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
It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I had to almost hide my face, because tears were welling up in my eyes. Just the thought of playing with Bird, wow!
It's very different from classical music. In classical music, you are playing something that is written by someone else.
Sometimes you can practice something but what you wind up playing when you're out doing a gig is not what you practiced. What you learn is not necessarily what you practice.
I started playing piano when I was 7. And I started with classical lessons. Then I really got exposed to jazz.
Although my parents were playing jazz for me when I was a kid, I didn't pay much attention until I saw someone my age improvising, playing jazz..
A lot of the people that are making the music didn't have the kind of experiences I've had, playing with some of the great masters of jazz.
Americans are taught that white people did everything, but that is changing. American history and our dealings with other cultures are a constant conflict of understanding.
Actually, African Americans I think are completely now all mixed.
Technology has made so much information available but what the technological community has not done is to make any attempt for us to figure out how we're going to assimilate all this information.
It might have been somewhat derivative otherwise, and I'm not the kind of person who's satisfied with being derivative.
Nowadays people jog and listen to music. Work out and listen to music. They've got these headphones on all the time. It's just the normal scene.
Then I would watch him improvise, and I would be fascinated by what he was doing.
I knew of jazz, but I didn't like it. I always thought only older people liked jazz - you know, you had to be 19 or 20.
I hope to still be making records, but still traveling and touring, I don't know to the extent that I am now, because it's pretty wearing on your physical energy.