A JOLT FROM HERBIE HANCOCK JAZZ LEGEND STILL PUSHING MUSICAL BOUNDARIES, THIS TIME WITH ALL-STAR CAST OF POP HEAVYWEIGHTS.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Herbie Hancock has always done what he wants.

After four decades of grumbling from the jazz police because the pianist won't simply duplicate his early work, the composer-pianist says it's his life, period.

``I make my decisions from an honest place,'' he says. ``I believe strongly in every record I make, no matter what anyone says. It has more to do with limitations in other people's personal taste - and I'm used to that.''

Hancock has done it again, this time with ``Possibilities,'' a collaborative album co-starring an all-ages cast including Joss Stone, Christina Aguilera, Paul Simon, Sting, Carlos Santana and Annie Lennox.

``It's not just a collection of overdubs,'' says Hancock, revered by musicians for the hard-hitting jazz he cut for Blue Note in the '60s and later with Miles Davis. ``Every artist on the record gave me their heart - and each track is a surprise. This album was about interaction, freedom and looseness. It may not have the notes of jazz, but it was created in the spirit of jazz.''

Unlike countless star-studded affairs where guest star and headliner meet only on a hard drive, ``Possibilities'' was the result of musical and personal conversations. Sessions for Annie Lennox's effective reading of Paula Cole's ``Hush, Hush, Hush'' didn't begin until the principals got to know each other.

``We talked for a couple of hours before we played a note,'' Hancock said. ``We didn't talk about music, we talked about life - families, children, issues in the world, politics, so many things. The kind of camaraderie we developed helped make the music what it is. I wanted to find a common ground and connect as people first.''

Hancock envisioned the yearlong project differently than he did his 1998 Grammy-winning ``Gershwin's World,'' or his ``New Standard,'' where numbers by Kurt Cobain, Sade and others were reimagined. The idea this time was to improvise, experiment and jam with a few old friends and new acquaintances.

``My taste is broad, and my interest in exploration is broad,'' said Hancock, 65, who scored the acclaimed films ``Blow Up'' and `` 'Round Midnight,'' winning an Oscar for the latter to add to his shelf of Grammys.

``I wanted to work with artists who were strong enough personalities that they'd all have something of their own to bring. My foundation is jazz, which is all about interaction. Jazz gives you a lot of tools to play with.''

Even after four decades as a big-time jazz figure, with credits on standard-bearing Blue Note albums like ``Maiden Voyage'' ``Empyrean Isles'' and on Davis' ``Seven Steps to Heaven'' and ``In a Silent Way,'' few of the younger names on ``Possibilities'' knew the extent of Hancock's influence.

Sting did. The British superstar, whose sultry, African-tinged reinterpretation of his own ``Sister Moon'' is the new record's standout, called Hancock ``an iconic figure in my personal pantheon for many, many years. While the core of his work has always been jazz, his openness to new ideas - technological as well as musical - has bestowed on him an ageless and natural hipness that sits well with his playful genius.''

Hancock has long embraced change and new musical streams. Even while cutting straight-ahead bop in the mid-'60s, he came up with r&b-drenched jukebox hits like ``Watermelon Man'' and ``Cantaloupe Island'' (the basis of US3's 1993 hit ``Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)''), moved to open-ended fusion the next decade and really infuriated the jazz elite in the '80s with the synth hit ``Rockit'' and beyond.

``You have your jazz vigilantes wagging their fingers at him every time he makes an album that might take in something other than bop, but he has a genuine affection for pop music,'' said Gene Rizzo, author of the recently published ``The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time'' (Hal Leonard; $19.95), which features a chapter on Hancock. ``At the same time, he's one of the heavyweights of jazz, and you can hear jazz in everything he does. You always find the ghost of his early playing.''

Those roots are there in ``Possibilities.'' In the case of the album opener ``Stitched Up,'' young guitarist Mayer came armed with only a simple riff from which he and Hancock crafted a song and an arrangement.

``I hadn't really experienced that level of musicianship before that day,'' Mayer said. ``Since then, I've referenced to that session as the quintessential top-shelf session (I want to do more of in the future). Those guys brought the best out of me.''

But was the best of Herbie Hancock brought out? Critics have been split on the album's usefulness. Some say the disc, co-produced, distributed and marketed by Starbucks, is a great marketing scheme, while others applaud the project for its musicality.

Hancock, a practicing Buddhist, looks past the fray.

``This was put together not just as a series of notes and chords,'' Hancock said. ``If I depended on what anyone else thinks, I never would have stretched and discovered the various dimensions of myself.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

Lessons from Miles

Herbie Hancock made stirring, evocative music before and after his stint with Miles Davis, but it's for that music he'll always be beloved.

The pianist hooked up with the enigmatic band leader/trumpeter in 1963 for the ``Seven Steps to Heaven'' sessions. Hancock remained for five years, anchoring the quintet's blistering ``Live at the Plugged Nickel'' dates in 1965, and playing a big part in Miles' new directions, converting from an acoustic piano to the distinctive and soulful Fender Rhodes electric keyboard in the process.

One of the best uses of Hancock's stream-of-consciousness style can be found in Davis' gorgeous ``In a Silent Way'' disc. (Hancock also appeared on Davis' ``A Tribute to Jack Johnson'' and ``On the Corner'' in the '70s.) Those ``Silent Way'' studio dates were also guitarist John McLaughlin's first exposure to the Davis recording style, which involved hours of jamming with few musical restrictions.

``After a long day of playing, John took me aside and said, 'Was that OK? Was it usable? What's going on?' '' Hancock remembered. ``All I said was, 'Welcome to a Miles Davis session. ''

Four months later, the magnificent ``In a Silent Way'' was released, pieced together artfully by record producer Teo Macero from hours of noodling.

Hancock says Davis had a huge impact on him in terms of the appreciation of music of genres beyond jazz.

``I was a jazz purist at the time, I had tunnel vision about jazz and classical music,'' Hancock said. ``It's all I cared about. But Miles had these open ears. I'd go over to his place and there'd be albums by Cream, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, (flamenco guitarist) Manitas de Plata, Sly Stone - all kinds of people I hadn't heard before. And Miles, who was the coolest of the cool, was into all this stuff.

``I said, 'If Miles is so open, it must be cool to be open to all this other stuff.' ''

Starbucks loves Herbie

Starbucks is making a splash in music marketing.

After Ray Charles' final album, ``Genius Loves Company,'' sold 775,000 copies at Starbucks stores last year and wound up taking eight Grammy trophies, the Seattle-based chain is getting first crack at marketing other high-profile albums. Now waiting at the counter are Bob Dylan's previously unreleased ``Live at the Gaslight 1962'' and Herbie Hancock's just-minted ``Possibilities.''

Starbucks began carrying albums 10 years ago with a Blue Note jazz compilation. The concept of moving units at java joints caught on big with the Charles duets set, a record that gave the retailer ``permission from our customers'' to offer more CDs, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.

Throughout the music industry, sales are down 2.5 percent, partly because it's increasingly difficult to attract shoppers to the dwindling number of record stores. Lombard sees Starbucks as ``a destination for new music,'' and doesn't discount the power of an impulse buy. The company claims more than 33 million people visit its stores around the globe each week.

Starbucks has been getting exclusivity on top titles. Alanis Morissette's ``Jagged Little Pill Acoustic,'' for example, just wrapped up a six-week Starbucks run, where it sold 170,000 copies before going on sale elsewhere.

The coffee company set the stage well. In 1999, Starbucks bought Hear Music, a retailer that markets to a well-heeled over-30 crowd. Three years later, the company launched the Artist's Choice series, in which artists such as Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones and Emmylou Harris choose their favorite tracks.

Now on display are about a dozen titles, including the current Coldplay and Dave Matthews albums, as well as a Sly & the Family Stone tribute and a greatest-hits discs.

All this doesn't mean Tower Records is going to start serving frappuccinos - but maybe it should begin thinking about it.

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Herbie Hancock's adventure

For jazz great, crossing over into the pop world brings great musical `Possibilities'

(2) ``Every artist on the record gave me their heart - and each track is a surprise. This album was about interaction, freedom and looseness,'' says Herbie Hancock, far left, of ``Possibilities,'' a collaboration featuring a kaleidoscope of stars, including Carlos Santana, near left.

Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

(3) STING

(4 -- 6) Joss Stone, top, John Mayer and Annie Lennox lend their voices to ``Possibilities.''

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Joe Hale/Getty Images

(7) DAVIS

(8) no caption (CD cover)

Box:

(1) Lessons from Miles (see text)

(2) Starbucks loves Herbie (see text)