Q 01/05

Herbie Hancock was born in 1940 in which US city?

A) Chicago

B) Detroit

C) Philadelphia

D) St. Louis

Answer · why

A) Chicago

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 cob...

Q 02/05

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

A) Beethoven

B) Chopin

C) Tchaikovsky

D) Mozart

Answer · why

D) Mozart

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 d...

Q 03/05

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

A) Applied mathematics

B) Electrical engineering

C) Organic chemistry

D) Political science

Answer · why

B) Electrical engineering

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

Q 04/05

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

A) My Point of View

B) Empyrean Isles

C) Speak Like a Child

D) Takin' Off

Answer · why

D) Takin' Off

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 ou...

Q 05/05

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

A) Art Farmer

B) Lee Morgan

C) Kenny Dorham

D) Donald Byrd

Answer · why

D) Donald Byrd

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 ...