50 Fun Facts About Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock was born in 1940 in which US city?

Chicago's back alleys gave him his first hit: he built "Watermelon Man" on the memory of a fruit seller's cry and wagon wheels clattering over the cobblestones.

At age 11, Hancock performed a piano concerto by which composer with a major American symphony orchestra?

Mozart's D major concerto was the piece: he played its first movement at a young people's concert just four years after getting his first piano, and did not take up jazz until high school.

Before switching to music composition, Hancock began his studies at Grinnell College in which field?

Electrical engineering was his first choice of major before music won out, and the grounding stuck: he became a pioneer of the electric piano, clavinet and synthesizer in jazz.

Hancock's 1962 debut album for Blue Note was titled what?

Takin' Off nearly did not happen: the label wanted the publishing rights to his tunes in return for the session, and the 22-year-old got up to walk out before it gave way and let him keep them.

Which trumpeter's group gave Hancock his start before Miles Davis came calling?

Donald Byrd gave him his start and then gave him away: hearing that Miles Davis was about to phone, he told his pianist to say he wasn't working with anybody and take the job.

Which 17-year-old drummer joined Miles Davis's band alongside Hancock in 1963?

Tony Williams had been hired at 16 by saxophonist Jackie McLean; the rhythms he and Hancock began trading behind the trumpeter's solos soon pushed Davis himself into freer playing.

Hancock's first film score, in 1966, was for which Michelangelo Antonioni film?

Blowup's score had a second life on the dance floor: the bass riff of its cue "Bring Down the Birds" became the hook of Deee-Lite's 1990 hit "Groove Is in the Heart".

On what pretext did Miles Davis replace Hancock in 1968?

He returned late from a honeymoon in Brazil, laid up there by food poisoning, and found his chair filled; he later called it a blessing in disguise, since it pushed him to lead a band of his own.

Hancock composed the soundtrack for a 1969 animated TV special about which Bill Cosby character?

Fat Albert came out of Cosby's stand-up routines, and this NBC special led three years later to the series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids; Hancock reworked his funky score as the album Fat Albert Rotunda.

Hancock and his early-1970s sextet each took a name, his being Mwandishi, from which African language?

Swahili gave every member of the sextet a new name; Hancock's, usually glossed as "composer" or "writer", stuck so well that the band's three albums are still known by it.

Hancock's 1973 crossover hit album, one of the best-selling jazz records ever, was titled what?

Head Hunters came from a change of heart: tired of his sextet's far-out, spacey music, Hancock wanted something earthier and lighter, and it went on to sell more than a million copies.

Which member of Hancock's early-1970s sextet was the only one he kept for his 1973 funk band?

Bennie Maupin alone made the jump from the spacey sextet to the new funk band and co-wrote its hit "Chameleon"; when Hancock later moved on, the group kept playing without its founder.

Hancock scored the first film in which vigilante franchise in 1974?

Death Wish had Charles Bronson turn vigilante to Hancock's score; for the sequel the director handed the job to his neighbour, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page.

Hancock's late-1970s supergroup VSOP reunited the classic Davis quintet with which trumpeter in Miles's place?

Freddie Hubbard stepped in for Davis, who had stopped performing; the band came together for a single Hancock retrospective concert at the 1976 Newport Jazz Festival in New York, then went on touring for years.

Hancock's late-1970s hits 'I Thought It Was You' and 'You Bet Your Love' put his voice through what device?

A vocoder let the pianist sing lead on his own disco-era singles; the device began as 1930s telephone research and scrambled Allied leaders' calls in World War II before musicians took it up.

Hancock's 1983 hit "Rockit" carried which hip-hop technique into the pop mainstream?

Scratching on the record came from Grand Mixer D.ST, the club DJ its producers brought into the studio; he then toured in Hancock's band with a turntable as his instrument.

Which bassist-producer worked with Hancock on 'Rockit' and his three 1980s electro albums?

Bill Laswell and his studio partner built the beat and the backing track in New York; Hancock added his keyboards afterwards at home in Los Angeles, and the record came out under his name.

Who directed the robot-filled 'Rockit' video that won five awards at the first MTV Video Music Awards?

Godley and Creme, once of the band 10cc, let twitching robot sculptures do the dancing and showed Hancock only on a television screen; the clip's five awards beat Michael Jackson's three that night.

Hancock won an Academy Award for the score of which 1986 film, in which he also acted?

Round Midnight cast working jazz musicians as its jazzmen: saxophonist Dexter Gordon earned a Best Actor nomination in the lead, and Hancock played in the on-screen band while writing the score.

Hancock's 2007 tribute River: The Joni Letters won which top Grammy?

Album of the Year had not gone to a jazz record in 43 years; River beat albums by Kanye West and Amy Winehouse, and the win sent it into the top five of the US chart.

Which pair of guest stars appears on Hancock's 1998 album Gershwin's World?

Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell both sing on it: his "St. Louis Blues" won Hancock a Grammy for the arrangement, and her two songs came nine years before his album of her own music.

Hancock's jazz covers album The New Standard reworks a song by which grunge band?

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain shares the track list with Prince and the Beatles; the title states the aim, to find jazz's next standards among the rock, pop and soul songs of recent decades.

Which saxophonist recorded the 1997 duet album 1+1 with Hancock?

Wayne Shorter, co-founder of the electric band Weather Report, met the champion of synthesizers on the barest terms: soprano saxophone and grand piano, with no rhythm section at all.

Which school of Japanese Buddhism, centred on chanting, has Hancock practised since 1972?

Nichiren Buddhism reached him through his bassist: after Buster Williams played a solo unlike anything he had managed before, Hancock demanded his secret, and the answer was chanting.

Hancock spent a 1963 royalty cheque for "Watermelon Man" on which sports car, which he kept for the next 60 years?

A Shelby Cobra, paid for out of a royalty cheque of some $6,000, was his everyday car for years before he learned what it was worth: about $2 million, by his 2016 estimate. By 2023 nobody had owned a Cobra for longer.

Which pop star sang "A Song for You" on Hancock's 2005 duets album Possibilities?

Christina Aguilera's reading of Leon Russell's ballad earned the pair a Grammy nomination, and the two performed it live at the ceremony; her fellow guests on the album ran from John Mayer to Santana.

Besides 'Cantaloupe Island', 'Watermelon Man' and 'Chameleon', which jazz standard did Hancock write?

Maiden Voyage began as his jingle for a Yardley cologne commercial, and the master tape still called it "TV Jingle" until it was renamed in time for the album.

Which Scottish band had Hancock play a synthesizer solo on its 1982 album?

Simple Minds borrowed him for New Gold Dream a year before "Rockit" made him an MTV star; in 1985 he guested again for the Duran Duran offshoot Arcadia, on an album that also had Sting and Grace Jones.

Hancock's memoir Possibilities revealed a 1990s addiction to what?

Crack cocaine had been his secret for years when, late in 1999, his wife said she would not watch him die and handed him phone numbers for rehab; he wrote that beside the shame he felt relief.

In 2013 Hancock became a professor of jazz at which university?

UCLA had just become home to the tuition-free jazz institute he chairs, which admits a single band of graduate students at a time; the professorship put him in a room with that one ensemble each month.

Hancock's 2014 lecture series "The Ethics of Jazz" made him a professor of poetry for a year at which university?

Harvard's Norton chair treats poetry in the broadest sense, music included, which is how Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein held it before him; one of his six lectures was on Buddhism and creativity.

On which electric keyboard did Miles Davis insist Herbie Hancock double, shaping his 1970s fusion work?

The Fender Rhodes was waiting for him, he recalled, when he arrived for a 1968 Davis session; startled at first, he was soon a convert, since its amplifier let a pianist be heard in a loud band.

Which relative of Hancock's wrote lyrics for his tunes "Butterfly" and "Harvest Time"?

His sister Jean, who worked in computing, also wrote for Earth, Wind & Fire; she died in a 1985 airliner crash, and a tune the two had written together won him a Grammy twelve years later.

At the 2008 Grammy Awards, Hancock played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue as a duet with which classical pianist?

Lang Lang, then 25, shared the Gershwin with him at the ceremony, and the pairing clicked: the two took their piano double act on a world tour in the summer of 2009.

Hancock's mid-1990s album Dis Is da Drum moved into which style?

Acid jazz set jazz solos over hip-hop beats, and the timing was apt: a sample of his 1964 tune "Cantaloupe Island" had just become a worldwide hit for the British group Us3.

Hancock's 2010 covers album, with guests from Pink to Los Lobos, takes its title from a song by which ex-Beatle?

John Lennon's "Imagine" opens The Imagine Project, which Hancock recorded on location around the world; his version, built on the sound of the Congolese band Konono No. 1, won a Grammy.

Which rapper mashed up 'Cantaloupe Island' with his own hit at Hancock's Kennedy Center Honors?

Snoop Dogg delivered his "Gin and Juice" over the Us3 remake of the tune at the December 2013 gala, then turned to the honoree and thanked him for creating hip-hop.

Hancock plays keyboards on a 2014 album by which electronic producer?

Flying Lotus, a great-nephew of Alice Coltrane, put him on two short tracks of You're Dead!, an album that also featured Kendrick Lamar; by 2018 Hancock was planning a record of his own with the same young Los Angeles players.

Hancock collected the 2025 Polar Music Prize in which city?

Stockholm hosts the prize, which ABBA's manager Stig Anderson endowed in 1989, the year he sold his record company, Polar; Hancock shared the 2025 honours with Queen and the soprano Barbara Hannigan.

At 82, Hancock played a Sunday-afternoon set in 2022 on the main stage of which British festival?

Glastonbury gave him the Pyramid Stage on a day Diana Ross and Kendrick Lamar also played it; he left his 1980s electro hits at home and dug into his 1970s jazz-funk instead.

After leaving Blue Note in 1969, Hancock signed with the record label of which Hollywood film studio?

Warner Bros. first got his funky music for a children's cartoon, then two of the most experimental albums of his career; his million-seller came only after he had moved on to Columbia.

In 2011, Hancock was named a Goodwill Ambassador by which UN agency?

UNESCO soon had a new date in its calendar: at Hancock's suggestion it declared 30 April International Jazz Day that same year, and he led the first worldwide celebration in 2012.

The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, which he chairs, carried whose name until 2019?

Thelonious Monk's estate raised the question of the continued use of his name, and in 2018 the trustees voted unanimously to rename the institute for their chairman of 15 years, who sat out the vote.

Hancock's 1978 duet album paired him with which pianist, who had replaced him in Miles Davis's band?

Chick Corea and Hancock, both then famous for electric keyboards, toured in formal dress with nothing but two concert grand pianos; each came away with his own live album of the concerts, on rival labels.

Hancock's 'Watermelon Man' became a hit single for which Cuban percussionist?

Mongo Santamaría first heard the tune when Hancock filled in with his band for a weekend at a Bronx supper club: the pianist played it, the congas joined in, and the diners got up to dance.

Who contributed a spoken piece set to Hancock's piano on River: The Joni Letters?

Leonard Cohen, a singer hired not to sing, recites the words of Mitchell's "The Jungle Line" over Hancock's solo piano; Mitchell herself sings on another track of the tribute.

In 1963 Hancock set out to buy which vehicle to haul his band around?

A station wagon was the sensible plan, until his roommate sent him to look at a sports car and a sneering salesman asked whether he knew what it cost; he bought it the next day.

Hancock plays a defence minister in which 2017 film by the French director Luc Besson?

Valerian's director cast him as a fan: announcing the role, Luc Besson called Hancock a legend and wrote that his music had been his only friend at the age of 14.

Hancock scored which 1973 film whose Black hero takes up arms against the authorities?

The Spook Who Sat by the Door was pulled from cinemas soon after it opened, which its author blamed on pressure from the FBI; nearly forty years later it was chosen for the National Film Registry.

On the album Village Life, Hancock's synthesizer is set against which instrument, played by a Gambian griot?

Kora and synthesizer were taped live in a Tokyo studio with no overdubs, straight after a world tour on which Foday Musa Suso had played in Hancock's electro band.