Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer, and actor.
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 age 11. Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher; however, he developed his ear and sense of harmony.
You know, that's where it came from." In 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once and begged him to accept him as a student.
Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru. Hancock graduated from Grinnell College in 1960 with degrees in electrical engineering and music.
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.
Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band. ==Career== === Miles Davis Quintet (1963–1968) and Blue Note Records (1962–1969) === Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963, he joined Davis's Second Great Quintet.
His 2007 tribute album The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
In the summer of 1968 Hancock formed his own sextet.
Louis. On May 19, 2018, Hancock received an honorary degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. ==Personal life== Hancock has a 50-year-plus marriage to Gigi Hancock, whom he married on August 31, 1968.
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. Davis had begun incorporating elements of rock and popular music into his recordings by the end of Hancock's tenure with the band.
Appearances included In a Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On the Corner. === Fat Albert (1969) and Mwandishi era (1971-1973) === Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing with Warner Bros.
In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack for Bill Cosby's animated prime-time television special Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert.
In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles. Hancock's best-known compositions include the jazz standards "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man", "Maiden Voyage", and "Chameleon", as well as the hit singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit".
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.
The music exhibited strong improvisational aspect beyond the confines of jazz mainstream and showed influence from the electronic music of contemporary classical composers. 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").
Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972.
Herbie and Gigi have a daughter named Jessica. ===Nichiren Buddhism=== Since 1972, Hancock has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International.
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.
Stephen Erlewine, in a retrospective summary for AllMusic, said, "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." Drummer Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, Thrust, the following year, 1974.
Then in 1974, he composed the soundtrack to the first Death Wish film.
(A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first two Head Hunters releases was released in 1975 as Flood).
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.
(1976) to Future Shock (1983) === In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who replaced him in the Davis band a decade earlier.
Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004 and included a second concert from the tour in July 1979. From 1978 to 1982, Hancock recorded many albums of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978).
Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004 and included a second concert from the tour in July 1979. From 1978 to 1982, Hancock recorded many albums of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978).
It was the first jazz hip-hop song and became a worldwide anthem for breakdancers and for hip-hop in the 1980s.
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.
His film work was prolific during the 1980s, 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).
This led to more vocoder on his next album, Feets, Don't Fail Me Now (1979), which gave him another UK hit in "You Bet Your Love". Hancock toured with Williams and Carter in 1981, recording Herbie Hancock Trio, a five-track album released only in Japan.
Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004 and included a second concert from the tour in July 1979. From 1978 to 1982, Hancock recorded many albums of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978).
In 1984 VSOP II performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival as a sextet with Hancock, Williams, Carter, the Marsalis Brothers, and Bobby McFerrin. In 1982, Hancock contributed to the album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) by Simple Minds, playing a synthesizer solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted". In 1983, Hancock had a pop hit with the Grammy Award-winning single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock.
In 1984 VSOP II performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival as a sextet with Hancock, Williams, Carter, the Marsalis Brothers, and Bobby McFerrin. In 1982, Hancock contributed to the album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) by Simple Minds, playing a synthesizer solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted". In 1983, Hancock had a pop hit with the Grammy Award-winning single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock.
In 1984 VSOP II performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival as a sextet with Hancock, Williams, Carter, the Marsalis Brothers, and Bobby McFerrin. In 1982, Hancock contributed to the album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) by Simple Minds, playing a synthesizer solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted". In 1983, Hancock had a pop hit with the Grammy Award-winning single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock.
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.
At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship. === 1990s to 2000 === After a break following his departure from Columbia, Hancock, together with Carter, Williams, Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, recorded A Tribute to Miles, which was released in 1994.
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.
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.
Recordings, released in 1994.
At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship. === 1990s to 2000 === After a break following his departure from Columbia, Hancock, together with Carter, Williams, Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, recorded A Tribute to Miles, which was released in 1994.
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 Red Hot + Cool.
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, The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work, with Norah Jones and Tina Turner adding vocals to the album, as did Corinne Bailey Rae.
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.
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.
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.
At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship. === 1990s to 2000 === After a break following his departure from Columbia, Hancock, together with Carter, Williams, Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, recorded A Tribute to Miles, which was released in 1994.
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.
"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. === From Head Hunters (1973) to Secrets (1976) === Hancock formed The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason.
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.
Also in 2001 Hancock partnered with Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane, entitled Live at Massey Hall, recorded live in Toronto.
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.
(It was released in the US in 2004).
Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004 and included a second concert from the tour in July 1979. From 1978 to 1982, Hancock recorded many albums of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978).
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.
The threesome toured to support the album, and toured on-and-off through 2005. The year 2005 saw the release of a duet album called Possibilities.
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.
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.
Also in 2006, Hancock recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest), entitled "Machine".
His 2007 tribute album The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
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, The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work, with Norah Jones and Tina Turner adding vocals to the album, as did Corinne Bailey Rae.
The album was released on September 25, 2007, simultaneously with the release of Mitchell's newest album at that time: Shine.
His 2007 tribute album The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
River won the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award.
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.
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.
The event raised $515,000 for Shriners Hospital. On January 18, 2009, Hancock performed at the We Are One concert, marking the start of inaugural celebrations for American President Barack Obama.
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. === 2010 to present === In June 2010, Hancock released The Imagine Project. On June 5, 2010, he received an Alumni Award from his alma mater Grinnell College.
On July 22, 2011, at a ceremony in Paris, he was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of Intercultural Dialogue.
His 2007 tribute album The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965. Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
Hancock's theme is "The Ethics of Jazz". Hancock's next album is being produced by Terrace Martin, and will feature a broad variety of jazz and hip-hop artists including Wayne Shorter, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Lionel Loueke, Zakir Hussein and Snoop Dogg. On May 15, 2015, Hancock received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Washington University in St.
Louis. On May 19, 2018, Hancock received an honorary degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. ==Personal life== Hancock has a 50-year-plus marriage to Gigi Hancock, whom he married on August 31, 1968.
He is also the chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2019). == Early life == Hancock was born in Chicago, the son of Winnie Belle (Griffin), a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock, a government meat inspector.
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