Name	Herbie Hancock
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	12 April 1940
Place of Birth	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Famous for

Chicago native Herbie Hancock headed to New York City after graduating from college in 1960 and was recruited by trumpeter Donald Byrd the following year. The pianist soon gained notice and in 1962, recorded his first album, Takin’ Off, under Blue Note Records. The album, which contained Hancock’s hit composition “Watermelon Man,” won him praise, and shortly thereafter, he found himself playing the piano for a celebrated quintet led by Miles Davis.

During his five-year tenure with Davis’ “second great quintet” (from 1963 to 1968), also comprising of drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, saxophonists George Coleman and Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Hancock had opportunities to explore his own unique voice as a master of jazz piano. He rose to fame with the success of this quintet, which is considered one of the best jazz ensembles, thanks to their innovation and flexibility.

Meanwhile, Hancock went on to record numerous sessions for the Blue Note label, both under his own name and as a sideman with other musicians like Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, and others. His albums Empyrean Isles (1964), spawning the hit single “Cantaloupe Island,” and Maiden Voyage (1965) became two of the most renowned and high-ranking jazz LPs of the era. He also released several critically commended, but less-popular, albums such as My Point of View (1963), Speak Like A Child (1968) and The Prisoner (1969). For the almost entirely improvised music Inventions and Dimensions (1963), he teamed up with two Latin percussionists, Willie Bobo and Osvaldo Martinez, and bassist Paul Chambers. Aside from his affiliation with Blue Note, Hancock could also be seen making his debut as a film composer when he provided the jazz-tinged score to the Michelangelo Antonioni-directed Blow-Up (1966).

In the summer of 1968, Hancock departed Davis’ band, but went on to appear on Mile Davis records for the next few years, most notably In a Silent Way (1969), A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1970) and On the Corner (1972). A year later, in 1969, he also quit Blue Note to sign with Warner Bros. Records. Under his new label, he composed 1969’s Fat Albert Rotunda for the Bill Cosby TV show “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” soundtrack, which was a mostly a R&B-influenced album with strong jazz insinuations. Next, Hancock formed a sextet, along with Billy Hart (drums), Buster Williams (bass), Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), and Bennie Maupin, and soon recruited Dr. Patrick Gleeson, who was added to play and program the synthesizers. With the group, he introduced electronic jazz and scored three experimental albums under his name: Mwandishi (1970), Crossings (1972, both with Warner Bros.) and Sextant (1973; Columbia).

Disappointed with the poor sales of the albums, Hancock disbanded the group to form Head Hunters in 1973 with Maupin from the sextet still in his position and added bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason (later replaced by Mike Clark). The newly-formed group released a self-titled album later that same year that became a huge hit and crossed over to pop audiences, despite receiving hard criticism from some jazz admirers. They went on to release Thrust in 1974 and a live album titled Flood (released only in Japan). While playing with the Head Hunters, he also found time to work on his own. In 1973, he composed the soundtrack for the controversial film The Spook Who Sat By The Door, which he followed with work on the Charles Bronson starring movie Death Wish Part 1 (1974) soundtrack.

While the Head Hunters continued to produce several successful albums, Hancock chose to pursue his solo career and recorded his next jazz-funk albums Man-Child in 1975 and Secrets in 1976. In 1976, he returned to his roots of acoustic jazz with the group V.S.O.P. and the group recorded several live albums in Japan during the late 1970s, including VSOP (1976) and VSOP: The Quintet (1977). During this period, Hancock also had several albums that were only released in Japan, including a solo acoustic piano, The Piano (1979). Other credits include Sunlight (1978), producing the British hit “I Thought It Was You,” and Feets, Don’t Fail Me Now (1979), which gave him another UK hit in “You Bet Your Love.” Both albums contained jazz-disco and pop music. He continued to record the similar music for Monster (1980), Magic Windows (1981) and Lite Me Up (1982), all of which received negative feedback. He fared better in Mr. Hands (1980), which contained a wide variety of different styles.

With the release of Future Shock (1983), Hancock was put back in the spotlight thanks to the Grammy Award-winning instrumental single “Rockit.” “Rockit” took home the honor of Best R&B Instrumental Performance and its video received a high rotation on MTV. It went on to win many MTV Video Music awards, including one for Video Of The Year. Led by the success of the single, Hancock collaborated with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell for Sound-System (1984), which won him his next Grammy, and Perfect Machine (1988), which also marked his last record with Columbia.

In 1986, Hancock gained extensive attention when he wrote the score/soundtrack for the film Round Midnight, in which he also appeared as Eddie Wayne and performed some songs on the soundtrack. For his brilliant effort, he was handed a Best Original Music Score Academy Award. He also won a César for Best Music Written for a Film and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Music. He furthered the fame by netting his next Grammy for Sheet Blues in 1987, in the category of Best Instrumental Composition, and a 1989 BMI Film Music for scoring the film Colors, helmed by Dennis Hopper.

Hancock took some time off after leaving Columbia Records and after the death of his mentor Miles Davis, returned to record A Tribute to Miles, along with friends Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter and Davis admirer Wallace Roney. Released in 1994, the album comprised of two live recordings and studio recording classics and won a 1994 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group. Hancock next released Dis Is Da Drum (1994), a return to Acid Jazz, The New Standard (1995), 1 + 1 (1997), a successful duet album with Wayne Shorter and won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for the song “Aung San Suu Kyi” and Gershwin’s World (1998), from which he picked up a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group. He also netted a 1996 Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for Manhattan (Island Of Lights And Love) and a 1998 Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) on St. Louis Blues.

2001 saw Hancock rejoin Bill Laswell for Future2Future, which also featured Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. The same year, he also teamed up with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album, Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall (released in 2002), to salute Davis and John Coltrane. The latter won a 2002 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. From 2002 to 2004, Hancock also collected two Grammys in the category of Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for his compositions “My Ship” (2002) and “Speak Like A Child” (2004).

In 2005, Hancock released Possibilities, a duet record featuring collaborations with such popular artists as Carlos Santana, Christina Aguilera and Sting, among others. The album went on to earn two Grammy nominations in 2006, a Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “A Song For You,” shared with Aguilera, and a Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Gelo No Montanha,” featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar. During that same period, he also had extensive tours with other artists and groups, including Head Hunters.

Hancock released The Essential Herbie Hancock in 2006, a compilation of his work at Warner Bros. Records, Blue Note Records, Columbia and at Verve/Polygram. The same year, he also recorded a new song with the co-founder of Deep Forest, Eric Mouquet, and Josh Groban titled “Machine.” He also launched Jazz to Funk (2006) under the Aim label.