Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations,he has transcended limitations and genres while still maintaining his unique,unmistakable voice. Herbie's success at expanding the possibilities of musicalthought has placed him in the annals of this century's visionaries. With anillustrious career spanning five decades, he continues to amaze audiences andnever ceases to expand the public's vision of what music, particularly jazz, isall about today.

Herbie Hancock's creative path has moved fluidly between almost everydevelopment in acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B since 1960. He hasattained an enviable balance of commercial and artistic success, arriving at apoint in his career where he ventures into every new project motivated purelyby the desire to expand the boundaries of his creativity.

There are few artists in the music industry who have gained more respect andcast more influence than Herbie Hancock. As the immortal Miles Davis said inhis autobiography, "Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and TheloniousMonk, and I haven't heard anybody yet who has come after him."

Born in Chicago in 1940, Herbie was a child piano prodigy who performed aMozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the tenderage of 11. He began playing jazz in high school, initially influenced by OscarPeterson and Bill Evans. Also at this time, an additional passion for electronicscience began to develop. As a result, he took a double major in music andelectrical engineering at Grinnell College.

In 1960, at age 20, Herbie was discovered by trumpeter Donald Byrd, whoasked him to join his group. Byrd also introduced Herbie to Alfred Lion ofBlue Note Records, and after two years of session work with the likes of PhilWoods and Oliver Nelson, he signed to the legendary label as a solo artist.His 1963 debut album, Takin’ Off, was an immediate success, producing“Watermelon Man,” a big hit on jazz and R&B radio. Also in 1963, Herbiereceived the call that was to change his life and secure his place in jazzhistory. Miles Davis invited Herbie to join the Miles Davis Quintet. During hisfive years with Davis, Herbie and his colleagues thrilled audiences andrecorded classic after classic, including the albums ESP, Nefertiti, andSorcerer. Most jazz critics and fans regard this group, which also includedWayne Shorter (tenor sax), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums), asthe greatest small jazz group of the 1960s. Even after he left Davis' group,Herbie still made appearances on Davis' groundbreaking recordings In a SilentWay and Bitches Brew, which heralded the birth of jazz-fusion.

Simultaneous with his work for Miles, Herbie's own solo career blossomed onBlue Note, creating such classic albums as Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles,and Speak Like a Child. In 1966, he composed the score to MichelangeloAntonioni's film, Blow Up. This led to a successful career in feature film andtelevision music, including music for Bill Cosby’s Emmy-winning Hey, Hey,Hey, It’s Fat Albert and many other film scores in following years.

1970s: The Headhunters and VSOP

After leaving Miles Davis in 1968, Herbie stepped full-time into the newelectronic jazz-funk that was sweeping the world. Herbie gathered a newband called The Headhunters and, in 1973, recorded Head Hunters—ahugely successful crossover hit which became the first jazz album to goplatinum. With its Sly Stone-influenced hit single "Chameleon," this album(and its follow-up, Thrust) signaled once and for all that Herbie Hancockwould not be pigeonholed or categorized.

By mid-decade, Herbie was playing for stadium-sized crowds all over theworld and had no fewer than four albums in the pop charts at once. In total,Herbie had eleven albums in the pop charts during the 1970s. What's evenmore remarkable about Herbie's ’70s output is the inspiration andinexhaustible supply of samples he provided for the generations of hip hopand dance music artists that followed almost twenty years after theserecordings were at their peak popularity. This, though, would not be the onlytime in his career that Herbie’s work would have such an influence.

Not content to travel one creative path, Herbie also stayed close to his love ofacoustic jazz in the ’70s. He recorded and performed with VSOP (areunification of the ’60s Miles Davis Quintet, substituting the great FreddieHubbard for Davis), with various trios and quartets under his own name, andin duet settings with fellow pianists Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson.

1980s: Future Shock, Film & TV

In 1980, Herbie introduced the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to the world as asolo artist, producing the young musician's debut album and touring withhim as well. In 1983, a new pull to the alternative side led Herbie to a seriesof collaborations with the notorious musical architect Bill Laswell. The first,Future Shock, again struck platinum, and the single "Rockit" rocked the danceand R&B charts, winning a Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental. Moreover, thevideo of the track, created by Kevin Godley and Lol Crème, won five MTVawards. Sound System, the follow-up to Future Shock, also received aGrammy in the R&B instrumental category. Once again, Herbie Hancock hadblazed a new path for younger musicians to follow.

In addition to his Grammy and MTV Award successes, Herbie won an Oscar in1986 for scoring the film 'Round Midnight—in which he also appeared as anactor. During this time, he composed the soundtracks for a number of otherfilms including Colors, Jo Jo Dancer, Action Jackson and Harlem Nights.Numerous television appearances over the years led to two hostingassignments in the 1980s. The first, Rock School, was an innovativeeducational music show for PBS, the second, Showtime's Coast To Coast, wasa unique series of in-concert performances, interviews and collaborations,and ran from 1989-91.

1990s: Verve Records and Headhunters Reunited

Herbie once again scaled the charts in 1994, but in a most unique way. ABritish hip-hop group called US3 sampled a classic Blue Note side,"Cantaloupe Island," for a track called "Cantaloop" which became a hugeinternational hit for Herbie's old label. The track went Top 20 in a number ofcountries and was licensed countless times for TV commercials and promos,leading to the resurrection of many great Herbie Hancock tracks throughoutthe decade.

Herbie signed to the Polygram Label Group in 1994. After an adventurouspop-oriented project for Mercury Records, Dis Is Da Drum, he moved on toPolygram's Verve label, forming an all-star band to record 1996's Grammy-winning The New Standard. This album, another landmark, adapted rock andR&B tunes from recent times to a straight ahead jazz format. In 1997, aneloquent and daring album of duets with Wayne Shorter, 1+1, was released.The legendary Headhunters reunited in 1998, recording an album forHerbie's own Verve-distributed imprint, and touring with the Dave MatthewsBand at the arena-rock giant's own request. But the crowning achievement ofHerbie Hancock's Verve years thus far has been Gershwin's World. Recordedand released in 1998, this masterwork brought artists from all over themusical spectrum together in a celebration of George Gershwin and his entireartistic milieu. Herbie's collaborators included Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder,Kathleen Battle, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Wayne Shorter and ChickCorea. Gershwin's World won three Grammies in 1999, including BestTraditional Jazz Album and Best R&B Vocal Performance for Stevie Wonder's"St. Louis Blues." The entire music world celebrated this album as one of thevery finest in Herbie Hancock's incomparable career.

At the end of 1999, Herbie joined two partners—his manager David Passickand former Verve Records president Chuck Mitchell—to form TransparentMusic, a multi-media music company dedicated to the presentation ofbarrier-breaking music of all types, at all tiers of distribution includingrecordings, films and TV, concert events and the Internet.

2000 and Today: FUTURE2FUTURE and Possibilities

In yet another innovative stylistic move, Herbie reunited with Bill Laswell inthe creation of a 21st Century collaboration with some of the young hip-hopand techno artists who have drawn on his massive influence to create theirown music of the future. The album was released in spring, 2001, and isentitled FUTURE2FUTURE. Another collaborative work followed in 2002 whenHerbie teamed with Roy Hargrove and Michael Becker to record a live concertalbum, Directions In Music: Live at Massey Hall—a tribute to John Coltraneand Miles Davis. The three musicians then embarked upon a tour.

His latest studio project, Possibilities, released in August 2005 is aptlynamed, as it consists of an even wider-ranging collection of sounds andstyles than his previous collaborative works. For Possibilities, Herbie teamedwith established artists such as Sting, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, ChristinaAguilera, Paul Simon and Carlos Santana, as well as serious up-and-comerslike Joss Stone and Damien Rice. Also in 2005, Herbie re-staffed his famedHeadhunters ensemble with a host of notable names such as guitarists JohnMayer and Lionel Loueke, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Terri LyneCarrington, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and percussionist Munyungo Jackson toplay a number of concert dates in the summer.

Herbie Hancock also maintains a thriving career outside the performing stageand recording studio. Since 1991, he has been the Distinguished Artist inResidence at Jazz Aspen Snowmass in Colorado; a non-profit organizationdevoted to the preservation and performance of jazz and American music.Herbie also serves as Institute Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute ofJazz, the foremost international organization devoted to the development ofjazz performance and education worldwide. He has taken on a number ofroles on behalf of the institute, from competition judge to master classteacher, to guest performer with the Institute's prestigious college program.

Now in the fifth decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remainswhere he has always been: in the forefront of world culture, technology,business and music. Though one can't track exactly where he will go next, heis sure to leave his own inimitable creative style and imprint wherever helands.