Music 1040 Herbie Hancock Paper

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David Anderson

Professor Mary Danzig


Music 1040
6 December 2015
Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock is an absolutely vital component of how modern music
came to be how it is. If you follow the line from Jazz to current electronic
music styles, Herbie has been there every step of the way. Funk, soul, R&B,
and synth-funk as well as everything in between and experimental, Herbie
has been there as a shining example of virtuosity in each form.
In 1940 Chicago, Herbie Hancock was born. He started his musical
education in classical forms very early and excelled. A true prodigy of the
keyboard, he was allowed to perform one of Mozarts concertos with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra when he was only 10. He continued playing
piano throughout high school and college, adding a lot of Jazz to his
repertoire. At Grinnel College he double-majored in music and electrical
engineering to facilitate his growing fascination with experimental and
electronic forms of music as well as to satisfy his love for both music and
science.
Hancocks professional career started when he was discovered by
Donald Byrd in 1960 and started doing some session work. This eventually
led to Herbie signing with a record company and launching his debut album
Takin Off. This album included the instant classic Watermelon Man which is

now a jazz standard that has been covered countless times. The Maynard
Ferguson recording of this song is actually what first sparked my own interest
in jazz. Shortly after the albums release Herbie was invited to join Miles
Davis band and kept with them for years.
During the 70s, Hancock left the Miles Davis Quintet and started his
own band, The Headhunters. The bands self-titled debut album
(Headhunters) came out in 1973 and blasted them to the top of the pop
charts. They were playing stadiums world-wide in no time.
Herbie also found an interest in Buddhism in the 70s and practices
Nichiren Buddhism to this day. He heard something extraordinary in a band
mates solo and asked where they had found the inspiration for such a new
sound and was told this new inspiration was derived from something
beyond the realm of music. That was when Herbie first discovered
Nichirens particular form of Buddhism. On his practice of Buddhism Herbie
once said, "Practicing Buddhism has brought several revelations to me. One
that has been extremely important to my own personal development and
consequently my musical development is the realization that I am not a
musician. Thats not what I am. Its what I do. What I am is a human being.
Being a human being includes me being a musician. It includes my being a
father, a husband, a neighbor, a citizen and an African-American. All of these
relationships have to do with my existence on the planet.

In the 80s Herbies style continued to evolve and grow. In 1983 he


released the album Future Shock which included the smash hit Rockit.
Rockit is especially significant in that it was the first main-stream song to
feature a record-scratch sound, and the video made for this song won 5(!)
MTV Video Awards in 1984. To this day its melody is synonymous with great
cheesy synth leads.
The piece of music that was featured in my presentation was the
version of Watermelon Man that appears on Headhunters. As opposed to
its original incarnation on Takin Off or any of the other jazz versions, the
Headhunters version of Watermelon Man is funky to the extreme, jarring at
points and in general a much more challenging piece of music. The song
starts with an ear catching whistle-and-singing rhythmic style being
produced by one of the percussionists from a beer bottle. He was attempting
to emulate the hindewhu style they had heard from recordings of the Pygmy
people of central Africa. More whistling and rhythm is added until the band
slowly fades in with bass, drums and synth to settle into one of the deepest
grooves in recorded music. Eventually the melody comes in with bell-style
synth and light saxophone, in a sort of bop-style approach they perform
several variations on the melody of the original recording. The sound stays
vivid and exciting throughout while staying very relaxed at the same time. It
is a brilliant example of the art of building and releasing tension throughout
the song to engage the listener, and at the same time presents challenging

structure and solos that tend to be friendlier to a more seasoned listener of


jazz.
Even though jazz is dying and there are fewer performers every year
who will appreciate his earlier work, Herbies importance and influence on
electronic music can be heard on the radio every day. While there are many
who dont understand the power of knowing your roots, Herbies vital role in
the advent of electronic music ensures his positive influence on the way we
approach synthesizers will be felt in popular music forever.

Works Cited
www.herbiehancock.com, Herbie Hancock. Web. 12/6/15.

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