A true chameleon, Herbie Hancock is never where you expect him to be. In his sometimes revolutionary way, he turned jazz and jazz-funk fusion on its head, with which he found massive success. The American pianist will be at Arena 5 in Brussels on June 30.
Even if time helps smooth things over, Herbie Hancock is one of the most controversial characters in the jazz world. In this sense, already, it takes Miles Davis. Pattern? Not flirting but brazenly engaging with a sulphurous mix of funk, rhythm’n’blues, pop, hip-hop… And tinkering with electronics again! Overwhelming proof of this deviation: his name appears in both jazz and rock encyclopedias and dictionaries, like… Miles.
Let’s stop laughing: Herbie Hancock could very well have escaped both jazz and pop. For that, it was enough for him to continue as he had started, at the age of 11, brilliant soloist of piano concertos by Mozart or Bach, within the Chicago Symphony… From then on, he could have become a young concert prodigy, remarkable. But would he have brought so much to the music of the XXe century?
Joined the Miles stable in 1963, Hancock is the witness and the actor of the progressive transition to electric instruments.
wide panorama
Listening to Herbie Hancock today means exposing yourself to a vast musical panorama, and shamelessly jumping the fences that attempt to limit cataloged styles. Of course, under the influence Slystone, his funk album “Head Hunters” (1973), sold one million copies. Hardly surprising, with “Chameleon” and a revisited “Watermelon Man”. Even more radically electro-pop, the simple 45 rpm “Rockit” (1983), directed by Bill Laswell, got people dancing in the clubs while the video, imagined by… Godley and Creme, played on the young MTV channel on a loop.
Funky on the album “Head Hunters”, “Watermelon Man” is, first of all, this magnificent composition opening side 1 of the young Herbie’s first solo album in 1962: “Takin’ Off” the well named. Already, his piano takes on groove accents, as we hear in Horace Silver, founder of the Jazz Messengers, and at Bobby Timmons. He thus began a series of masterpieces with Blue Noteculminating with “Maiden Voyage”in 1966.
Miles’ gang
On this emblematic album, Herbie Hancock worked with colleagues from the famous Miles Davis quintet of which, at that time, he was the harmonic pillar: george coleman on the tenor saxophone, Ron Carter on the double bass and Tony Williams on batteryjoined by the faithful Freddie Hubbard on the trumpet. Joined the Miles stable in 1963, Hancock is the witness and the actor of the progressive transition to electric instruments. It is, in fact, the trumpeter-star who asks him to use a Fender Rhodes from 1968. If he is not the outburst of “Bitches Brew” (1970), Hancock is still in the front row : with Miles, we can say that he was at a good school.
The albums “Crossings” (1972) and “Sextant” (1973) testify to a surprising research, on the borders of tribal rhythms and electronic, acoustic, electric sounds.
Herbie Hancock now leads an artistic double life, with a funk sideeven pop, using electric and electronic violin making, the other side remaining centered on jazz in all its forms. If the second aspect is dear to the hearts of jazz lovers, the first has earned him, like Miles, star status.
Amazing crosses
But, if he sniffed or even anticipated the spirit of the times, Herbie Hancock never took it easy. Between his Blue Note period, which he left in 1969, and electric glory with the Headhuntersat Columbia, he crafted a handful of amazing, little-known and vastly underrated albums. “Crossings” (1972) and “Sextant” (1973) testify to a surprising research, on the borders of tribal rhythms and electronic, acoustic, electric sounds. The musicians then had names in Swahili, him being Mwandishi, Author.
Listening to Herbie Hancock today means exposing yourself to a vast musical panorama, and shamelessly jumping the fences that attempt to limit cataloged styles.
Graphics, sound, cultu(r)they, the references to Africa’s origins create a fruitful tension, as if Herbie the explorer was moving forward while anchoring himself to something ancestral. In short, this three-year period was the laboratory for the decades to come. There will always be, at Hancock, a tasteful passion for tinkeringthe stuff with buttons like the Moog and Mellotron, which must remind him of his engineering studies at Grinnell College, in Iowa.
“Watermelon Man”, Herbie Hancock
play with silence
Jazz or jazz-funk fusion, Herbie Hancock keeps the best of both worlds. At the grand piano, his duets with Chick Corea are fascinating. With VSOP, he resurrected the spirit of Miles’ quintet and paved the way for the hard-bop revivalism of Wynton Marsalis. In jazz – which he never studied – he always quotes Bill Evans as a major reference. With him, he shares this touch of great delicacy, an exceptional left hand, a way of playing, like Miles Davis, “In a Silent Way”… And that, regardless of genre or style.
Herbie Hancock in concert at Arena 5, at the Heysel in Brussels, this Thursday, June 30. With Terence Blanchard, trumpet; Lionel Loueke, guitar; James Genus, bass; Justin Tyson, drums. Info on arena5.be.
Selective discography
- “Maiden Voyage” (1965)
- “Crossings” (1972)
- “Headhunters” (1973)
- “An Evening With Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock” (1978)
- “Village Life” (1985) in duet with the griot Foday Musa Suso (at the kora)
- “River: The Joni Letters” (2007), tribute to Joni Mitchell.
express resume
- April 12, 1940: Birth of Herbert Jeffrey “Herbie” Hancock in Chicago.
- 1951: solo pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
- 1963: Miles Davis invites Herbie Hancock in his second quintet, made up entirely of young musicians. He stayed there until 1968.
- 1966: writes and performs the music for the film “Blow-Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.
- 1973: formation of the Headhunters, a fusion group that rivals Weather Report and Return To Forever. Great commercial success.
- 1976: Formation of VSOP, reformation of the quintet of Miles Davis, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet.
- 1983: Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental for the single “Rockit”.
- July 10, 1991: Concert event by Miles Davis and twenty of his former musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter.
- 2012: Professor at the University of California (UCLA).