Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is a jazz pianist and composer from Chicago, Illinois, USA. Hancock is one of jazz music's most important and influential pianists and composers. He embraced elements of rock, funk, and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz.

Early life and career

Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education; Hancock studied from age seven. His talent was recognized early, and he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 5 in D Major at a young people’s concert with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Pianists - Classical music - Mozart - Chicago Symphony

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Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher. Instead, around college age, Hancock grew to like jazz after hearing some Oscar Peterson and George Shearing recordings, which he transcribed on his own time, and which developed his ear and sense of harmony. Hancock also listened to other pianists, including McCoy Tyner, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans, and studied recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Lee Morgan.

Related Topics:
Oscar Peterson - George Shearing - McCoy Tyner - Wynton Kelly - Bill Evans - Miles Davis - John Coltrane - Lee Morgan

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After Hancock achieved degrees in electrical engineering and musical composition at Grinnell College, Donald Byrd hired Hancock in 1961, and the pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin' Off for Blue Note Records in 1962, it was the first of dozens of albums Hancock would lead in the coming decades. "Watermelon Man" was to provide Mongo Santamaria with a hit single, but crucially Takin' Off was to catch the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band.

Related Topics:
Electrical engineering - Grinnell College - Donald Byrd - 1961 - Oliver Nelson - Phil Woods - Takin' Off - Blue Note Records

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During the 1960s, Hancock was a popular sideman and appeared as a pianist on dozens of Blue Note sessions.

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