In one instance, Hancock was called to a practice session at Davis’ New York home, when Davis left the practice room and went upstairs for a while.

“Miles actually listened to us through the intercom in the bedroom...he wanted to hear us play unencumbered,” Hancock recounted.

However, the night was also filled with lighter stories, as Hancock mixed life lessons with anecdotes.

From the time that Hancock beat Miles Davis in a car race on the streets of New York at 4 a.m., to when a manager yelled, “You’re gonna regret this,” after Hancock quit his job at a post office so that he could play a local jazz gig.

“One thing I’ve learned is to always be a student,” Hancock said. “Don’t be too quick to say no.”

Ingrid T. Monson, a music professor currently teaching a class entitled “Herbie Hancock’s Musical Worlds,” invited her students to attend the lecture.

“It’s absolutely historic that Herbie Hancock is doing these lectures,” Monson said. “I couldn’t be happier, I think it’s really nice to be able to do a course and do it in conjunction with the many wonderful guests we have on campus.”

Bjorn Kuhnicke, a student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who attended the lecture, said he enjoyed Hancock’s style.

“It was an interesting way of preaching, I liked it.”

—Staff writer Ivan B. K. Levingston can be reached at ivan.levingston@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @IvanLevingston.