Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Biographical Information

Herbert "Herbie Jeffrey Hancock, born on 12 April 1940 in Chicago, USA, is a pianist and composer of jazz. He is one of jazz's most important and influential personalities. He has blended elements of jazz soul, to rock, to funk, to disco and, sometimes, some of the rhythms from rap. Herbie Hancock has played with many great jazz musicians in the 1960s and also joined the Miles Davis quintet, with which he redefined the role of the rhythm section. He was the first to use synthesizers and scratching in the field of music. Despite his experiments, music by Herbie Hancock has remained accessible and melodic, sometimes experiencing commercial success, especially with pieces Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Chameleon and Rock it.

Career and Important Works, Contributions, Awards

Herbie Hancock learned to play the piano at the age of seven and soon became a prodigy, playing solo, and the first movement of a concerto for piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at age eleven with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After studying at Grinnell College at the time listening to Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, Hancock was invited in 1961 by its owner Donald Byrd to join his group in New York. In his debut album, 'Takin 'Off Watermelon Man' recorded the song 'watermelon man', which had previously been touched by the great percussionist Mongo Santamaria.

Miles Davis asked him to join their band for the sessions of Seven Steps to Heaven; he stayed with him for five years, which cost him part of his style in favor of a takeover of the music guidelines Davis. Hancock provided the music of Davis a broad sound, bold, yet pleasant, with sharp roots in the blues. During that time, his solo career with Blue Note went on, pointing with four sophisticated compositions: Maiden Voyage, Cantaloupe Island, Goodbye to Childhood and Speak Like a Child. He also played for producer Creed Taylor and composed the soundtrack for the film Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni, Empyrean Isles (1964), which opened the door to future collaborations with the world of cinema.

Hancock participated in 'In A Silent Way', one of the disks originating in the jazz-rock fusion. He left Davis in 1968 and recorded an album of funk; Fat Albert Rotunda in 1969 formed a sextet that caused a sensation. Patrick Gleeson Heavily steeped in the electronic age added to his piano and his electric clavinet ...