Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer from Chicago, born in 1940. His work spans classical, hard bop, jazz, jazz fusion, funk and electro, and he is associated with a long list of ensembles and projects including the Miles Davis Quintet, The Headhunters, The Herbie Hancock Quintet, The Herbie Hancock Trio, The Herbie Hancock Sextet, The Herbie Hancock Quartet, V.S.O.P., Future 2 Future, Bahia Black, Artists United for Nature, Various Artists for Children’s Promise, Orquestra Was and The All Star Jazz Reunion. He records under Hancock Music Co.

Early career

Hancock begins his professional career with trumpeter Donald Byrd’s group before joining the Miles Davis Quintet in 1963. In that band, alongside Ron Carter, Tony Williams and later Wayne Shorter, he helps shape post-bop and expands the role of the jazz rhythm section. He studies piano from the age of seven, receives classical training, and performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. He also attends Hyde Park High School, graduates from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1960 with degrees in electrical engineering and music, and studies with Chris Anderson, Vittorio Giannini and at Roosevelt University.

As a session musician, he records with artists including Oliver Nelson, Phil Woods, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Eric Dolphy. His influences include Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis, George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, the Hi-Lo’s, Clare Fischer, Maurice Ravel and Gil Evans. He also writes film and commercial music in the 1960s, including the score for Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup.

Blue Note years and Miles Davis

His debut album, Takin’ Off, appears on Blue Note Records in 1962 and includes “Watermelon Man”, which becomes a hit for Mongo Santamaría and helps bring him to Miles Davis’s attention. While continuing to record for Blue Note as a leader and sideman, he releases albums such as My Point of View, Inventions and Dimensions, Speak Like a Child and The Prisoner. He also contributes to Davis recordings including In a Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On the Corner, and moves towards electric keyboards, including the Fender Rhodes.

Fusion, funk and electronic work

After leaving Blue Note in 1969, Hancock signs with Warner Bros. Records and writes the soundtrack for the television special Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert, with music later issued on Fat Albert Rotunda. He then forms a sextet that expands into a septet with Patrick Gleeson on synthesiser. This group records Mwandishi, Crossings and Sextant, later known together as the Mwandishi albums, which combine improvisation with electronic textures.

In 1973 he forms the Headhunters with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, Bill Summers and Harvey Mason. Their debut album, Head Hunters, becomes one of the best-selling jazz albums of its time, followed by Thrust. The band later continues independently with Survival of the Fittest, and Hancock reunites with the Headhunters in 1998 for Return of the Headhunters. During the 1970s he also records jazz-funk albums including Man-Child and Secrets, and composes film scores for The Spook Who Sat on the Door and Death Wish.

1970s to 1990s

In the late 1970s Hancock reunites with former Miles Davis collaborators for the V.S.O.P. project, with Freddie Hubbard replacing Davis. He also records the solo piano album The Piano and several live albums first issued in Japan. Between 1978 and 1982 he explores disco, pop and electronic sounds, using vocoder on albums including Sunlight and Feets, Don’t Fail Me Now. In 1982 he contributes synthesiser to Simple Minds’ New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84).

His 1983 album Future Shock and its single “Rockit” bring wide commercial success, combining jazz, electronic music and hip-hop elements. He continues to work with Bill Laswell on Sound-System and Perfect Machine, and collaborates with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby, Foday Musa Suso and Arcadia. He also writes scores for Round Midnight, A Soldier’s Story, Action Jackson, Colors and Harlem Nights. His score for Round Midnight wins the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

In the 1990s he returns with projects including A Tribute to Miles, recorded with Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter and Wallace Roney, and tours with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny on Parallel Realities. Dis Is da Drum reflects acid jazz, while The New Standard interprets songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Prince and Peter Gabriel. His duet album 1+1 with Wayne Shorter wins a Grammy Award, and Gershwin’s World presents interpretations of works by George and Ira Gershwin.

2000s and later

In the 2000s Hancock reunites with Bill Laswell for Future 2 Future and records Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove. Possibilities features collaborations with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera and Sting. He also resumes touring with a new version of the Headhunters and serves as the first artist in residence at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to Joni Mitchell, features Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae and Leonard Cohen and wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Hancock also appears at charity events, participates in celebrations for Barack Obama’s inauguration, and serves as creative chair for jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2010-2012 season. The Imagine Project follows in 2010.

He is appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for intercultural dialogue in 2011, joins the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013, receives Kennedy Center Honors in 2013, and serves as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University in 2014, delivering a lecture series called “The Ethics of Jazz”. He continues to collaborate with artists including Flying Lotus, Terrace Martin, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Lionel Loueke, Zakir Hussain, Snoop Dogg, Domi and JD Beck, and he continues performing internationally.

Awards and recognition

Hancock receives an Academy Award, 14 Grammy Awards and the Polar Music Prize. He is also named a recipient of the Polar Music Prize in 2025. He holds honorary degrees from several universities and serves as chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, formerly the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.