Herbie Hancock
- Herbie Hancock is an American jazz musician who has won 12 Grammy Awards.  He has been called one of the must influential jazz musicians of the 20th Century.
- His jazz sound contains elements of funk and soul with a creative blend of modern and classical music.  His style has often been compared to that of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
- Born in 1940, Hancock was a child piano prodigy.  He performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11.  He began to play jazz in high school and eventually double-majored in music and electrical engineering in college.
- At the age of 23 Hancock was personally invited by Miles Davis to join his Quintet.  During the next five years, the Quintet recorded the classical pieces ESP, Nefertiti and Sorcerer.  The Quintet has often been regarded as one of the finest     jazz ensembles.      
- Hancock’s solo career took off with the albums Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles and Speak Like a Child.  The albums were all composed in the 1960’s and would later become known as some of the most famous and influential jazz of that time.
- In 1966, Herbie composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up.  This entered him in to the world of feature film and television music.
- In 1973, Herbie put together a new band called The Headhunters.  The 1973 recording of Head Hunter was the first jazz album to go platinum.  The single “Chameleon” was a crossover hit into the pop audiences.  Decades later, the album still has a fresh and vital sound.
- Hancock began playing worldwide to stadium-sized crowds.  At any given time he would have no fewer then four albums on the pop charts for a grand total of  eleven during the 1970’s.  The sound he produced laid the ground work for generations of hip-hop and dance music artists.
- During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s Herbie reunited with all of his Miles Davis colleagues except Davis himself and they began performing and recording together.
- In 1983, Hancock showed a more alternative side with collaborating with Bill Laswell.  The two recorded Future Shock which went platinum.  The single “Rockit” from the album won Hancock his first Grammy Award for Best R&B     Instrumental.  The follow up album in 1984, Sound-System, won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.
- Herbie broke into the acting world with a part in the film Round Midnight.  He wrote the score to the movie which won him a 1986 Oscar for Best Original Music Score.
- The 1990’s saw Herbie return to his acid jazz roots and move to the Verve label.  He formed the Grammy winning group, The New Standard.  With his all-star band of John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette and Michael Brecker, the group     interpreted pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and many others.
- The renowned Headhunters reunited in 1998 and toured with the Dave Matthews Band.  That same year Herbie released the Grammy award winning album Gershwin’s World. 
- On the 2001 album, Future 2 Future, Herbie collaborated with young hip-hop and techno artists and reunited with Bill Laswell.  In 2002 he recorded and released the live album, Directions In Music: Live at Massey Hall.  The show was a tribute to John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
- Herbie became the first ever Artist-In-Residence at the 2005 Bonnaroo Festival.
- The recording and release of the 2007 River: The Joni Letters album paid tribute to Herbie’s longtime friend and collaborator Joni Mitchell.  Vocalist on the album included Norah Jones, Tina Tuner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, Leonard Cohn and Mitchell herself.  The album won three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. 
- In 2008, Verve records released a collection of Herbie’s work titled Then and Now: The Definitive Herbie Hancock.
- Herbie is currently still performing and recording and is staying fresh and true to his musical roots.  His most recent release in 2010, The Imagine Project, features artists Seal, Pink, Jeff Beck, Wayne Shorter and Chaka Khan. 

Discography
Takin’ Off (1962), My Point of View (1963), Empyrean Isles (1964), Inventions & Dimensions (1964), Succotash (1964), Maiden Voyage (1965), Blow-Up (1966), Hear, O Israel (1968), Speak Like a Child (1968), Fat Albert Rotunda (1969), The Prisoner (1969), Mwandishi (1970), Crossings (1971), Head Hunters (1973), The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973), Sextant (1973), Dedication (1974), Death Wish (1974), Thrust (1974), Flood [live] (1975), Love Me by Name (1975), Man-Child (1975), Secrets (1976), Kawaida (1976), V.S.O.P., Vol. 1 (1976), Live in Japan (1977), Sunlight (1977), Herbie Hancock Trio [1977] (1977), V.S.O.P.: The Quintet (1977), Tempest in the Colosseum [live] (1978), Directstep (1979), Feets Don’t Fail Me Now (1979), In Concert [live] (1979), Monster (1980), Mr. Hands (1980), The Piano (1980), Live Under the Sky (1981), Herbie Hancock Trio (1981), Magic Windows (1981), Lite Me Up (1982), Quartet (1982), Future Shock (1983), Sound-System (1984), Village Life (1985), Jazz Africa (1986),‘Round Midnight (1986), Perfect Machine (1988), A Tribute to Miles (1992), Dis Is Da Drum (1994), The New Standard (1996), 1+1 (1997), Gershwin’s World (1998), Mr. Funk (2001), Future 2 Future (2001), Directions In Music: Live at Massey Hall (2002), V.S.O.P.: Live Under the Sky (2004), Live: Detroit/Chicago (2005), Possibilities (2005), The Essential Herbie Hancock (2006), River: The Joni Letters (2007), The Imagine Project (2010)

Awards and Recognition
- Herbie Hancock has won 12 Grammy awards:
        1983 - Best R&B Instrumental Performance: “Rockit”
        1984 - Best R&B Instrumental Performance: “Sound-System”
        1987 - Best Instrumental Composition: “Call Sheet Blues”
        1994 - Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group: “A Tribute to Miles”   
        1996 - Best Instrumental Composition: “Manhattan (Island of Lights and Love)”
        1998 - Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s): “St. Louis Blues”
        1998 - Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group: Gershwin’s World
        2002 - Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group: “Directions In Music”
        2002 - Best Jazz Instrumental Solo: “My Ship”
        2004 - Best Jazz Instrumental Solo: “Speak Like a Child”
        2007 - Best Contemporary Jazz Album: River: The Joni Letters
        2007 - Album of the Year: River: The Joni Letters
- Herbie won a 1986 Academy Award for Best Original Soundtrack: Round Midnight
- Won five MTV Awards including Best Concept Video – “Rockit” in 1984
- Won the BMI Film Music Award in 1986 for Round Midnight 
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award in 1986 for Best Score – Round Midnight
- 1997 Soul Train Music Award – Best Jazz Album: The New Standard
- Has won four Keyboard Magazine’s Readers Poll award
- Won six Playboy Music Poll Awards 
- 2004 National Endowment for the Arts Award
- 2008 Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year Award