Herbie Hancock--Playing With Creative Fire : Music: The host of ‘Coast to Coast’ brings together an eclectic mix of artists for a spontaneous performance. The result is often rough, just the way he likes it.

How’s this for an all-star band? Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea on keyboards, Larry Carlton on guitar and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet.

Not bad, you say? OK, then let’s add a couple of vocalists. How about Van Morrison, with Georgie Fame tossing in a bit of scat and a few organ fills? And, to top things off, we’ll put this dream ensemble on a program that also includes Pete Townshend, Pat Metheny, Bob Geldof, Billy Bragg and Mick Hucknall.

A concert promoter’s fantasy? Nope, it’s the real stuff--and it’s all in the current installment of Showtime’s “Coast to Coast” series, which airs tonight at 11 on the cable channel, with five repeats to follow throughout October and the first two weeks of November.

“Yeah, we really mixed it up on that show,” said Hancock with a smile. Comfortably seated in his Beverly Hills living room, surrounded by a colorful array of art and artifacts from his many world tours, he was the very image of the artist who knows no stylistic limits. The host of the show since its inception in 1987, Hancock has performed with virtually every musical guest in a bewildering array of musical genres.

“That’s the way we’ve tried to do all the ‘Coast to Coasts’ ” he said. “Get the best musicians, no matter what style they play, and see what happens when they get together.”

In the case of tonight’s episode, the results include a startlingly unusual, thoroughly jazz-based reading of Morrison’s “Moon Dance” as well as a sometimes-rough but always fascinating Morrison interpretation of the standard “How Long Has This Been Going On.”

The segment was taped in Los Angeles in April during a quick session that allowed no time for complex planning. “And that’s the way I like it,” Hancock observed. “That’s how you catch the first burst of the real creative juices.

“Ken Ehlrich--who produces the show--and I both like the idea of catching the newness of the music and the unusual combinations of players. Sure, it can be a little rough around the edges, but sometimes, if you polish things too much, you polish the soul of the thing away. You polish away the humanity of it, and it becomes too formulaic. And that’s something we’ve always tried to avoid with ‘Coast to Coast.’ ”

Ehrlich agreed. “It’s very simple,” he said. “When you get players who can play, let them play. That works particularly well with jazz-rooted pieces, of course, but I’ve always felt comfortable trusting musicians to know what they can and can’t do. If you give them the opportunity, they’ll almost always find their own ways to stretch the boundaries.”

The remainder of tonight’s show was taped during a live performance in London in July. Like many early “Coast to Coast” installments, it was assembled with a specific point of view in mind. Both Hancock and Ehrlich expressed a desire to find the synergistic connections between various forms of music.

“Once we’ve got one or two segments lined up,” explained Ehrlich, “we try to find some kind of common bond to give it a theme. The session with Van Morrison and the American jazz musicians motivated us to go to England and try to further explore the linkage between English and American music.”

Hancock’s opening remarks on the program underline the interrelationships between the opening English act--a group called Hot House--and ‘60s R&B.; Other performers were chosen with similar connections in mind.

“What Bob Geldof does, with his Irish fiddle music,” said Ehrlich, “is make a pretty direct hookup with American country music; change the beat a little bit and it could be any traditional country song of the last 30 years.,

“Pete Townshend’s music obviously refers back to American blues roots with his performance of ‘I Put a Spell on You.’ Then, with ‘Magic Bus,’ he shows how his generation of British rockers added their own edge to the music.”

Hancock’s role in the show--linking the various segments as a casually relaxed host, performing R&B; with Hot House, jazz with his own group and rock with Townshend--is clearly the element that distinguishes ‘Coast to Coast’ from the many other proliferating television music programs.

With nearly 30 years of Academy Awards, Grammys, film and television scores, and albums that have managed to hit the jazz, pop, R&B; and dance charts, Hancock has been a “star,” with or without person-on-the-street recognition. And he has no intention of letting up now.

“Coast to Coast” is an important entry on a long list of performing and recording projects that include new pop and jazz albums, film scores, television appearances and virtually no time to relax.

“Hey, I’m not into serenity,” Hancock said with a laugh. “I like energy. I like stuff happening--spontaneity, challenge. I take a vacation and before I can really kick back, I’m ready to start working again. But I guess that’s just me. It’s kind of like being involved in all these different kinds of music. I may complain about the phone ringing too much, and not having enough time in the day, but I’m never really happy unless I have a lot of things cooking.”