At 11, Herbie Hancock played a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Decades later he was on MTV surrounded by twitching robotic mannequins, producing a global hip hop anthem. This episode traces how a classical prodigy who never had a formal jazz teacher reverse-engineered improvisation from records, earned dual degrees in music and electrical engineering at Grinnell College, wrote Watermelon Man for Blue Note, and joined Miles Davis's second great quintet at 23.

The conversation follows his firing after a late return from his Brazilian honeymoon, the electric Mwandishi bands, the crossover hit Headhunters, Rockit and its five awards at the first MTV Video Music Awards, and his Oscar for Round Midnight. It also examines the loss of his sister Jean in the 1985 Delta Flight 191 crash, his hidden addiction to crack cocaine, the ...