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Herbie Hancock Essay

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Herbie Hancock, full name Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, and even an actor. He was one of the first jazz musician to embrace synthesizers and funk music. His piano and keyboard sounds are uniquely his own embracing the elements of funk and soul while still carrying the elements of jazz. He expanded to other types of music as well like acoustic piano, hip hop, and West African rhythms. Through the progression of his career he always managed to have the ‘first’ or ‘unique’ move.Herbert Jeffery is not only a diverse man when it comes to music, but a successful jazz musician. Hancock was born on April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied the piano at age seven. His first musical movement started at the age of 11 when he played in 1952 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra …show more content…

Records. At this time, jazz-rock fusion was growing tremendously and Herbie was fully aware of the lead he had on most artists and groups. The sextet, became a septet after adding a last member to the group, was named Mwandishi. This group evolved later on into one of the most inspirational, forward-looking jazz rock groups in the era. Mwandishi was composed of trumpeter Eddie Henderson, bassist Buster Williams, multireedist Bernie Maupin, drummer Billy Hart, synthesizer Patrick Gleeson (the last member added to the group), and trombonist Julian Priester. Mwandishi made three albums under Herbert’s name, 1971 Mwandishi, 1972 Crossings, and 1973 Sextant. Sextant was the last album created by the group, which was released by Columbia Records, before they split off in 1973 due the loss of money and poor sales. Herbert was bothered about how many people weren’t understanding avant-garde music. Even though the band split, Herbie continued his career especially after studying Buddhism. Buddhism made Hancock discover his ultimate goal, to make his audience

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