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 don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.
Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.
We can all be ourselves, be true to ourselves, and all be together.
I hope that I can make good music out of whatever genre I go into. Just to prove to myself that I can.
One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people.
One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.
I try to practice with my life.
Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.
The music becomes something that is its own entity.
The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental.
I've been curious ever since I was a little kid.
Each human being exists because there's something they have to offer for the evolution of the universe that only they can fulfill.
We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.
Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity.