Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Hancock in December 2013
Background information
Birth name Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Born (1940-04-12) April 12, 1940
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres Jazz, post-bop, fusion, jazz-funk, electro, classical
Occupation(s) Musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, arranger, actor
Instruments Piano, electric piano, keyboards, synthesizers, workstation synthesizers, organ, clavinet, keytar, vocoder, Fairlight CMI
Years active 1961–present
Labels Columbia, Blue Note, Warner Bros., Verve
Associated acts Clark Terry, Miles Davis Quintet, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, The Headhunters, V.S.O.P., Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Howard Jones
Website HerbieHancock.com
External video
Oral History, Herbie Hancock talks about new technology and his excitement about the possibilities the technology affords for making great music. Interview date January 20, 2006, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Oral History Library

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor.[1] Starting his career with Donald Byrd, he shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet where Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk music. Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences.

Hancock's best-known compositions include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.

Early life and career

Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winnie Belle (Griffin), a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock, a government meat inspector.[2] His parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries.[3] He attended the Wendell Phillips High School. Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education. He studied from age seven, and his talent was recognized early. Considered a child prodigy,[4] he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 in D Major, K. 537 (Coronation) at a young people's concert on February 5, 1952, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (led by CSO assistant conductor George Schick) at the age of 11.[5]

Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher, but developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo's. He reported that:

the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, 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 Speak Like a Child – 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 Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it came from.[6]

In 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once, and begged him to accept him as a student.[7] Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru. Hancock left Grinnell College, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. (He later graduated from Grinnell with degrees in electrical engineering and music. Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972.[5][8]) Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini, which he did for a short time in 1960. The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin' Off for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin' Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.

Miles Davis Quintet (1963–68) and Blue Note Records (1962–69)

Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963,[5] he joined Davis's Second Great Quintet. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz. The rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, 17-year-old drummer Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot, the quintet gelled with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. This quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles,[9] and the rhythm section has been especially praised for its innovation and flexibility.

The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own voice as a pianist. Not only did he find new ways to use common chords, but he also popularized chords that had not previously been used in jazz. Hancock also developed a unique taste for "orchestral" accompaniment – using quartal harmony and Debussy-like harmonies, with stark contrasts then unheard of in jazz. With Williams and Carter he wove a labyrinth of rhythmic intricacy on, around and over existing melodic and chordal schemes. In the latter half of the 1960s their approach became so sophisticated and unorthodox that conventional chord changes would hardly be discernible; hence their improvisational concept would become known as "Time, No Changes".

While in Davis's band, Hancock also found time to record dozens of sessions for the Blue Note label, both under his own name and as a sideman with other musicians such as Shorter, Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Rivers, Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

His albums Empyrean Isles (1964) and Maiden Voyage (1965) were to be two of the most famous and influential jazz LPs of the 1960s, winning praise for both their innovation and accessibility (the latter demonstrated by the subsequent enormous popularity of the Maiden Voyage title track as a jazz standard, and by the jazz rap group US3 having a hit single with "Cantaloop" (derived from "Cantaloupe Island" on Empyrean Isles) some twenty five years later). Empyrean Isles featured the Davis rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams with the addition of Hubbard on cornet, while Maiden Voyage also added former Davis saxophonist Coleman (with Hubbard remaining on trumpet). Both albums are regarded as among the principal foundations of the post-bop style. Hancock also recorded several less-well-known but still critically acclaimed albums with larger ensembles – My Point of View (1963), Speak Like a Child (1968) and The Prisoner (1969) featured flugelhorn, alto flute and bass trombone. 1963's Inventions and Dimensions was an album of almost entirely improvised music, teaming Hancock with bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin percussionists, Willie Bobo and Osvaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez.

During this period, Hancock also composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup (1966), the first of many film soundtracks he recorded in his career. As well as feature film soundtracks, Hancock recorded a number of musical themes used on American television commercials for such then well known products as Pillsbury's Space Food Sticks, Standard Oil, Tab diet cola and Virginia Slims cigarettes. Hancock also wrote, arranged and conducted a spy type theme for a series of F. William Free commercials for Silva Thins cigarettes. Hancock liked it so much he wished to record it as a song but the ad agency would not let him. He rewrote the harmony, tempo and tone and recorded the piece as the track "He Who Lives in Fear" from his The Prisoner album of 1969.[10]

Davis had begun incorporating elements of rock and popular music into his recordings by the end of Hancock's tenure with the band. Despite some initial reluctance, Hancock began doubling on electric keyboards including the Fender Rhodes electric piano at Davis's insistence. Hancock adapted quickly to the new instruments, which proved to be important in his future artistic endeavors.

Under the pretext that he had returned late from a honeymoon in Brazil, Hancock was dismissed from Davis's band. In the summer of 1968 Hancock formed his own sextet. However, although Davis soon disbanded his quintet to search for a new sound, Hancock, despite his departure from the working band, continued to appear on Davis records for the next few years. Appearances included In a Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On the Corner.

Fat Albert (1969) and Mwandishi (1971)

Hancock playing a Roland AX-7 keytar, at The Roundhouse, Camden, London, 2006

Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing with Warner Bros. Records. In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack for Bill Cosby's animated prime-time television special Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert.[11] Music from the soundtrack was later included on Fat Albert Rotunda (1969), an R&B-inspired album with strong jazz overtones. One of the jazzier songs on the record, the moody ballad "Tell Me a Bedtime Story", was later re-worked as a more electronic sounding song for the Quincy Jones album Sounds...and Stuff Like That!! (1978).

Hancock became fascinated with accumulating musical gadgets and toys. Together with the profound influence of Davis's Bitches Brew (1970), this fascination would culminate in a series of albums, in which electronic instruments are coupled with acoustic instruments.

Hancock's first ventures into electronic music started with a sextet comprising Hancock, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart, and a trio of horn players: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), and multireedist Bennie Maupin. Patrick Gleeson was eventually added to the mix to play and program the synthesizers. In fact, Hancock was one of the first jazz pianists to completely embrace electronic keyboards.

The sextet, later a septet with the addition of Gleeson, made three albums under Hancock's name: Mwandishi (1971), Crossings (1972) (both on Warner Bros. Records), and Sextant (1973) (released on Columbia Records); two more, Realization and Inside Out, were recorded under Henderson's name with essentially the same personnel. The music exhibited strong improvisational aspect beyond the confines of jazz mainstream and showed influence from the electronic music of contemporary classical composers.

Synthesizer player Gleeson introduced the instrument on Crossings, released in 1972, one of a handful of influential electronic jazz/fusion recordings to feature synthesizer that year. On Crossings (as well as on Weather Report's I Sing the Body Electric), the synthesizer is used more as an improvisatory global orchestration device than as a strictly melodic instrument. An early review of Crossings in Downbeat magazine complained about the synthesizer, but a few years later the magazine noted in a cover story on Gleeson that he was "a pioneer" in the field of electronics in jazz. In the albums following The Crossings, Hancock started to play synth himself, with synth taking on a melodic role.

Hancock's three records released in 1971–73 later became known as the "Mwandishi" albums, so-called after a Swahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era (Mwandishi is Swahili for writer). The first two, including Fat Albert Rotunda were made available on the 2-CD set Mwandishi: the Complete Warner Bros. Recordings, released in 1994. Of the three electronic albums, Sextant is probably the most experimental since the ARP synthesizers are used extensively, and some advanced improvisation ("post-modal free impressionism") is found on the tracks "Hornets" and "Hidden Shadows" (which is in the meter 19/4). "Hornets" was later revised on the 2001 album Future2Future as "Virtual Hornets".

Among the instruments Hancock and Gleeson used were Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, ARP Pro Soloist Synthesizer, a Mellotron and the Moog synthesizer III.

All three Warner Bros. albums Fat Albert Rotunda (1969), Mwandishi (1971), and Crossings (1972), were remastered in 2001 and released in Europe but were not released in the US as of June 2005. In the winter of 2006–7 a remastered edition of Crossings was announced and scheduled for release in the spring.

From Head Hunters (1973) to Secrets (1976)

See also: Head Hunters
Hancock playing in Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands, December, 2006

After the sometimes "airy" and decidedly experimental "Mwandishi" albums, Hancock was eager to perform more "earthy" and "funky" music. The Mwandishi albums – though later seen as respected early fusion recordings – had seen mixed reviews and poor sales, so it is probable that Hancock was motivated by financial concerns as well as artistic restlessness. Hancock was also bothered by the fact that many people did not understand avant-garde music. He explained that he loved funk music, especially Sly Stone's music, so he wanted to try to make funk himself.

He gathered a new band, which he called The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason. The album Head Hunters, released in 1973, was a major hit and crossed over to pop audiences, though it prompted criticism from some jazz fans.

Despite charges of "selling out", Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic positively reviewed the album among other friendly critics, saying, "Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital three decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop."[12]

Drummer Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, Thrust, the following year, 1974. (A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first two Head Hunters releases was released in 1975 as Flood.) This was almost as well received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album called Survival of the Fittest in 1975 without Hancock, while Hancock himself started to make even more commercial albums, often featuring members of the band, but no longer billed as The Headhunters. The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for Return of the Headhunters, and a version of the band (featuring Jackson and Clark) continues to play and record.

In 1973, Hancock composed his soundtrack to the controversial film The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Then in 1974, he also composed the soundtrack to the first Death Wish film. One of his memorable songs, "Joanna's Theme", was re-recorded in 1997 on his duet album with Shorter, 1 + 1.

Hancock's next jazz-funk albums of the 1970s were Man-Child (1975), and Secrets (1976), which point toward the more commercial direction Hancock would take over the next decade. These albums feature the members of the Headhunters band, but also a variety of other musicians in important roles.

From V.S.O.P. (1976–) to Future Shock (1983)

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his V.S.O.P. quintet, which featured all the members of the 1960s Davis quintet except Davis, who was replaced by trumpeter Hubbard. There was constant speculation that one day Davis would reunite with his classic band, but he never did so. VSOP recorded several live albums in the late 1970s, including The Quintet (1977).

In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who had replaced him in the Davis band a decade earlier. Hancock also released a solo acoustic piano album titled The Piano (1979), which, like so many Hancock albums at the time, was initially released only in Japan. (It was finally released in the US in 2004.) Several other Japan-only releases have yet to appear in the US, such as Dedication (1974), V.S.O.P.'s Tempest in the Colosseum (1977), and Direct Step (1978). Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004, and included an entire second concert from the July 1979 tour.

From 1978 to 1982, Hancock recorded many albums consisting of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978). Singing through a vocoder, he earned a British hit,[13] "I Thought It Was You", although critics were unimpressed.[14] This led to more vocoder on 1979 follow-up, Feets, Don't Fail Me Now, which gave him another UK hit in "You Bet Your Love".[13]

Albums such as Monster (1980), Magic Windows (1981), and Lite Me Up (1982) were some of Hancock's most criticized and unwelcomed albums, the market at the time being somewhat saturated with similar pop-jazz hybrids from the likes of former bandmate Hubbard. Hancock himself had quite a limited role in some of those albums, leaving singing, composing and even producing to others. Mr. Hands (1980) is perhaps the one album during this period, that was critically acclaimed. To the delight of many fans, there were no vocals on the album, and one track featured Pastorius on bass. The album contained a wide variety of different styles, including a disco instrumental song, a Latin-jazz number and an electronic piece, in which Hancock plays alone with the help of computers.

Hancock also found time to record more traditional jazz while creating more commercially oriented music. He toured with Williams and Carter in 1981, recording Herbie Hancock Trio, a five-track live album released only in Japan. A month later, he recorded Quartet with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, released in the US the following year. Hancock, Williams and Carter toured internationally with Wynton and his brother, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, in what was known as "VSOP II". This quintet can be heard on Marsalis's debut album on Columbia (1981). In 1984 VSOP II performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival as a sextet with Hancock, Williams, Carter, the Marsalis Brothers and the addition of a third member into the horn section by way of Bobby McFerrin contributing his unique vocal stylings.

In 1982 Hancock contributed to the Simple Minds album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84), playing a synthesizer solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted".

In 1983, Hancock had a mainstream hit with the Grammy-award winning instrumental single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock. It was the first jazz hip-hop song[15][16][17] and became a worldwide anthem for the breakdancers and for the hip-hop culture of the 1980s.[18][19] It was also the first mainstream single to feature scratching, and also featured an innovative animated music video, which was directed by Godley and Creme and showed several robot-like artworks by Jim Whiting. The video was a hit on MTV and reached No. 8 in the UK.[20] The video won in five categories at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell: Future Shock (1983), the Grammy Award-winning Sound-System (1984), and Perfect Machine (1988).

During this period, he appeared onstage at the Grammy Awards with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, and Thomas Dolby, in a synthesizer jam. Lesser known works from the 1980s are the live album Jazz Africa (1987) and the studio album Village Life (1984), which were recorded with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso.[21] Also, in 1985 Hancock performed as a guest on the album So Red the Rose (1985) by the Duran Duran spinoff group Arcadia. He also provided introductory and closing comments for the PBS rebroadcast in the United States of the BBC educational series from the mid-1980s, Rockschool (not to be confused with the most recent Gene Simmons' Rock School series).

In 1986 Hancock performed and acted in the film 'Round Midnight. He also wrote the score/soundtrack, for which he won an Academy Award for Original Music Score. His film work was prolific during the 1980's, and included the scores to A Soldier's Story (1984), Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Action Jackson (1988, with Michael Kamen), Colors (1988), and the Eddie Murphy comedy Harlem Nights (1989). Often he would also write music for TV commercials. "Maiden Voyage", in fact, started out as a cologne advertisement. At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship.

1990s to 2000

Hancock live in concert

After a break following his leaving of Columbia, Hancock, together with Carter, Williams, Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, recorded A Tribute to Miles, which was released in 1994. The album contained two live recordings and studio recording songs, with Roney playing Davis's part as trumpet player. The album won a Grammy for best group album. Hancock also toured with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny in 1990 on their Parallel Realities tour, which included a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1990, and scored the 1991 comedy film Livin' Large, which starred Terrence C. Carson.

Hancock's next album, Dis Is da Drum, released in 1994, saw him return to acid jazz. Also in 1994, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African-American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine.

1995's The New Standard found Hancock and an all-star band including John Scofield, DeJohnette and Michael Brecker, interpreting pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and others.

A 1997 duet album with Shorter, entitled 1 + 1, was successful; the song "Aung San Suu Kyi" winning the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. Hancock also achieved great success in 1998 with his album Gershwin's World, which featured readings of George and Ira Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars, including Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Shorter. Hancock toured the world in support of Gershwin's World with a sextet that featured Cyro Baptista, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ira Coleman, Eli Degibri and Eddie Henderson.

2000 to 2009

In 2001 Hancock recorded Future2Future, which reunited Hancock with Laswell and featured doses of electronica as well as turntablist Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. Hancock later toured with the band, and released a concert DVD with a different lineup, which also included the "Rockit" music video. Also in 2001 Hancock partnered with Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane, entitled Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, recorded live in Toronto. The threesome toured to support the album, and toured on-and-off through 2005.

Hancock performing in concert, 2006

The year 2005 saw the release of a duet album called Possibilities. It featured duets with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others. In 2006 Possibilities was nominated for Grammy Awards in two categories: "A Song for You", (featuring Aguilera) was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and "Gelo No Montanha", (featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance, although neither nomination resulted in an award.

Also in 2005 Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that included Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and explored textures ranging from ambient to straight jazz to African music. Plus, during the summer of 2005, Hancock re-staffed the Headhunters and went on tour with them, including a performance at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. This lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group included Marcus Miller, Carrington, Loueke and Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence for Bonnaroo that summer.

Also in 2006 Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock's old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospective The Essential Herbie Hancock. This set was the first compilation of his work at Warner Bros., Blue Note, Columbia and Verve/Polygram. This became Hancock's second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-only The Herbie Hancock Box, which was released at first in a plastic 4 × 4 cube then re-released in 2004 in a long box set. Also in 2006, Hancock recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest), entitled "Machine". It is featured on Groban's CD Awake. Hancock also recorded and improvised with guitarist Loueke on Loueke's 1996 debut album Virgin Forest, on the ObliqSound label, resulting in two improvisational tracks – "Le Réveil des agneaux (The Awakening of the Lambs)" and "La Poursuite du lion (The Lion's Pursuit)".

Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Mitchell, released a 2007 album, River: The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work, with Norah Jones and Tina Turner, adding vocals to the album,[22] as did Corinne Bailey Rae. Leonard Cohen contributed a spoken piece set to Hancock's piano. Mitchell herself also made an appearance. The album was released on September 25, 2007, simultaneously with the release of Mitchell's newest album at that time: Shine.[23] River won the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award. The album also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and the song "Both Sides Now" was nominated for Best Instrumental Jazz Solo. That was only the second time in history that a jazz album had both those Grammys.

On June 14, 2008 Hancock performed with others at Rhythm on the Vine at the South Coast Winery in Temecula, California, for Shriners Hospitals for Children. The event raised $515,000 for Shriners Hospital.[24]

On January 18, 2009, Hancock performed at the We Are One concert, marking the start of inaugural celebrations for American President Barack Obama.[25] Hancock also performed Rhapsody in Blue at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards with classical pianist Lang Lang. Hancock was named as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's creative chair for jazz for 2010–12.[26]

His latest work includes assisting the production of the Kanye West track "RoboCop", found on 808s & Heartbreak.

Current work from 2010 to present

Hancock on stage performing in Warsaw, Poland, November 29, 2010 with his Imagine Project.
Herbie Hancock and Dee Dee Bridgewater giving a masterclass to musicians in Rabat, Morocco

In June 2010 Hancock released The Imagine Project. On June 5, 2010 Hancock received an Alumni Award from his alma mater, Grinnell College.[27] On July 22, 2011, at a ceremony in Paris, Hancock was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of Intercultural Dialogue. In 2013 Hancock joined the University of California, Los Angeles faculty as a professor in the UCLA music department where he will teach jazz music.[28] On December 8, 2013 he was given the Kennedy Center Honors Award for achievement in the performing arts with artists like Snoop Dogg and Mixmaster Mike from the Beastie Boys performing his music.

Hancock appeared on the 5th Flying Lotus studio album, You're Dead, released in October 2014.

Hancock is the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. Holders of the chair deliver a series of six lectures on poetry, "The Norton Lectures", poetry being "interpreted in the broadest sense, including all poetic expression in language, music, or fine arts." Previous Norton lecturers include musicians Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky and John Cage. Hancock's theme is "The Ethics of Jazz."[29]

Nichiren Buddhism

Since 1972, Hancock has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International.[30][31][32] As part of Hancock's spiritual practice, he recites the Buddhist chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo each day.[33] In 2013, Hancock's dialogue with musician Wayne Shorter and Soka Gakkai International president Daisaku Ikeda on jazz, Buddhism and life was published in Japanese.[32]

Discography

Title Year Label
Takin' Off 1962 Blue Note
My Point of View 1963 Blue Note
Inventions and Dimensions 1963 Blue Note
Empyrean Isles 1964 Blue Note
Maiden Voyage 1965 Blue Note
Blow-Up (Soundtrack) 1966 MGM
Speak Like a Child 1968 Blue Note
The Prisoner 1969 Blue Note
Fat Albert Rotunda 1969 Warner Bros.
Mwandishi 1970 Warner Bros.
Crossings 1972 Warner Bros.
Sextant 1973 Columbia
Head Hunters 1973 Columbia
Thrust 1974 Columbia
Death Wish (Soundtrack) 1974 Columbia
Dedication 1974 Columbia
Man-Child 1975 Columbia
Flood (Live album) 1975 Columbia
Secrets 1976 Columbia
VSOP (Live album) 1976 Columbia
Herbie Hancock Trio 1977 Columbia
VSOP: The Quintet (Live album) 1977 Columbia
VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum (Live album) 1977 Columbia
Sunlight 1977 Columbia
Directstep 1978 Columbia/Sony Japan
An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert (Live album with Chick Corea) 1978 Columbia
The Piano 1979 Columbia
Feets, Don't Fail Me Now 1979 Columbia
VSOP: Live Under the Sky (Live album) 1979 Columbia
CoreaHancock (Live album with Chick Corea) 1979 Polydor
Monster 1980 Columbia
Mr. Hands 1980 Columbia
Herbie Hancock Trio 1981 Columbia
Magic Windows 1981 Columbia
Lite Me Up 1982 Columbia
Quartet (Live album) 1982 Columbia
Future Shock 1983 Columbia
Sound-System 1984 Columbia
Village Life (with Foday Musa Suso) 1985 Columbia
Round Midnight (Soundtrack) 1986 Columbia
Jazz Africa (Live album with Foday Musa Suso) 1987 Polygram
Perfect Machine 1988 Columbia
A Tribute to Miles 1994 Qwest/Warner Bros.
Dis Is da Drum 1994 Verve/Mercury
The New Standard 1995 Verve
1 + 1 (with Wayne Shorter) 1997 Verve
Gershwin's World 1998 Verve
Future2Future 2001 Transparent Music
Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall (Live album with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove) 2002 Verve
Possibilities 2005 Hancock Music/Hear Music/Vector
River: The Joni Letters 2007 Verve
Then and Now: The Definitive Herbie Hancock (Compilation) 2008 Verve
The Imagine Project 2010 Hancock Music

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1981 Concrete Cowboys Gideon Episode: "The Wind Bags"
1985 The New Mike Hammer Himself Episode: "Firestorm"
1986 Round Midnight Eddie Wayne
1988 Branford Marsalis Steep Himself
1993 Indecent Proposal Himself
1995 Invisible Universe Poetry reader (voice) Video game
2002 Hitters District Attorney
2014 Girl Meets World Catfish Willie Slim Episode: "Girl Meets Brother"
2016 Miles Ahead Himself
2016 River of Gold [34] Narrator Documentary
2017 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Unknown

Selected concert films

Books

Awards

Hancock presented with Gold Record Award by Kazimierz Pułaski of Sony Music Poland. November 29, 2011
Herbie Hancock star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Academy Awards

Grammy Awards

  1. 1984, Best R&B Instrumental Performance, for Rockit
  2. 1985, Best R&B Instrumental Performance, for Sound-System
  3. 1988, Best Instrumental Composition, for Call Sheet Blues
  4. 1995, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group, for A Tribute to Miles
  5. 1997, Best Instrumental Composition, for Manhattan (Island of Lights and Love)
  6. 1999, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), for St. Louis Blues
  7. 1999, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group, for Gershwin's World
  8. 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall
  9. 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for My Ship
  10. 2005, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for Speak Like a Child
  11. 2008, Album of the Year, for River: The Joni Letters
  12. 2008, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, for River: The Joni Letters
  13. 2011, Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for A Change Is Gonna Come
  14. 2011, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for Imagine
Michael Lington and Hancock (posing right) at the entrance of the Playboy Jazz Festival

Playboy Music Poll

Keyboard Magazine's Readers Poll

Other notable awards

References

  1. ↑ "Herbie Hancock (American musician)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Herbie Hancock Biography (1940-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  3. ↑ Hancock, Herbie (February 2014). "The Ethics of Jazz". Youtube.com. 11:50: Mahindra Humanities Center. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Hentz, Stefan (August 3, 2010). "Herbie Hancock interview". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 Dobbins, Bill & Kernfeld, Barry. "Herbie Hancock". In L. Root, Deane. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
  6. ↑ Coryell, Julie; Friedman, Laura (2000). Jazz-Rock Fusion, the people, the music. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 204. ISBN 0-7935-9941-5.
  7. ↑ "CHRIS ANDERSON". Review of Love Locked Out. Mapleshade Music. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  8. ↑ The tune "Dr Honoris Causa" written by Joe Zawinul and performed by Cannonball Adderley's quintet is an ironic celebration of the honorary degree.
  9. ↑ 50 great moments in jazz: How Miles Davis's second quintet changed jazz, theguardian.com
  10. ↑ Hancock, Herbie & Dickey, Lisa Herbie Hancock: Possibilities Penguin, 23 Oct 2014
  11. ↑ Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert (1969 TV Movie), Internet Movie Database
  12. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2010). "Headhunters Herbie Hancock". Allmusic review of Headhunters. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  13. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 242. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  14. ↑ "Herbie Hancock". Warr.org. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  15. ↑ Koskoff, Ellen (2005). Music Cultures in the United States: An Introduction. New York, NY: Routledge. p. 364. ISBN 0-415-96588-8. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  16. ↑ Price, Emmett George (2006). Hip Hop Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc. p. 114. ISBN 1-85109-867-4. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  17. ↑ Keyes, Cheryl Lynette (2004). Rap music and street consciousness. Illinois: Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. p. 109. ISBN 0-252-02761-2. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  18. ↑ Hodgkinson, Will (May 10, 2004). "Culture quake: Rockit". Telegraph. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Meet – Herbie Hancock". Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
  20. ↑ Brown, T. Kutner, J. & Warwick, N. The Complete Book of the British Charts. Omnibus Press (ISBN 0711990751), 2002, p.447
  21. ↑ Archived August 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ Andre Mayer (June 18, 2007). "Key figure: An interview with jazz legend Herbie Hancock". CBC News. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  23. ↑ "The Official Website of Joni Mitchell". Jonimitchell.com. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
  24. ↑ Shriners Hospitals for Children, "About Rhythm on the Vine", Rhythm on the Vine, 2008.
  25. ↑ "Obama: People Who Love This Country Can Change It". Foxnews. January 18, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2009.
  26. ↑ Haga, E. Herbie Hancock Named L.A. Philharmonic's Next Creative Chair for Jazz, Jazz Times, August 5, 2009.
  27. ↑ Alumni Award: Herbert J. Hancock '60Hancock received an Alumni Award from Grinnell College at the annual Alumni Assembly June 5, 2010.
  28. ↑ "Jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter named UCLA professors" (Press release). University of California Office of Media Relations and Public Outreach. January 8, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Norton Lectures". Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University. February 4, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  30. ↑ Reiss, Valerie. "Beliefnet Presents: Herbie Hancock on Buddhism, Buddhist, Jazz, Music". Beliefnet.com. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  31. ↑ Burk, Greg (February 24, 2008). "He's still full of surprises". The Los Angeles Times.
  32. 1 2 "Hancock-Shorter-Ikeda Series on Jazz Published in Japanese | Daisaku Ikeda Website". Daisakuikeda.org. 2013-01-30. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  33. ↑ Reiss, Valerie. "Herbie, Fully Buddhist". Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  34. ↑ "River of Gold". Riverofgoldfilm.com. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  35. ↑ "VIEW DVD Listing". View.com. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  36. ↑ Archived April 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  37. ↑ "American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership". Amacad.org. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
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