Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancockis an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth12 April 1940
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I was a jazz purist at the time, I had tunnel vision about jazz and classical music,
Most people think that classical music is a higher form than jazz only because it is from Europe, and we were taught in schools only about Western European history.
I started playing piano when I was 7. And I started with classical lessons. Then I really got exposed to jazz.
I hope to do more movie scores, I hope to do more work in the orchestral setting, some more tours that are more in the line that classical musicians play.
It's very different from classical music. In classical music, you are playing something that is written by someone else.
At first I sounded like any stiff classical musician, trying to play that stuff.
I think a lot of young people being brought up in this scene feel a sense of ruthlessness. There's nothing to plant them deeply down in the soil somehow so they can bend and sway from there.
It gets boring when you look out at the audience and you see that 90 percent of the people out there are males.
Jazz is a music that translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.
I said, 'If Miles is so open, it must be cool to be open to all this other stuff.'
People are afraid to spend money now because they don't know how long they're going to be working.
We're dealing with jazz, so we don't have pop/mainstream budgets.
Well, I was becoming more of a jazz snob, in thinking that jazz was a higher kind of music, and that R&B was, yes, for the body and more commercial.
Over the years I've made decisions about things, especially music, and have been scoffed at and ridiculed and opposed, but I knew I had to do these things.