If you haven’t yet ventured out to The Grammy Museum at LA Live, you must treat yourself. The 18-month-old museum offers the community a substantial gift through classes, events (for all ages), artifacts, culture and history. The current exhibit – Strange Kozmic Experience, gives the visitor a rare glimpse into the lives of Janis Joplin, The Doors/Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrex, among others. On display are photos, cars, personal hand-written letters, journals, lyrics, and there is much more to this 30,000 sq foot museum.
The Museum’s mission is to use music as a gateway to learning; inspiring and cultivating creativity, critical-thinking and self-expression. The experiential tools that support their vision include after school programs, teacher curriculum, teacher workshops, museum tours, seminars, symposia, master music classes taught by Academy members, mentoring programs, music
forums, school outreach and musical demonstrations, "meet and greets" with artists, and Saturday morning music lessons. The Museum will debut its first traveling interactive exhibit “Instruments of Art” at the Westfield mall in Woodland Hills (CA) June11-July 25, 2010. 
Last Monday night was an amazing evening ... I had the privilege of being part of an intimate gathering at the Museum (courtesy of American Express) where jazz legend and multi Grammy-award winner Herbie Hancock sat down with the Museum’s Executive Director, Bob Santelli to talk about his life, and his new heartfelt project – The Imagine Project.
Hancock says, “My dreams got bigger …” The Imagine Project is about peace through globalization - a collaboration of exceptional artists coming together to create a cd and documentary (other aspects forthcoming) in a time of chaos on the planet to address the issues of today through a fusion of music and community. Contributing artists include Pink, Seal, Jeff Beck, Chaka Kahn, John Legend, Dave Matthews, Anoushka Shankar, Indian musicians, among many others. Hancock believes music is truly the universal language and feels it’s time to stand up for what we believe in your heart, and take action – we are all human beings, the cultures are just different. He asks, "What can help us design the human orchestra of life?" The CD is a collaboration of seven languages of jazz and funk that was recorded in six different countries over a span of a year and a half. Hancock states, “My hope is that the music will serve as a metaphor for the actions taken by the inhabitants of this wonderful planet, as a call for world harmony on all levels.”
In speaking with Hancock, he excitedly boasted his eco-friendly packaging of the CD/DVD jackets for The Imagine Project, along with carbon offsets for the traveling done during the projects filming and recording! (Available June 22, 2010 - Hancock Records)
In listening to this amazing collection of music, and from the sampling of the documentary presented Monday, I believe this project is already a success. The gift I received from watching Hancock’s face and body language as they played a cut from the CD, said it all – he is a man at peace with his accomplishment – he genuinely embodies his art.
Hancock celebrates his 70th birthday this year ... Happy Birthday Herbie! Thank you for sharing your gentle spirit, cherished stories and contagious laughter, as well as your creative genius and vision through your latest piece – The Imagine Project.
All of the photos in this post are © Becky Sapp/Wire Image
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