Music: Improvising on the Beat

In Jazzman Herbie Hancock's Beverly Hills house, a brand-new $2,800 Arp 2600 three-oscillator synthesizer sits right next to his Butsudan altar. "There are no miracles in Buddhism, but chanting has never failed," says Herbie. "You can do it if you have a problem, or if you want something to happen or not happen. It's you you are chanting to. It's just like adding fire to yourself." Hancock began chanting two years ago. As a convert to the Buddhist sect known in the U.S. as Nichiren Shoshu of America, he would light a candle twice...