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Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. 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.
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 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for his 2007 album River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to his friend Joni Mitchell. In 2024, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph ranked Hancock as the greatest keyboard player of all time. In 2025, he received the Polar Music Prize.
Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He is also the chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2019).
Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winnie Belle (née Griffin), a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock, a meat inspector for the government. His parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries. Hancock attended Hyde Park High School in Chicago. Like many jazz pianists, Herbie began with a classical education. He started playing piano when he was seven years old, and his talent was recognized when he was young. Considered to be a child prodigy, he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 in D Major, K. 537 (Coronation) at a young people's concert on February 5, 1952, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (led by CSO assistant conductor George Schick) at the age of 11.
Throughout his teens, Herbie Hancock never had a jazz teacher; he developed his ear and sense of harmony by listening to the records of jazz pianists including George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. Hancock was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo's. In his words:
By the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings – like the harmonies I used on Speak Like a Child – just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... he and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it came from.
In 1960, Hancock heard Chris Anderson play just once and begged him to accept him as a student. Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru.
Hancock graduated from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1960, with degrees in electrical engineering and music. Hancock then moved back to Chicago, and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins. During this time, he also took courses at Roosevelt University. Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972. Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini (which he did for a short time in 1960). The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. Hancock recorded his first solo album, Takin' Off, for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin' Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.
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Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. 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.
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 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for his 2007 album River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to his friend Joni Mitchell. In 2024, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph ranked Hancock as the greatest keyboard player of all time. In 2025, he received the Polar Music Prize.
Since 2012, Hancock has served as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He is also the chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2019).
Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winnie Belle (née Griffin), a secretary, and Wayman Edward Hancock, a meat inspector for the government. His parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries. Hancock attended Hyde Park High School in Chicago. Like many jazz pianists, Herbie began with a classical education. He started playing piano when he was seven years old, and his talent was recognized when he was young. Considered to be a child prodigy, he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 in D Major, K. 537 (Coronation) at a young people's concert on February 5, 1952, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (led by CSO assistant conductor George Schick) at the age of 11.
Throughout his teens, Herbie Hancock never had a jazz teacher; he developed his ear and sense of harmony by listening to the records of jazz pianists including George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. Hancock was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo's. In his words:
By the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings – like the harmonies I used on Speak Like a Child – just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... he and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it came from.
In 1960, Hancock heard Chris Anderson play just once and begged him to accept him as a student. Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru.
Hancock graduated from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1960, with degrees in electrical engineering and music. Hancock then moved back to Chicago, and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins. During this time, he also took courses at Roosevelt University. Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972. Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini (which he did for a short time in 1960). The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. Hancock recorded his first solo album, Takin' Off, for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin' Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.
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