Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an Americanjazz musician, bandleader, and composer.[2] He started his career with trumpeterDonald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined theMiles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazzrhythm section and was one of the primary architects of thepost-bop sound. In the 1970s, he experimented withjazz fusion,funk, andelectro styles using a wide array ofsynthesizers and electronics. It was during this time that he released one of his best-known and most influential albums,Head Hunters.[3]
Throughout his teens, Herbie Hancock never had a jazz teacher; he developed his ear and sense of harmony by listening to the records of jazz pianists includingGeorge Shearing,Erroll Garner,Bill Evans, andOscar Peterson. Hancock was also influenced by records of the vocal groupthe Hi-Lo's. In his words:
By 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 onSpeak Like a Child – just being able to do that. I really got that fromClare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... he andBill Evans, andRavel andGil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it came from.[11]
In 1960, Hancock heardChris Anderson play just once and begged him to accept him as a student.[12] Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru.[13]
Hancock graduated fromGrinnell College inGrinnell, Iowa, in 1960,[14] with degrees in electrical engineering and music. Hancock then moved back to Chicago,[14] and began working withDonald Byrd andColeman Hawkins. During this time, he also took courses atRoosevelt University.[15] Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972.[10][16] Byrd was attending theManhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition withVittorio Giannini (which he did for a short time in 1960). The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions withOliver Nelson andPhil Woods. Hancock recorded his first solo album,Takin' Off, forBlue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (fromTakin' Off) was to provideMongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock,Takin' Off caught the attention ofMiles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummerTony Williams, a member of the new band.
Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963,[10] he joined Davis'sSecond Great Quintet. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz. Therhythm section that Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassistRon Carter, 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams, and Hancock on piano. AfterGeorge Coleman andSam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot, the quintet gelled withWayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. This quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles yet.[17]
During that period, Hancock also composed thescore toMichelangelo Antonioni's filmBlowup (1966), the first of many filmsoundtracks 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 well-known products asPillsbury'sSpace Food Sticks,Standard Oil,Tab diet cola, andVirginia Slims cigarettes. Hancock also wrote, arranged and conducted a spy type theme for a series ofF. 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 hisThe Prisoner album of 1969.[18]
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 electrickeyboards, including theFender Rhodeselectric piano at Davis's insistence. Hancock adapted quickly to the new instruments, which proved to be important in his future artistic endeavors.
In the summer of 1968, after being dismissed from Davis' band under the pretext that he had returned late from a honeymoon inBrazil, Hancock formed his own sextet.[19] Despite his departure from the band—which was disbanded soon after—Hancock continued to appear on Davis’ records for the next few years. His appearances includedIn a Silent Way,A Tribute to Jack Johnson, andOn the Corner.
Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing withWarner Bros. Records. In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack forBill Cosby's animated prime-time television specialHey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert.[20] Music from the soundtrack was later included onFat Albert Rotunda (1969), anR&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 theQuincy Jones albumSounds...and Stuff Like That!! (1978).
Hancock became fascinated with electronic musical instruments. Together with the profound influence of Davis'sBitches Brew (1970), this fascination culminated in a series of albums in which electronic instruments were coupled with acoustic instruments. Hancock's first ventures intoelectronic music started with a sextet comprising Hancock, bassistBuster Williams and drummerBilly Hart, and a trio of horn players:Eddie Henderson (trumpet),Julian Priester (trombone), andmultireedistBennie Maupin.Patrick Gleeson was eventually added to the mix to play and program the synthesizers.
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), andSextant (1973) (released onColumbia Records); two more,Realization andInside 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 ofcontemporary classical composers. Hancock's three records released in 1971–73 later became known as the "Mwandishi" albums, so-called after aSwahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era ("Mwandishi" isSwahili for "writer"). The first two, includingFat Albert Rotunda, were made available on the two-CD setMwandishi: the Complete Warner Bros. Recordings, released in 1994. "Hornets" was later revised on the 2001 albumFuture2Future as "Virtual Hornets".
Hancock formedthe Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassistPaul Jackson, percussionistBill Summers, and drummerHarvey Mason. The albumHead Hunters (1973) was a hit, crossing over to pop audiences but criticized within his jazz audience.[21]Stephen Erlewine, in a retrospective summary forAllMusic, 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."[22]
Drummer Mason was replaced byMike Clark, and the band released a second album,Thrust, in 1974. (A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first twoHead Hunters releases was released in 1975 asFlood). This was almost as well received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album calledSurvival 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 forReturn of the Headhunters, and a version of the band (featuring Clark) continues to play and record.
In 1973, Hancock was commissioned to compose the soundtrack for the controversial filmThe Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on thenovel of the same name bySam Greenlee, who had grown up in the same neighborhood of Chicago as Hancock.[23][24][25] In the following year, Hancock composed the soundtrack to the firstDeath Wish film. One of his 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 wereMan-Child (1975) andSecrets (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.
In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet withChick Corea, who replaced him in the Davis band a decade earlier. Hancock also released a solo acoustic piano album,The Piano (1979), which was released only in Japan. (It was released in the US in 2004). Other Japan-only albums includeDedication (1974),V.S.O.P.'s Tempest in the Colosseum (1977), andDirect Step (1978).VSOP: 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-inflecteddisco and pop music, beginning withSunlight (featuring guest musicians including Williams and Pastorius on the last track) (1978). Singing through avocoder, he earned a British hit,[26] "I Thought It Was You", although critics were unimpressed.[27] 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".[26]
Hancock toured with Williams and Carter in 1981, recordingHerbie Hancock Trio, a five-track album released only in Japan. A month later, he recordedQuartet with trumpeterWynton Marsalis, released in the US the following year. Hancock, Williams, and Carter toured internationally with Wynton Marsalis and his brother, saxophonistBranford Marsalis, in what was known as "VSOP II". This quintet can be heard on Wynton 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, andBobby McFerrin. In 1982, Hancock contributed to the albumNew Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) bySimple 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 albumFuture Shock. It was the firstjazz hip-hop song[28][29][30] and became a worldwide anthem forbreakdancers and for hip-hop in the 1980s.[31][32] It was the first mainstream single to featurescratching, and also featured an innovative animated music video, which was directed byGodley and Creme and showed several robot-like artworks byJim Whiting. The video was a hit onMTV and reached No. 8 in the UK.[33] The video won in five categories at the inauguralMTV Video Music Awards. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producerBill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell:Future Shock (1983), the Grammy Award-winningSound-System (1984), andPerfect Machine (1988).
During that period he appeared onstage at theGrammy Awards withStevie Wonder,Howard Jones, andThomas Dolby, in a synthesizerjam. Lesser known works from the 1980s are the live albumJazz Africa (1987) and the studio albumVillage Life (1984), which were recorded withGambiankora playerFoday Musa Suso. In 1985, Hancock performed as a guest on the albumSo Red the Rose (1985) by theDuran Duran spinoff groupArcadia. He also provided introductory and closing comments for thePBS rebroadcast in the United States of theBBC educational series from the mid-1980s,Rockschool (not to be confused with the most recentGene Simmons' Rock School series).
The departure led to a hiatus from recording and the release of several compilations during the first half of the 1990s.[34] He returned with Carter, Williams, Shorter, and Davis admirerWallace Roney to recordA 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 withJack DeJohnette,Dave Holland, andPat Metheny in 1990 on theirParallel Realities tour which included a performance at theMontreux Jazz Festival in July 1990, and scored the 1991 comedy filmLivin' Large, which starredTerrence C. Carson.
A 1997 duet album with Shorter,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 albumGershwin's World, which featured readings ofGeorge andIra Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars, including Stevie Wonder,Joni Mitchell and Shorter. Hancock toured the world in support ofGershwin's World with a sextet featuringCyro Baptista,Terri Lynne Carrington,Ira Coleman,Eli Degibri, andEddie Henderson.
In 2001, Hancock recordedFuture2Future, which reunited Hancock with Laswell and featured doses ofelectronica as well asturntablistRob Swift ofthe 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 andRoy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis andJohn Coltrane,Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, recorded live inToronto. The threesome toured to support the album, and toured on-and-off through 2005.
Also in 2005, Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that includedBeninese guitaristLionel Loueke and explored textures ranging fromambient to straight jazz toAfrican music. During the summer, Hancock re-staffed the Headhunters and went on tour with them, including a performance at theBonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group includedMarcus Miller, Carrington, Loueke, and Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence forBonnaroo inManchester, Tennessee, that summer.
In 2006,Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock's old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospectiveThe Essential Herbie Hancock. This set was the first compilation of his work at Warner Bros., Blue Note, Columbia andVerve/Polygram. This became Hancock's second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-onlyThe 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 withJosh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder ofDeep Forest), "Machine", which featured on Groban's albumAwake. Hancock also recorded and improvised with guitarist Loueke on Loueke's 1996 debut albumVirgin Forest, on theObliqSound 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 ofJoni Mitchell, released a 2007 album,River: The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work, withNorah Jones,Tina Turner, andCorinne Bailey Rae adding vocals to the album.[35]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 albumShine.[36]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, which made it only the second time in history that a jazz album won those two Grammy Awards.
In a June 2010 interview with Michael Gallant ofKeyboard magazine, Hancock talks about hisFazioli giving him inspiration to do things.[42] On December 8, 2013, Hancock was given theKennedy Center Honors Award for achievement in the performing arts.Terence Blanchard was the musical director and arranged Hancock compositions for performances with artists likeWayne Shorter,Joshua Redman,Vinnie Colaiuta,Lionel Loueke, andAaron Parks.Snoop Dogg performed a mash-up of the US3 arrangement of Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" and his own "Gin and Juice".Mixmaster Mike from theBeastie Boys was featured on a rendition of Hancock's "Rockit".
Hancock appeared on the albumYou're Dead! byFlying Lotus, released in October 2014. He was the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry atHarvard 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 musiciansLeonard Bernstein,Igor Stravinsky, andJohn Cage. Hancock's theme is "The Ethics of Jazz".[43]
Hancock has been married to Gigi Hancock (née Meixner) since 1968[1] and the couple has a daughter. In a 2019 interview, Herbie said: "Gigi is very compassionate. She really cares about other people. She spends most of her time helping her friends. She has a big heart. At the same time she won't let you get away with anything. If you try to sneak something past her, she'll call you on it in a second. She got me into the pop art scene in New York in the 1960s and I introduced her to my jazz world."[52]
In his memoirPossibilities, written with Lisa Dickey and published in 2014, Hancock revealed that he had previously battled an addiction tocrack cocaine, in the 1990s, and that his wife and daughter helped him get sober: "This was an intervention, and I was so embarrassed, but there was another feeling creeping in, too: relief. I had been struggling with this habit, and this secret, for so long. I looked at my daughter and sobbed, wondering how I had gotten to this place but thankful that it was finally going to end".[54] Since 1972, Hancock has practicedNichiren Buddhism as a member of the Buddhist associationSoka Gakkai International.[55][56][57] Part of Hancock's spiritual practice is to recite the Buddhist chantNam Myoho Renge Kyo each day.[58] In 2013, Hancock's dialogue with musicianWayne Shorter and Soka Gakkai International presidentDaisaku Ikeda on jazz, Buddhism and life was published in Japanese and English,[57] then in French.[59]In 2014, Hancock delivered a lecture at Harvard University titled "Buddhism and Creativity" as part of his Norton Lecture series.[60]
In 1963, at the age of 23, Hancock purchased a new1963 AC Shelby Cobra from a dealership inNew York City for $6,000. He is still its owner and thus the longest owner of a Cobra. The car, serial number CSX2006, was the sixth Cobra ever produced, making it a rare and valuable vehicle. It is one of only 75 Cobras originally produced with a 260 cubic-inch engine and the only Cobra ever equipped with a two-barrelcarburetor. The car has been estimated to be worth more than $2 million. Hancock plans to give the car to his grandson.[61][62][63]
U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry andTeresa Heinz Kerry pose for a photo with the 2013 Kennedy Center honorees –Shirley MacLaine,Martina Arroyo,Billy Joel,Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 2013Hancock presented with Gold Record Award by Kazimierz Pułaski of Sony Music Poland, November 29, 2011Herbie Hancock star on Hollywood Walk of FameMichael Lington and Hancock at the entrance of thePlayboy Jazz Festival
Keyboard Readers' Poll: Best Jazz Pianist (1987, 1988); Keyboardist (1983, 1987)
Playboy Music Poll: Best Jazz Group (1985), Best Jazz AlbumRockit (1985), Best Jazz Keyboards (1985, 1986), Best R&B Instrumentalist (1987), Best Jazz Instrumentalist (1988)
^ab"Herbie Hancock".The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. RetrievedJune 24, 2020.
^Hancock, Herbie (February 2014).The Ethics of Jazz.YouTube. Mahindra Humanities Center. Event occurs at 11:50.Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2016.
^Hentz, Stefan (August 3, 2010)."Herbie Hancock interview".The Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2012.
^"Norton Lectures". Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University. February 4, 2014.Archived from the original on November 2, 2016. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2014.