tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. an exclusive conversation with one of the members of the new super committee, xavier becerra. they will present a plan for significant budget cuts by the end of november. also, the legendary jazz artist, herbie hancock. he will be joined by a famed conductor for the annual opening nights here in los angeles. we are glad that you have joined us. xavier becerra and herbie hancock, coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all

know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where wal-mart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, help tavis improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: next month, the 12- member super committee will begin the process to find common ground on ways to reduce the growing deficit.

xavier becerra represents a district here in california that includes parts of los angeles. >> great to be with you. tavis: let me start with something that might be a bit unorthodox. if i say it to you respectfully, if we have to have a committee, i am glad you are on it. this is the worst way to run a country, the worst way to make a decisions. you pick 12 people and 12 of you get to make these high-level decisions. if i said to you, that is a horrible way to run government, he would say what? >> this is where we have gotten too. we have to do something because every day, people are balancing their budgets at the kitchen table. we have to do it as well. i would not have chosen this either. public comment this 12-member

super committee will get it done so that congress can vote on it, the president can sign it, and we can move forward. the biggest responsibility we have right now is creating jobs. the biggest deficit reface is a jobs deficit. tavis: how do you feel being on the committee? it is focused on deficit reduction. we ought to be talking about jobs. >> think about it. how do you best get us out of this economical? putting 15 million americans back to work. if they are paying taxes, the treasury -- the best way to get us back in the black is to get america back to work. tavis: how is your focus on the super committee at deficit- reduction helping the jobs deficit that we have right now? >> you can make sure that you

target the right things to get the economy going again. many of us do not believe that the way you get jobs back and the way you get the deficits reduced is to make devastating cuts to services right now. what you do is you -- we have already done $900 billion worth of cuts already. you do not do it where you were shaking off the bone. you make its strategic said that what you can do is repair roads and bridges. get the schools back in order. some good american jobs to be credited you get that school retrofitted again. the soldier never eats the meal. it is silly. we can do -- there should not be a 1500 millionaires in america that pay no taxes. we could do a number of things that get the deficit going back

down and american jobs back up. tavis: to your point about these strategic cuts. there are some who are suggesting that if we really want to be strategic and surgical about protecting the programs that matter most to us, programs like medicaid and medicare, social security, those programs are not in your purview to talk to any way. -- to touch any way. those programs are not really allowed to be touched anyway. if i am right about that, maybe the best way is for us to not to figure this out. at least those major programs are protected. have you heard that logic before? >> yes and no. if we did nothing, the way the

laws are written, certain things in the law would expire that would allow us to get the economy in better shape. in some ways, it is the hypocritical both of the doctor. do no harm. the bush tax cuts would expire next year. that is about three or four trillion dollars if we did not have those bush tax cuts. at the same time, this committee has a task. if the committee fails, what happens is automatically, we make cuts to all sorts of services. the services that do not get harmed our social security. medicare is touched. medicare would not get ahead. who wants to go to the point of saying that we will leave it to

some automatic trigger that has nothing to do with reality? we should do this because we have tasked by the people of this country to do it. we should get it done. tavis: the fiscal year for the government in on september 30. how much danger is the country again? how much more difficult is your job going to be if we do not figure out the mess that we are in now relative to our annual budget? >> we already have a sense of what faces us. this is not rocket science. it is simple math. it is making the tough choices. the 12 was on the super committee have to agree that we will leave are preconditions, are special interest pledges, are sacred cows that the door and the boy walked in and be willing to look at everything. -- and we will walk in and be willing to look at everything. tavis: if we had a congress

that had good judgment and principle, we would not be in this mess. why is it that we should believe that what congress could not do, 12 members of congress can do? >> there is a guillotine waiting for us if we do not get this done. it makes $1.50 trillion of automatic cuts. you cannot decide, i want this to be cut, i do not want this to be caught. secondly, more importantly, the public is saying, we've just elected you to do a job. if you are not going to do, why are you there? it is time for us to prove that we can get it done. it requires us to come to the table -- i have to be ready to

say, social security has to be on the table. social security has never contributed one penny to this deficit. some people want to cut social security. i will say, let's put it on the table. i hope i can prevail by defending it. tavis: when you say that guillotine is waiting for you if the cuts are not made, i am trying to figure out how members of this committee are impacted if these cuts kick in. you broke.of it is knowledge it is going to impact you if these cuts don't kick in. i'm trying to understand how these 12 members of congress who are no different than their other colleagues, who will not be impacted by these cuts, can get this done, when congress

could not get it done? >> i am glad that you are always respectful. tavis, you are absolutely right. there is no one in congress who lives the life of somebody who was about to lose a home. that is a fact of life. my parents did not get an education. i am the first and my family to get a social -- a college degree. i know what social security means for my family. i know that my father, who worked with this hand all of his life, road construction work, h. i know that today, that same road construction worker can probably not send his son to stanford university anymore. i may not be in the situation my

dad wasn't, but i know the issues that my dad filled. i hope that each and every one of us understand that it is not cost we're worried about. it is folks like my parents, who built this country. tavis: this leads me to my next point. there is one hispanic on that committee. there is one african-american on that committee. the overwhelming majority of of the crushing that americans are feeling -- you know where i am going on this. they're bearing down on your timidity and my community. yet there are only -- on your committee and my community. there are only two people of color on that committee. the numbers are clear.

the hail is raining down on hispanics and african-americans. i ask what you say to those persons of color who are being hurt the most. they do not see their interest represented and a broadway on the super committee. -- in a broad way on the super committee. >> i am an american. i get to take my father into the white house now. when he goes into the white house, he sees a man of color. at the end of the day, whether i am latino or african-american or a woman, we are at the table now. there should be more folks of diversity on the table. but we are at the table. that is the great thing about this country. ultimately, it gives us a place. what i hope is that as an

american, i can prove to folks that we can get to a solution for all americans. no one will take away my heritage and what i bring to the table. i guarantee you, we bring a lot to the table. i tip my hat to nancy pelosi. she did not have to appoint jim cliburn and me. but she did. she has done a remarkable job as a leader for this country in making sure that people are included. that is what leadership is about. i hope that we can prove right. tavis: i take your point. she had to do it. i take your point respectfully. i respect you, but i do not envy you. god bless you. good to see you.

up next, herbie hancock. stay with us. tavis: always delighted to welcome herbie hancock to this program. he just announced his first ever sold to work in his career. there are many notable stops along the way. good to see you. are you doing all right? >> age is just a number. tavis: last time i saw you, i was on stage bring you out. it was for your 70th birthday set at night. it was quite a night. >> thank you for doing it. i really appreciated. i had a ball that night. i was working hard.

some guys blew in from india. -- flew in from india. tavis: what is the excitement for you or the challenge that you rise to every time you put together a show? there are two people i have seen in my life play a thousand times. i have never, ever seen the same show twice. every time you hit the stage, you want the should be different. you have different collaborators, a different guests. prince is the same way. what is the challenge? >> i like to present something that the people have not seen or have not heard before. otherwise, they might as well just stay home and put the record. i am very conscious of the idea

of trying to present something that i have not presented before. it is a challenge to me to find something new. to find something innovative. it is also very exciting. tavis: how do you note that what you are giving the audience at the audience is prepared to receive? how do you know? they will receive what you are offering? you have fans that are rather fickle and only want to hear this stuff that they want to hear. how did you note that they will receive what you are offering them? >> i have to give them my heart. that is the first thing. i have to care. i have to be honest. i have to have the courage to be vulnerable. if that happens, that is the best i can do.

did just be a puppet for the audience is not very courageous. just to do what ever they say they want -- a lot of times, people hear something new that they had not heard before and it turned on by a new experience and will want to be more of that. that is what happens when " headhunters" came out. many of those people became fans of acoustic jazz after that. i've met many of them over the years. tavis: you said something that makes me think. it makes me marinade on what you have just said. have the courage to be vulnerable. have the courage to be a

vulnerable. i'm going to use that. >> people always want to protect you. they want to show a -- make a visible something that looks more pleasant to them what may be happening inside of themselves. being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. that is hard for a lot of people to do. they feel a lot more secure if they put walls around themselves. they do not have to trust anybody but themselves.

it is what is required to be vulnerable. to have that kind of trust takes courage. tavis: when you say the courage to be vulnerable as an artist. >> not afraid to make a mistake. tavis: i'd do it every night. i have a whole lot of courage. for an artist, i would think that when you step on the stage, there is a certain level of vulnerability. you do not know what is going to happen on any given night. i expect -- i assume there must be some level of vulnerability every time you hit the stage. >> that is true. but beyond that, i like to take chances. i like to be on the edge.

i like to be into the territory where i have to depend on being in a moment. depend on my instincts. tavis: because you are so iconic, because you like taking risks, what happens inside of herbie hancock when you push it and it did not work? you tried it and it did not work? you were courageous and vulnerable and you fell flat. what happens on those occasions? >> you have to get out. you cannot let that throw you. years ago, if i fell on my face, and something did not work, i can give an example. i was playing with miles davis

one time and labor performing in europe. -- and we were performing in europe. it was the night. it was all happening. we had the audience in our grasp, like this. miles played "so what," and he plays this incredible saxophone solo. todd williams is burning up on the drums. miles comes to his solo. at the peak of this solo, i play a court -- chord that was so wrong. i thought i had lit a match to the whole thing and burned to

the ground. i did not know what to do. miles took a breath and played some notes that made my chord right. [laughter] i could not believe what i heard. he made it to fit somehow. what is see, some kind of alchemist? merlin the magician. it took me years to figure out what happened. what happened was miles did not judge what he had played. he just heard it and said, that is interesting. and then he found some notes to make it work right. tavis: was there ever a conversation after the show? >> afterwards, i said, how did you do that?

he just shrugged his shoulders. he said, do what? [laughter] tavis: that sounds like miles. it is hard to imagine -- i'm always happy to have you on the show. they said, herbie hancock is about to go on to work. this -- tour. but this is the first ever solo tour? >> i did a short 24. just acoustic piano. this one is acoustic piano and synthesizers and computers with newer software and one of the things that i hope to do is not

just do songs and i recorded before. what i hope to do is write something new. i keep recycling and repackaging music that i have done in the past. as though i cannot write anymore. i need to prod myself again. i need to start writing some new music. it is time for me to do that. that is what i hope to do. also, some things that i have done before. this time, it will be in a different context. a different kind of environment. tavis: if you do what you just suggested that you want to do, that means that you will be writing some mixed up here and

there that you will play on this tour as soon as you write it. >> right. tavis: that is what you have to catch herbie hancock. you do not know what he is going to do on any given night. it is an honor to always have you here, sir. congratulations on a successful tour, in advance. that is our show for tonight. thank you for watching. >> for more information on today's show, go to pbs.org. tavis: 20 next time as we remember songwriter nick ashford. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all

know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where wal-mart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, help tavis improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television]