Herbie Hancock
I got a chance to work with Miles Davis, and that changed everything for me, 'cause Miles really encouraged all his musicians to reach beyond what they know, go into unknown territory and explore. It's made a difference to me and the decisions that I've made over the years about how to approach a project in this music.Collection: Chance
It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.Collection: Attitude
In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered.Collection: Food
But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I'm a husband and a father.Collection: Dad
You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.Collection: Wisdom
The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.Collection: Wisdom
Back in the day for me was a great time in my life - I was in my 20s. Most people refer to their experiences in their twenties as being a highlight in their life. It's a period of time where you often develop your own way, your own sound, your own identity, and that happened with me, when I was with a great teacher - Miles Davis.Collection: Teacher
Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.Collection: Art
It's part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles; that's the key to happiness.Collection: Happiness
I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.Collection: Future
Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. That's hard for a lot of people to do. They feel a lot more secure if they kind of put walls around themselves. Then they don't have to trust anybody but themselves.Collection: Trust
While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.Collection: Knowledge
When I was six, my best friend's parents bought him a piano. My mother noticed that every time I would go to his house, the first thing I would say to him was 'Levester' - His name was Levester - I said, 'Levester, can I go play your piano?' So, on my 7th birthday, my parents bought me a piano.Collection: Birthday
Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.Collection: Wisdom
When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my best.
When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.
You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.
You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.
I hope that I can make good music out of whatever genre I go into. Just to prove to myself that I can.
I'm not special, no more special than anybody else.
I've always been interested in science. I used to take watches apart and clocks apart, and there's little screws, and a little this and that, and I found out if I dropped one of them, that thing ain't gonna work.
My father was really good with math. It's a funny thing, I don't remember my father or my mother being so mechanical-minded. My father always wanted to be a doctor, but he came from a really poor family in Georgia, and there was no way he was going to be a doctor.
One of the greatest experiences I ever had was listening to a conversation with Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter. Just to hear them talking, my mouth was open. They understand each other perfectly, and they make these leaps and jumps because they don't have to explain anything.
Music is not the only reason that I practice Buddhism anymore because it has affected my whole life.
I don't view myself as a musician anymore - I view myself as a human being that functions as a musician when I'm functioning as a musician, but that's not 24 hours a day. That's really opened me up to even more perspectives because now I look at music, not from the standpoint of being a musician, but from the standpoint of being a human being.
Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.
I think risk-taking is a great adventure. And life should be full of adventures.
I've never really been interested in doing a solo piano tour.
I like to present something that the people haven't seen or haven't heard before. Otherwise they might as well just stay home and play the record.
I like to be on the edge, on the cutting edge, or be into the unknown, into the territory where I have to depend on being in the moment and depending on my instincts.
I've been curious ever since I was a little kid.
It's not easy to play in a framework that requires simplicity and to tastefully find ways to interject the kind of freedom that we have in playing jazz.
I think people have learned that Herbie Hancock can be defined as someone that you won't be able to figure out what he's going to do next. The sky is the limit as far as I'm concerned.
My first Grammy wasn't even in a jazz category, but of course I was really excited. 'Rockit' was the beginning of kind of a new era for the whole hip-hop movement.
Hip-hop is all over the planet.
The strongest thing that any human being has going is their own integrity and their own heart. As soon as you start veering away from that, the solidity that you need in order to be able to stand up for what you believe in and deliver what's really inside, it's just not going to be there.
It's easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn't. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.
I hope to use dialogue and culture as a means of bringing people of various cultures together, and using that as a way to resolve conflict.
At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.
I just express myself in any way I feel is appropriate at the moment.
I don't go around, the way many musicians do, with earbuds in my ear listening to my iPod all day and just sticking my head in the music all the time.
I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being.
It's part of my nature. I get excited when trying out new stuff, whether it be an idea or equipment. It stimulates my juices.
We need to put into practice the idea of embracing other cultures. We need to be shaping the kind of world we want to live in instead of waiting for someone else or some other entities to do it for us.
I've had a life that has taken many interesting paths. I've learned a lot from mentors who were instrumental in shaping me, and I want to share what I've learned.
To my wife, I'm not Herbie Hancock the musician. I'm her husband. When I'm talking to a neighbor, I'm a neighbor. When I vote, I'm a citizen.
The Internet opens up a whole new range of possibilities in a wide range of areas.
I don't see how we can have both the freedoms we had before and the safety net that we all need considering the way the world is today. And that's just because human beings can't trust each other. We've given in over and over to some of the darkest elements that exist in life itself.
We need to move into a culture of peace. What I hope to promote is the idea that we all need each other and that the greatest happiness in life is not how much we have but how much we give. That's a wealth that's priceless. You can't buy compassion.
So much of what I create has been due to the influence of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, and so many of those that have passed on. Their music, their legacy lives on with the rest of us because we are so highly influenced by their experience and what they have given us.