Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer, and actor. Hancock started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly thereafter 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, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles.
Hancock’s best-known compositions include the jazz standards “Cantaloupe Island”, “Watermelon Man”, “Maiden Voyage”, and “Chameleon”, as well as the hit singles “I Thought It Was You” and “Rockit”. His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.
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).
instruments played
keyboards
Piano
Associated Acts
Clark Terry, Miles Davis Quintet, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, the Headhunters, V.S.O.P., Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Howard Jones
Birth Name
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Children
1
Education
Grinnell College Roosevelt University
Genres
Jazz, post-bop, modal jazz, fusion, jazz-funk, electro, classical
Spouses
Gigi Hancock (n (C)e Meixner) (m. 1968)
Website
Years Active
1961 present
Name
Herbie Hancock
Nationality
United States of America