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 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.
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.
This was put together not just as a series of notes and chords. If I depended on what anyone else thinks, I never would have stretched and discovered the various dimensions of myself.
It's not just a collection of overdubs, ... Every artist on the record gave me their heart - and each track is a surprise. This album was about interaction, freedom and looseness. It may not have the notes of jazz, but it was created in the spirit of jazz.
But in jazz, the song may be written by somebody else, but how you treat it is entirely with your notes and your expression.
All you have to do is play one note. But it needs to be the right note.
We were listening to a lot of different people, but we were listening to a lot of real innovators, and we were full of ideas.
I've started something called the Rhythm of Life Foundation to encourage the technological community to develop ideas and software that directly effect the advancement of humanity.
I started playing piano when I was 7. And I started with classical lessons. Then I really got exposed to jazz.
Things that happen to you are events. It's what you do with them that determine whether they're going to be problems or solutions.
Things like creating in the moment, being in the moment, trusting your instincts, not being afraid to go outside the comfort zone.
And you allow yourself to play off that plane. You're in this dark room of unknowns, you allow yourself to go there.
Another convention is that the drummer and bass player are timekeepers, but there's no reason they have to be bound to that.
Even during the major avant-garde period of jazz in the late '60s and early '70s, the songs usually had melodies, some harmonic starting-off point, or something to unify a particular piece in the beginning.