Herbie Hancock

“New material was mixed in with warhorse favorites, but, as with all Hancock gigs, you were never quite sure where things were heading. The band’s personality and solo strength played their part. But mostly the sense of discovery was due to the new angles Hancock continues to find and the way he pushes his band to the edge.” —Financial Times

Now in the sixth decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remains where he has always been: at the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music. A legendary pianist and composer, he has been an integral part of every popular music movement since the 1960s. 

A member of the groundbreaking Miles Davis Quintet, Hancock developed new approaches on his own recordings as well. His record-breaking 1973 album Headhunters combines electric jazz with funk and rock in an innovative style that continues to influence contemporary music, while 1983’s Future Shock marked his foray into electronic dance sounds. Hancock continued to work in an acoustic setting with the V.S.O.P. Quintet featuring ex-bandmates Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

He received an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for 2007’s River: The Joni Letters and two for 2011’s The Imagine Project. Many of his compositions, including "Cantaloupe Island," "Maiden Voyage," "Watermelon Man" and "Chameleon," are modern standards.

Hancock serves as creative chair for jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and as chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. He is a founder of The International Committee of Artists for Peace and received the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

In 2011, Hancock was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2013 and was awarded a Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry at Harvard University in 2014. His memoir, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, was published by Viking that same year, and he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2016.

Saturday, June 24 | 7 p.m.
Connor Palace, Playhouse Square