Local jazz musician and artist Herb Hicks writes the story of his life

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Herb Hicks combined his loves of jazz music, art and hunting for fossils and his family into his autobiography “ To and From Gigs, Challenges, Choices, Herb Hicks is excited about his autobiography “ To and From Gigs, Challenges, Choices, Chances, Changes.” Photo by Richard AmeryChances, Changes.”
It chronicles his life growing up in Williston, North Dakota, though his life in the airforce, playing with his brother, Bob, and first jazz jams in Santa Barbara through to his post as one of the first art professors at the University of Lethbridge to  his life today playing gigs in and around town.


“ I love jazz music because you have a set chord progression but you can express yourself through improvisation. It’s that improvisation that I love,” he said.


“ It’s always a new experience,” he continued.
 Seeking that new experience and finding new ways to express himself was one of the reasons why he decided to write his autobiography.
 That and his three children kept asking him to write down his stories.


“I’ve always been interested in the arts and I’ve always wanted to express myself in words,” said Hicks, before one of his regular monthly gigs at the Mocha Cabana with his jazz quartet and vocalist Sheena Lawson.


“I’ve done self portraits in various media like painting and etching and had the urge to  express myself in another way,” he continued adding the book is also a tribute to his brother and long time band mate Bob, who passed away in 2005, but also a present to his children.


“ It was also a great opportunity to  write about  history and the close relationship I had with my brother who played a lot of music with me and who passed away  too early. We played a lot of music with him so the book is a tribute to him as well,” he said.


“ I was prompted by my children to write down some of the stories I’ve had in my life,” he continued.


“ It’s been an interesting process,” he continued adding writing everything down brought back a lot of memories.
“ It took two years to write it. I went through three different drafts of it,” he said adding he ended up cutting out a lot about his childhood and enough other things for a possible second book.


“It started out to be quite a large work but I kept paring it down to the published 220 pages,” he said.
  He noted he wrote the book to include three different angles — philosophical, meta-physical and historical, so he included the story of his life with his outlooks on the world.


“It really was a journey of self-discovery,” he said.
“ It was also a great opportunity to  write about history and the close relationship I had with my brother who played a lot of music with me and who passed away  too early. We played a lot of music with him so the book is a tribute to him as well,” he said.
WHile he was in the air force as a radio operator, he got the opportunity to play with several groups while stationed overseas in Europe in the early ’50s near the end of the Korean war.


“ I spent three years in Europe. I’d always meet other musicians and  get permission to travel and play in Europe,” he recalled.
He said the music world was more divided into strict genres then.


“ It seems to be more diverse now,” he said.
“ Audiences are more receptive to different types of music like  jazz, rock and roll, folk, blues and country,” he observed.
“But it was very exciting,” he continued.


Now the book is completed he has some appearances planned for  book fairs, the Word On the Street in Lethbridge and a bigger book fair scheduled for September in Los Angeles.
“ I still have a lot of friends in Los Angeles, so I want to catch up with them,” he said.


 Hicks plays regularly  around Lethbridge, usually at the Mocha Cabana with bassist Ernie Block, drummer Neil Sheets and Vocalist Sheena Lawson.
 His played April 11 with the Lethbridge Big Band and celebrated Easter with gigs at the Mocha Cabana, April 18-19.
“ I have a number of community events planned for the Spring and summer,” he said adding he won’t do an official book signing tour.

 A version of this story appears in the April 23, 2014 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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