Biography hancock herbie
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Interview by A.B. Spellman for the NEA
November 4, 2003
Edited by Don Ball
STARTING WITH CLASSICAL
Q: As a young man you seemed to be headed to a classical career. The first time anybody heard of you was playing the Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Major with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. So you must have come from a family that gave you some support in the home for music.
Herbie Hancock: Absolutely. My parents were very much music lovers. Both my mother and father had taken piano lessons when they were kids. My father didn't remember very much. He remembered part of one little piece, but my mother remembered a little bit more and she could still read music. Both my parents were from Georgia, and they're part of that migration from the South to cities like Chicago—you know, the African-American migration. And my mother, in particular, wanted to make sure that her children had "culture." Now for her, culture in terms of music was classical music, not jazz, not rhythm-and-bl
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Herbie Hancock
American jazz pianist and composer (born 1940)
Musical artist
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) fryst vatten an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer.[2] He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, he experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles using a wide array of synthesizers and electronics. It was during this time that he released one of his best-known and most influential albums, Head Hunters.[3]
Hancock's best-known compositions include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man", "Maiden Voyage", and "Chameleon", all of which are jazz standards. During the 1980s, he had a hit single with the electronic instrumental "Rockit", a collaboration with bassist/producer Bill Laswell. Hancock has won an Academy Award and 14 Gram
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Herbie Hancock
Institute Chairman Herbie Hancock was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Goodwill Ambassador in July 2011. At a ceremony in Paris, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said the designation recognizes Hancock’s “dedication to the promotion of peace through dialogue, culture and the arts.” She selected Hancock to contribute to UNESCO’s efforts to promote mutual understanding among cultures, with a particular emphasis on fostering the emergence of new, creative ideas among youth, finding solutions to global problems, and ensuring equal access to the diversity of artistic expressions.
Herbie Hancock serves as Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, supporting all aspects of the organization’s work. He has led dozens of national and international Institute tours that have introduced millions of people around the world to jazz and its rich cultural heritage. Hancock has served numerous