Herbie Hancock, 'Space Captain,' Feat. Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks -- Video Premiere

Want a treat? When you watch the video for Herbie Hancock's new version of 'Space Captain' featuring singer Susan Tedeschi and her husband, Derek Trucks, on guitar, watch the video. Heck, put the sound on mute. Yeah, strange thing to ask for a music video that really is only in-studio footage of the musicians playing together, especially one with such supremely talented musicians as this.

But it's the looks on these musicians' faces as they play together that really tells the tale here. Pay special attention to the break halfway through the song, where Hancock trades licks with Trucks on slide guiatar and Kofi Burbridge working the Hammond B3 organ. The pianist peels off a lick, Trucks' eyes light up, Hancock shows surprised delight as Burbridge answers musically, and then everyone in the room seems in wonder as Trucks takes the lead in the instrumental conversation.

OK, now watch it again with the sound up, and you'll get a whole new treat hearing what's got all those eyes sparkling. This really is about playing together. No one's showing off, not Tedeschi with her earthy, bluesy vocals, not the soloists in their extremely economical bits. But every phrase, every lick is just perfect, saying exactly what needs to be said – no less, no more. And together it's a compelling, enveloping, joyful whole.

Arguably the most straightforward of the songs on Hancock's new, global-embracing 'The Imagine Project' album – recorded in locales as widespread as Mumbai, Rio, London, Paris and Bamako in Mali, and featuring artists ranging from Pink to Jeff Beck to Toumani Diabate and Tinariwen – 'Space Captain' also neatly encapsulates the spirit of the endeavor both in content and in action. "We all forgot we could fly," sings Tedeschi, the words written by Matthew Moore back in the utopian hope of 1968 and made most famous in Joe Cocker's 1970 R&B interpretation (which largely provided the template for this one). "Learning to live together till we die."

In an interview done for an album preview in Spinner's Around the World column, Hancock said that it was a treat to get to play with Trucks – this was the first time they'd worked together. "Just a very open musician, very talented, big ears and a great human being," he enthused about the young guitarist.

And the video, shot during the recording session at the Trucks/Tedeschi studio at their Florida homestead, couldn't be simpler. Just a group of people showing us how to fly. Soar along with them -- watch the video premiere of 'Space Captain' below.