Happy Birthday, Herbie Hancock

04/12/2000 12:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(4/12/00, 12 p.m. ET) - Legendary keyboardist Herbie Hancock celebrates his 60th birthday today (April 12).

Born in Chicago in 1940, Hancock began playing the piano at the age of seven and soloed with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 11. He attended Grinnell College in Iowa, and joined trumpeter Donald Byrd's band at the age of 21. It wasn't long before the young musician was offered a solo recording contract with Blue Note Records, and he immediately scored a huge hit with "Watermelon Man" from his hit 1962 debut album, Takin' Off. The following year, trumpeter Miles Davis asked Hancock to join his quintet, which also included saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Tony Williams, and bassist Ron Carter. Hancock played with this seminal ensemble for five years and he appears on such classic albums as Seven Steps To Heaven, Nefertiti , and My Funny Valentine.

While with Davis, Hancock also released his own albums, including Maiden Voyage and Hancock (the album that included the tune "Cantaloupe Island," which was later sampled by English group Us3 for its hit "Cantaloop".)

Hancock then formed an electric-funk group called the Headhunters, and in 1973 they released the classic self-titled album. It was a smash -- it sold more than a million copies and was the biggest-selling jazz album of its time. Throughout the '70s and into the '80s, Hancock continued to work electronically, and in 1983 he scored a massive hit with the hip-hop tune "Rockit" from his album Future Shock . He continues to record both electronic and acoustic albums, which ranged from 1993's funky Dis Is Da Drum to his 1998 Grammy-winning album, Gershwin's World .

One of the music world's most progressive artists, Hancock is constantly exploring new forms of technology with which to create music. As he explains, his fascination with technology and mechanics dates back to earliest childhood. "I've always been into science, even before I started playing music," he says. "I started playing music when I was seven, but even before that I was curious about mechanical things. Back then -- that was the '40s -- there were more mechanized things then than electrical things. I would take watches apart and put them back together. I built model boats and planes and I put together my own first preamplifier. I like playing with the hardware. Now I like playing with the software."

-- Lucy Tauss, New York

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