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Herbie Hancock

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Born:
April 12, 1940, he's 72 and American.
Birthname:
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock.
Snapshot:
An Artist with 140 releases, a member of 3 groups, and credited 71 times on others' music. 56 collaborations.

Biography

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Although Herbie Hancock continues to perform and record regularly today, he is best remembered for playing with Miles Davis in the 60s, pioneering jazz-funk in the 70s, and contributing to the ascent of hip-hop a decade later.

In 1963, the promising young jazz pianist was hand-picked by Miles Davis to play in his 'Second Great Quintet'. Hancock continued to release his own solo sessions on Blue Note, including the hugely important albums Empyrean Isles (1964) and Maiden Voyage (1965). Alongside Davis, Hancock began to experiment with fusing rock or funk elements into jazz, before leaving Davis' ensemble in 1968. He later made notable appearances on influential Davis albums like In a Silent Way and On the Corner. Meanwhile, Hancock's solo work won more admirers. In the early 70s he introduced synthesizers into jazz with the avant-garde Mwandishi albums. However, they were not very accessible and sold few copies, so Hancock decided that funk could be integrated to jazz in a way that would be more accessible. He formed The Headhunters and released Head Hunters (1973), one of the first and most influential jazz-funk records ever.

After Head Hunters, Hancock continued with less-successful jazz-funk records and made several film and TV soundtracks. At the turn of the decade he discovered the vocoder, and enjoyed disco-pop hits (with only hints of jazz) in the UK. In 1983, Hancock won a Grammy for the innovative single "Rockit". The first hit to feature turntablism, it introduced the wider world to the possibility of deliberately manipulating a vinyl record to produce a 'scratch' sound that could be used as if another instrument.

In 2008 Herbie Hancock was the shock winner of the Album of the Year Grammy for his Joni Mitchell covers album River: The Joni Letters (2007).

Music

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Genres

Funk, Fusion, Hard bop, Jazz, Post-bop, Dance, Pop, Bebop, Electro, Traditional R&B. Vote on Genres

Discography

222 releases – 140 under his own name, 16 in other groups and 71 credits on others' music Edit
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Collaborations, Groups and Family
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Herbie Hancock

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In the News

Grammy Awards Slice Categories, Artists Threaten Boycott

Jul, 1 2011

Earlier this year, The Recording Academy, the music industry group that presents the Grammy Awards announced that it would be eliminating 31 categories from next year’s ballot. However this restructuring and move towards more a generalization of categories has some artists angry and threatening to boycott CBS. The network has an exclusive deal to broadcast the Awards next February. Leading the charge is Grammy-nominated percussionist Bobby Sanabria. He claims that the elimination of such categories like Zydeco, Polka, Native American, or Hawaiian categories, which have now been consolidated into the nebulous “Regional Roots” category, is a racist decision that unfairly affects ethnic music. This is something the Academy denies. Support for the movement is growing, according to the Hololulu Star Advertiser. And artist like Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, and Bill Cosby are showing their support. Hawaiian slack-key guitarist Dennis Kamakahi said "I fully agree that the decision made of the board of directors of (the Recording Academy) borders on racism. I am in full support of my fellow (Recording Academy) members who are behind the call of reinstatement of the categories that were cut.” CBS so far has declined to comment. -Court

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