Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock
Hancock in 2023
Background information
Birth name	Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Born	(1940-04-12) April 12, 1940 (age 84) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Jazz post-bop modal jazz jazz fusion jazz-funk electro pop
Occupations	Musician composer bandleader record producer actor
Instruments	Keyboards keytar vocoder synthesizer
Discography	Herbie Hancock discography
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Columbia Blue Note Warner Bros. Verve
Website	herbiehancock.com
Education	Grinnell College Roosevelt University Manhattan School of Music
Spouse	Gigi Meixner ​ (m. 1968)​ [1]
Children	1

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer.^[2] Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. 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, using a wide array of synthesizers and electronics. It was during this period that he released one of his best-known and most influential albums, Head Hunters.^[3]

Hancock's best-known compositions include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man", "Maiden Voyage", and "Chameleon", all of which are jazz standards. During the 1980s, he enjoyed 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 Joni Mitchell tribute album River: The Joni Letters. In 2024, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph ranked Hancock as the greatest keyboard player of all time.^[4]

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.^[5] He is also the chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz^[5] (known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz until 2019).