Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations, he has transcended limitations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. With an illustrious career spanning five decades and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for “River: The Joni Letters,” he continues to amaze audiences across the globe. Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago on April 12, 1940. There are few artists in the music industry who have had more influence on acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B than Herbie Hancock. Miles Davis said in his autobiography, “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”

Herbie was a child piano prodigy who performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He began playing jazz in high school, initially influenced by Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans. He also developed a passion for electronics and science, and double-majored in music and electrical engineering at Grinnell College.

In 1960, Herbie was discovered by trumpeter Donald Byrd. After two years of session work with Byrd as well as Phil Woods and Oliver Nelson, he signed with Blue Note as a solo artist. His 1963 debut album, “Takin’ Off,” was an immediate success, producing the hit Watermelon Man. His solo career blossomed with classic albums including “Maiden Voyage” and “Speak Like a Child.” He composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film “Blow Up,” which led to a successful career in feature film and television music.

In 1963, Miles Davis invited Herbie to join the Miles Davis Quintet. During his five years with Davis, Herbie and his colleagues Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams recorded many classics, including E.S.P., Nefertiti and Sorceror. Later on, Herbie appeared on Davis’ groundbreaking “In a Silent Way.” After leaving Davis, Herbie put together a new band called The Headhunters and, in 1973, recorded “Head Hunters.” With its crossover hit single Chameleon, it became the first jazz album to go platinum.  By mid-decade, Herbie was playing for stadium-sized crowds all over the world and had no fewer than four albums in the pop charts at once. In total, Herbie had 11 albums in the pop charts during the 1970s. His ’70s output inspired and provided samples for generations of hip-hop and dance music artists.   Herbie also stayed close to his love of acoustic jazz in the ’70s, recording and performing with VSOP and in duet settings with Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson. In 1980, Herbie introduced the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to the world as a solo artist, producing his debut album and touring with him as well.

Herbie won an Oscar in 1986 for scoring the film “‘Round Midnight”, in which he also appeared as an actor. Numerous television appearances over the years led to two hosting assignments in the 1980s: “Rock School” on PBS and Showtime’s “Coast to Coast”.

In 2007, Hancock recorded and released ‘River: The Joni Letters’, a tribute to longtime friend and collaborator Joni Mitchell featuring Wayne Shorter, guitarist Lionel Loueke and bassist Dave Holland. He enlisted vocalists Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza, Leonard Cohen and Mitchell herself to perform songs she wrote or was inspired by. The album received glowing reviews and was a year-end Top 10 choice for many critics. It also garnered three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; Herbie is one of only a handful of jazz musicians ever to receive that honor.

In 2010 Hancock released the critically acclaimed CD “Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project,” winner of two 20ll Grammy Awards for Best Pop Collaboration and Best Improvised Jazz Solo. Utilizing the universal language of music to express its central themes of peace and global responsibility, the “Imagine Project” was recorded around the world and features a stellar group of musicians including Jeff Beck, Seal, Pink, Dave Matthews, The Chieftains, Lionel Loueke, Oumou Sangare, Konono #l, Anoushka Shankar, Chaka Khan, Marcus Miller, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Tinariwen, and Ceu.

Herbie Hancock also maintains a thriving career outside the performing stage and recording studio. Recently named by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Creative Chair for Jazz, he currently also serves as Institute Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, the foremost international organization devoted to the development of jazz performance and education worldwide. Hancock is also a founder of The International Committee of Artists for Peace and was awarded the much esteemed “Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres” by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. In July of 2011 Hancock was designated a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

In December of 2013, Hancock was the recipient of a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2014 he was was named the 2014 Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University, completing his lectures series, “The Ethics Of Jazz,” as part of the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture Series for a period of six weeks.   His memoirs, “Herbie Hancock:  Possibilities,” were published by Viking in 2014, and in February 2016 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now in the sixth decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remains where he has always been: in the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music. Though one can’t track exactly where he will go next, he is sure to leave his inimitable imprint wherever he lands.

[This bio excerpted from herbiehancock.com]

Here is a link to a 2023 video of Herbie Hancock Performing Wayne Shorter's Footprints:

"FOOTPRINTS"