Jazz great Herbie Hancock has been a boundless musical explorer and now he's working with L.A. producer Flying Lotus; a U.S. District Court has ruled in favor of the Norton Simon Museum in a case involving ownership of 16th Century paintings of Adam and Eve; the Pokemon Go! craze seems to be waning.
Court rules that artworks once possessed by Nazis can stay at Norton Simon Museum
A long-fought legal case over the rightful ownership of artwork once held by Nazi Germany is over — at least for now. This matter involves two beautiful paintings of Adam and Eve, created by German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder in the early 16th Century.
The industrialist and art collector Norton Simon purchased the paintings in 1971, but for the past decade they’ve been at the center of a lawsuit seeking their return by the heirs of a Dutch-Jewish art dealer who gave up possession of the artworks to the Nazis in the World War II era.
But last week a U.S. District Court ruled that the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is the rightful owner of the paintings. To help us sort out this long and convoluted story is Carolina Miranda. She writes about art and culture for the Los Angeles Times.
Norton Simon bought the painting from a Russian aristocrat. He had laid claim to the Cranach paintings on the basis that they had belonged to his family's collection before the Russian Revolution. Through some turn of events — it's still debated how — they ended up in the possession of the Soviet state. The Soviets expropriated a lot of art. The Soviets then, because they needed money, turned around and sold the paintings to a Dutch art dealer named Jacques Goudstikker in 1931. Nine years later, the Nazis invaded and the paintings ended up in their hands. Then, somehow, the Russian aristocrat later got the painting back from the Dutch and then sold it to Norton Simon. So this painting is very well-traveled.
The plaintiff in the case, Marei von Saher, is the daughter-in-law of the art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. When Nazis invaded the Netherlands in WWII, Goudstikker's firm was “coerced” into selling the Adam and Eve paintings to the Nazis. For the past 10 years, Von Saher has sought return of the artworks. Miranda says the issue for the court came down to what Goudstikker's firm did after the war.
In the case of these paintings, the restitution laws required that, if the Nazis had bought the works, then the owners of the works needed to return that money [to the Dutch government] in order to receive that property, partially because money had been looted from the Dutch treasury by the Nazis. It's all so circular. What the Goudstikker company [decided] was that it would cost them more money than it was worth to seek the return of the artworks. There was a memo in 1950 that the firm issued stating why they were not going to seek restitution. So the U.S. District Court's decision is based on that, saying this is a case in which a family purposely didn't seek restitution for financial reasons.
According to Miranda, Von Saher's lawyers said she plans to appeal the case. But, unless a court overturn the ruling, Cranach's Adam and Eve paintings will remain on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Herbie Hancock and the importance of reinventing himself
When he was in his early 20s, Herbie Hancock left college in Iowa and went home to Chicago. Soon, he was playing in Donald Byrd’s band, and that led to a move to New York, where he was invited to join Miles Davis’ quintet.
Since then, Hancock's career has spanned more than half-a-century, marked by his boundless sense of musical curiosity. He’s worked with many jazz greats, and pop artists including Sting and Joni Mitchell.
Now Hancock is working with the producer Steven Ellison, a.k.a. Flying Lotus, whose Brainfeeder label is home to some of Los Angeles’ most acclaimed young jazz, hip-hop, and electronica musicians.
The Frame’s Oscar Garza spoke with Herbie Hancock about his long career as a musician, working with Miles Davis and Flying Lotus, and how he's constantly reinvented himself throughout his music career.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
What he learned during his years in the Miles Davis Quintet:
The first thing that I learned was the importance of listening. When we were playing some engagements, I noticed that the way Miles played was very much influenced by what each of the rhythm section was playing. I could tell he was listening to the chords and the rhythms I was playing. I could tell he was listening to Tony Williams on the drums by the kinds of rhythms that Miles played.
I'm sure that wasn't anything that he was thinking about, but the fact that he was listening and trusting helped not only shape his improvisation, but it made the band feel like one unit, like it was one mind. So when I noticed that Miles was doing that and how great it made everything sound I [thought], That's something that I want to keep. That's something that I want to do.
Performing with Miles Davis:
I was pretty scared of playing with Miles. I was just terrified with trying to keep up. I was 23-years-old. Now I'm 76 and I think about more things that weren't on my radar scope at the time.
How Hancock went from engineering to jazz musician:
Both my mother and father said that whatever their children wanted to be when we grew up, they would fully support it — not that they had financial means to support it economically, but they would be in our corner.
It was a challenge specifically for my mother. When I joined Donald Byrd's band to become a professional jazz musician, I [had been] an engineering major in college for my first two years, and my parents felt very comfortable in knowing that I could get a job as an engineer when I graduated.
It became very obvious to me at the end of my second year of college that I had no choice, that [jazz] was what I was gonna do, come hell or high water.
Working with Steven Ellison, a.k.a. Flying Lotus, on his album, "You're Dead!":
I really wanted to be a fly on the wall. In other words, whatever we were doing — if it was going to be for my record or for [Flying Lotus'] record — I wasn't going to impose ideas without first getting the lay of the land. Because I'm working with a younger musician and so many things have changed since I first started recording.
I know that a lot of young artists are doing different things: the way they use social media; the way they leak parts of tracks out to the public that are unfinished. but it gets an excitement going. That was totally new to me, so I wanted to see how they do things.
Collaborating with Flying Lotus for Hancock's new album:
I'm also working with Terrace Martin [who] was one of the primary producers for Kendrick Lamar's album, "To Pimp a Butterfly." That record was very instrumental in crystalizing a direction for the record that I wanted to make. One thing that happened during the different times that I went over to Flying Lotus' house, he asked me what I had in mind and I didn't really know what I wanted to do for my own record.
By the way, Thundercat — Stephen Bruner, the wonderful bass player — he also was over at Flying Lotus' house almost all of the days that I went over there. He also had some material and I didn't know if his material was for his record or for it was something that he was bringing over to possibly submit to me. I just went with the flow [laughs], so consequently some of the stuff I did with him and with Flying Lotus wound up being on Flying Lotus' record, "You're Dead!," on the song called "Tesla."
You know why he called it "Tesla"? Because that's the car I drive, that's my car [laughs], and I showed up at his house with a Tesla and I gave him a ride in it and he loved it.
How he keeps reinventing himself and his music:
One of the great stimulations, for me, is hanging out with young people and paying attention to what they're doing. There's a tendency as we get older to feel like we know more than younger people and [that] our job is to teach them what we know. But that is not something that I adhere to. We all have something to bring to the table no matter what our age, and youth today has a lot to bring to the table.
Performing with his long time creative partner Wayne Shorter:
Wayne teaches me new tricks every day. He lives about 10 minutes from my house, which is great that we live in close proximity. We are very much are in sync with the way we generally look at the world and look at jazz.
I may not agree with every aspect of all the assessments that Wayne makes, but to me, Wayne is like Yoda [laughs]. If he opens his mouth, I want everybody else to be quiet and listen. Most people that know Wayne feel the same way because he's brilliant.
Herbie Hancock performs at the Hollywood Bowl with Wayne Shorter, along with many other artists, at an event called "Mega Nova" on Aug. 24.