Hancock, Herbie

April 12, 1940

Born and raised in Chicago, jazz pianist and composer Herbert Jeffrey Hancock started formal piano lessons at the age of seven and became a prodigy, performing the first movement of Mozart's D major "Coronation" piano concerto (K. 537) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of eleven. He formed his own jazz ensemble at Hyde Park High School, and went on to study engineering while he wrote for the big band at Grinnell College (1956–1960) and attended Roosevelt University (1960).

After graduation, Hancock played as a sideman in Chicago for saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and in 1961 he was hired by trumpeter Donald Byrd. Hancock also played with saxophonist Phil Woods and bandleader and saxophonist Oliver Nelson, and in 1962 he made his recording debut as a leader on Takin' Off, which featured his gospel-tinged "Watermelon Man," a tune later popularized by percussionist Mongo Santamaria.

In 1962 Hancock moved to New York and worked with Eric Dolphy and Clark Terry before joining Miles Davis's quintet in 1963, contributing artfully atonal improvisations and modal compositions to the trumpeter's My Funny Valentine (1964), E.S.P. (1965), Miles Smiles (1966), Nefertiti (1967), In a Silent Way (1969), and Big Fun (1969). During this time Hancock continued recording as a leader on Empyrean Isles (containing his "Cantaloupe Island," 1964), Maiden Voyage (including "Dolphin Dance," 1965), and Speak like a Child (1968).

Introduced to electric instruments during his eight years with Davis's landmark quintet, Hancock formed his own sextet, and from 1971 to 1973 he further explored the assimilation of the rhythms and electric textures of rock and funk with jazz, a style that came to be known as "fusion." In 1973 Hancock released Headhunters, an album that gained him a wider audience, and gave him his first hit single, "Chameleon." His subsequent albums, Thrust (1974) and Manchild (1975), experimented with popular rhythm-and-blues dance idioms and were deplored by many jazz critics. During this time, however, Hancock led a double career as he continued to work in the same hardbop vein he had pursued with Davis in the 1960s. In 1976 and 1977 he reunited with his former colleagues from Davis's quintet, touring and recording under the name V.S.O.P. In 1983 Hancock released his second hit single, "Rockit," on the rap-influenced Future Shock (1983). Hancock has also gained renown as a composer for films, including Blow Up (1966), Death Wish (1975), A Soldier's Story (1984), and Round Midnight, for which he won an Academy Award for best score in 1986. In the 1990s he continued to pursue parallel careers with his own electric groups, as well as in mainstream jazz contexts that include solo performances, duos with Chick Corea, a trio with bassist Buster Williams and Al Foster, and with V.S.O.P. In 2004 Hancock won the National Endowment of the Arts Award and received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed upon jazz musicians.

See also Davis, Miles; Jazz

Bibliography

Mandel, Howard. "Herbie Hancock: Of Films, Fairlights, Funk … and All That Other Jazz." Down Beat 53, no. 7 (July 1986): 16–19.

Mehegan, John. "Discussion: Herbie Hancock Talks to John Mehegan." Jazz 3, no. 5 (1964).

Townley, R. "Hancock Plugs In." Down Beat 41, no. 17 (1974).

scott deveaux (1996)
Updated by publisher 2005