every decade since the 60s, his Mwandishi experimental crossover work, the Headhunters deep funk – there’s nothing the man could not do. As a pianist he’s the ultimate – harmonically so rich and inventive, melodically so lyrical, rhythmically so damn hip. I’ve been fortunate to see him play on numerous occasions all over the world. The first time was the VSOP band live in Japan along with Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. I was 17 at the time and can’t really fully explain how amazing that was to me. He’s one of my biggest inspirations and influences and through his huge body of work, a true musical mentor. In being asked to put together a tribute set, it was the perfect opportunity to go back through decades of his work and pick moments that I really love. I wanted to do more than just spin a set of tunes though, I wanted to take those moments and sample them, flip them, perform a live mixtape. It was the perfect way to share the man’s music and how I feel about it. Enjoy!”

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Herbie Hancock talks to Okayplayer about behind the scenes of Miles Davis’s 1963 Seven Steps To Heaven album and how Miles turned him on to Jimi Hendrix.