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
Everything has focused on what the technology is capable of doing and making tools and then taking human beings and saying, what can you do with that.
We've been looking at machines for so long, I really wish the technology community would look at human beings first for a change, let's balance the thing out.
My idea is that young people who are not as jaded about technology and the use of technology as we are, who didn't create the technological age, but are born into it, may be able to create software that addresses the issues that pertain to the human being and lead toward the advancement of creativity and the human spirit.
It's easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn't. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.
Technology has made so much information available but what the technological community has not done is to make any attempt for us to figure out how we're going to assimilate all this information.
I'm one of the people who was a pioneer in encouraging musicians, early in the game, to get interested in technology, and now all the musicians are getting into it.
Technology has developed to a whole other level and theres the scientist part of me that loves that stuff.
When I sense a more conservative and limiting attitude coming from musicians, than my impression is that they're really moving away from the true spirit of jazz.
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.
Even the things that are on the Plugged Nickel set. I don't know how we did some of that.
Because I have certain things I feel very passionate about, and I don't want to just make albums with tunes anymore.
As the 1960s began, jazz music was still at an apex, with hard bop groups led by the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane remaining a force on the musical landscape.
Aside from that, what was more in our heads when we made the new album is the concept of forging through and exploring new territory and encouraging other musicians to not be afraid to explore new territory.
Tradition can be negative though, if the importance of having roots outweighs the importance of searching for what's valuable in new things being presented.