Historical Figure
Herbie Hancock
b. 1940
American jazz pianist and composer (born 1940)
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Biography
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, he experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles using a wide array of synthesizers and electronics. It was during this time that he released one of his best-known and most influential albums, Head Hunters.
Timeline
The story of Herbie Hancock, told in moments.
Joined Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet at 23. Davis told him to forget everything he'd learned and play what he heard. Hancock said those five years taught him more than any school.
Head Hunters released. Funk, soul, and jazz fused into something new. "Chameleon" had a bassline that wouldn't leave your head. The album went platinum. Jazz purists were horrified. Hancock didn't care.
Released "Rockit." Turntablism, synthesizers, and a music video with dancing robots. It won a Grammy and an MTV Award. He was 43 and somehow ahead of the kids.
Won Album of the Year at the Grammys for River: The Joni Letters. A jazz tribute album. It beat out Kanye West and Amy Winehouse. Nobody saw it coming, least of all Hancock.
In Their Own Words (9)
We all have natural human tendency to take the safe route—to do the thing we know will work—rather than taking a chance. But that's the antithesis of jazz, which is all about being in the present. Jazz is about being in the moment, at every moment. It's about trusting yourself to respond on the fly. If you can allow yourself to do that, you never stop exploring, you never stop learning, in music or in life.
Possibilities (2014) by Hancock, with Lisa Dickey, p. 2, 2014
redefined swing for modern jazz pianists for the latter half of the 20th century up until today. I consider him to be the major influence that formed my roots in jazz piano playing. He mastered the balance between technique, hard blues grooving, and tenderness. You'll find Oscar Peterson's influence in the generations that come after him. No one will ever be able to take his place.
"Herbie Hancock on the Passing of Oscar Peterson". HerbieHancock.com. December 24, 2007., 2007
I didn't know whether Wayne was crazy or a genius. I knew something was there, but I couldn't get a handle on it. We were playing some club outside of Boston. After the gig, I got a bottle of cognac and went back to his hotel room and we drank. And we talked for hours. And I began to see that there were word games that Wayne would play. His whole approach was much more like poetry, if anything, than how we normally perceive standard conversation. His way of speaking was on a much higher plane. I did come to the conclusion that he was a genius, not crazy.
On , as quoted in Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter (2004) by Michelle Mercer, pp. 103–104, 2004
[B]y the time I actually heard , I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings – like the harmonies I used on '''' – just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... he and Bill Evans, and and , finally. You know, that's where it came from.
As quoted in Jazz-Rock Fusion, the people, the music (2000) by Julie Coryell and Laura Friedman, p. 204, 2000
I'm not a chauffeur. Nobody would have bought any of my records if I were. I'd have had nothing to say. I'm supposed to be presenting things to the public, not accepting requests. I call the shots. They don't have to like it. I really wanted to develop my career in such a way that I have the freedom to do what I want to do, and not have that considered bizarre. I think I'm finally at that point. People are no longer surprised when I come out with something different. I've done it enough now. That's what I've wanted all this time.
Speaking with Bill Flanagan, c. January 1985; op. cit., p. 90, 1985
Artifacts (15)
John Hancock Center TOPS Design Competition, Elevation
Peggy Smolka Wolff
Reaching Beyond: Improvisations on Jazz, Buddhism, and a Joyful Life (16pt Large Print Edition)
In Reaching Beyond, Buddhist thinker and activist Daisaku Ikeda explores the origins, development, and international influence of jazz with legendary artists Herbie Hancockand Wayne Shorter.Reflecting...
a broken Xining language which was (a dialect of) the Chinese language, a form o...
n Pema, spent most of her adult life on the Tibetan Children's Villages project. The Dalai Lama has said that his first language was "a broken Xining language which was (a dialect of) the Chinese...
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