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
But these days I never turn on radios, I always turn them off.
Buddhism opened me up to seeing things from the standpoint of being a human being - looking at the purpose of action and the effects on life.
Buddhism has helped me toward gaining control over my own destiny, and given me the courage to follow directions I believe in.
I would be all over the piano, but Miles would play a few notes that would just wipe out all that fancy stuff I was playing.
I don't go back to anything, I just add. Just like when you eat a meal, it you eat one thing all the time it gets kind of boring.
My taste is broad, and my interest in exploration is broad,
So, he taught me how to play a simple riff and I somehow found a couple of other notes to play, then I learned how to watch his left hand and I learned where the notes were.
So in other words, we were constantly challenged to grow, and that's what a master does.
On a human level, the garbage man is just as important as the teacher or a rock star or a president, because you have to have them. The world would have been dead a long time ago without garbage men.
Oh yeah, the funny thing is that all my pictures in the past were all smiley pictures, and it's only been in recent pictures where I've had some where I don't smile.
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.
Now we see that we have to pay attention to the environment. We have to protect it. It's become a real issue and a lot of people are still looking at it from a 20th century standpoint.
I'm an American man, and I'm concerned about the present and the future as has as this country and its people are concerned.
I'm aiming that towards people, towards humanity, not even just musicians. Because this is about life, not about musicians.