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
People always want to protect what's really going on inside. They want to kind of make visible something that looks more pleasant than what may be happening inside of themselves.
It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.
When I was a kid, I won a contest and played a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony, and I've written some movie scores, and I've been listening to orchestral music for years.
When I was a kid, I used to sit up in bed, put my elbows on the windowsill and look out at the stars and wonder. About space, eternity, the concept of God and creation.
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.
And I just practiced on it and practiced on it. I found a lot of little things about details, about accents and how much of an accent to make.
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..
Although I had stopped listening to R&B, it still would move my soul.
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.
A lot of this look backwards in society and musically is to find some of the real roots, because they can't find them here. There are roots in the past, but not so much now. Maybe this explains their need to do that, and if that's the case, it's OK.
Also, I haven't heard an synthesizer yet that I can truly say has the resolution and is capable of the nuances of the acoustic piano, so I don't even try and compare those anymore.
There's Charlie Parker and there's Miles, there's Trane. I'm none of those guys, so why am I beating myself up trying to find the lost chord all the time?
At first I sounded like any stiff classical musician, trying to play that stuff.