Herbie+Hancock



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[|Herbie Hancock], born Herbert Jeffrey Hancock on April 12, 1940 in Chicago Illinois, is a living musical legend. He was born to Wayman Edward Hancock and Winnie Bell Hancock. Though his family wasn't really a "musical family", he became a musical icon. Having a mentor like Miles Davis guaranteed him a place in the musical hall of fame. Herbie Hancock took jazz to a new level by building a bridge between many genres of music. His unique voice and untouchable style of music has made him an unforgettable figure in music history.



Hancock was a child piano prodigy who performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the tender age of eleven. He had began his musical studies at age seven. During his high school career, Hancock took an interest in the engineering feild claiming that he "love[d] gadgets and buttons." At the same time he was being influenced by Jazz pianist such as George Shearing, Oscar Peterson, and Erroll Garner. While in high school, he formed his own jazz ensemble. He soon entered Grinnell College in the late 1950s. By then he was an accomplished classical pianist. When his love for science and music combined, it helped create a pillar in musical evolution, the electronic age.

Hancock was discovered at age 20 by Donald Byrd. His 1963 debut album, Takin’ Off was very successful. Its radio play caused him to be noticed by one of Jazz’s greatest Miles Davis. Later on that year Davis asked Hancock to join the Miles Davis Quintet. Hancock spent five years with Davis grouped with Ron Carter (bass), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), and Tony Williams (drums). This group is praised as one of the greatest of its kind. His solo career was also doing well. He created many albums and began to compose scores for films and television shows, including Bill Cosby’s Emmy-winning Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert. He then formulated a new band called the Headhunters in 1973. Headhunters produced the hit single Chameleon. Chameleon--> media type="file" key="Herbie Hancock.mp4" This group greatly contrasted with Hancock’ previous works. It showed his diversified talents in the music industry. Hancock is a leading figure in the music industry because of his wide range of musical talents. His work is a true melting pot. He takes different parts of many genres and combines them to make them his own while adding to the original genre.

Hancock has worked with many people during his nearly half of century in the music indeustry. In 1980, he introduced the solo artist trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. In 1983 he did a series of collaborations Bill Laswell. One of their hits was "Rockit” which won a grammy and five MTV awards. media type="google" key="-844093283698096940&hl=en" width="400" height="326" In 1994, one of Hancock’s old groups’, Blue Note, song was sampled by a British hip hop group called US3. In 1997 he got together with Wayne Shorter to record an album of duets. In 1998 he got together with many members of the musical world to celebrate George Gershwin. The collaborators included the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Joni Mitchell,Stevie Wonder, Kathleen Battle, Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea. His most recent project, Possibilities, was released in August 2005. Hancock teamed with figures such as Sting, Annie Lennox, Paul Simon, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, John Mayer, Joss Stone and Damien Rice.

Hancock's diverse style of music has brought greatness to his name, but it is also the cause of much controversy. The jazz community in particular isn't really fond of Hancock's dabbing in other genres which causes many raised eyebrows. His albums with his group the Headhunters is what sparked it all. To the criticism, Hancock simply remarks "It had nothing to do with whether it resonated with everybody or not. When I first did Headhunters, it was partly out of a curiosity about what would that be like, if I did something that was more funky or earthy at this point; who knew that there was a larger public out there that was dying to hear that?" (Mayer). Herbie Hancock dared to be different. Though some of the more meticulous figureheads may not agree with it, they cant disagree with the fact that Herbie Hancock is an excellent musician.

Awards are no foreigner to Mr. Hancock. He has won a variey of them from [|Grammys] and Oscars to Playboy Music Poll and Soultrain Awards. With these accolades,Hancock is able to give back to the community that made it possible for him to recieve them. He is the co-founder of the Rhythm of Life Organization. ROLO's mission statement is: to increase the employability of youth using technology and entertainment-based software applications and to use technology to improve humanity. Hancock is also the Institute Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. This prestigious, non-profit organization "offers the world's most promising young musicians college level training by America's jazz masters, and presents public school-based jazz education programs for young people worldwide."([|Herbiehancock.com]) Hancock is also an avid contributer to many charities.

Most musicians tend to stay in the same field through the duration of their careers. Yet, Herbie Hancock explored. Music has many directions in which it can flow. Taking the monotonous paths that people are use to following and meshing them together, gives the people a whole new realm of music to discover, develop, and appreciate.

Diliberto, John. __Jazz Profiles from NPR: Herbie Hancock__. n.d. 24 Feb. 2008 <[|http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/hancock.html>.]

Ginell, Richard S. __Herbie Hancock: Biography__. n.d. 24 Feb. 2008 <[|http://music.yahoo.com/ar-251094-bio--Herbie-Hancock>.]

Hancock, Herbie. __Biography__. 2006. 15 Feb. 2008 <[|http://www.herbiehancock.com/bio/>.]

Mayer, Andre. __Key Figure: An Interview with Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock__. 2007. 24 Feb. 2008 <[|http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/hancock.html>.]