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 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.
Not too many people my age really zeroed in on the blues. Most of the people that listened to it were older than teenagers.
I'm not telling students not to practice or advising people to limit themselves.
We talked for a couple of hours before we played a note. We didn't talk about music, we talked about life - families, children, issues in the world, politics, so many things. The kind of camaraderie we developed helped make the music what it is. I wanted to find a common ground and connect as people first.
A couple of years ago, I came up with the idea for a film that I thought could be interesting, and I took it to a couple of people - nobody professional or anything - but I thought it was kind of cool.
Another thing that I noticed is a lot of people in the hip hop scene have a great respect for jazz and have incorporated by sampling some elements that come from jazz.
As far as actually writing scripts or stories... now scenarios, most people have ideas for scenarios that could be the basis for a film.
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.
People put you on a pedestal when you become famous, in their eyes, or if they really respect your work, they might put you on a pedestal, but I didn't get that as a kid.
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.
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.
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.
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.