Herbie Hancock (Herbert Jeffrey Hancock) Quotes
I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.
Quotes to Explore
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If you ask me, rockabilly has had a raw deal for far too long. People never shunned the blues or jazz the way they do rockabilly. But it's the original punk-rock, and it changed the way people looked at music for ever.
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I've done all different kinds of genres - doo-wop, pop, funk, gospel, country, jazz, you name it.
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I'm not saying that in order to be a great jazz musician you have to be a great classical pianist first. But I am saying that it makes things easier when you can get around the instrument, and you have some idea of how to approach the various hurdles.
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I grew up with all these old jazz guys in the '70s in L.A., and they grew up idolizing Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Lester Young - all of these incredible musicians.
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In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there's this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs.
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Taxi drivers used to ask me what kind of music I did, and I'd say, 'Well, it's kind of jazz, soul, classical' - but that makes no sense to anyone.
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Even though I left for a year, I grew here as a Jazz man. If I'm fortunate enough to go into the Hall of Fame, I will go as a Jazz man.
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I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is.
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My music is jazz.
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The only things that the United States has given to the world are skyscrapers, jazz, and cocktails. That is all. And in Cuba, in our America, they make much better cocktails.
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I began with dance, doing ballet at 3, then tap, jazz, modern. Then I sang in church choirs, learned how to play clarinet and drums, sang with rock bands and only then did I get into musical theatre.
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My dad is a big jazz fan, and that was the reason I first got into jazz.
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As I've gotten older, my love for jazz has increased.
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That's why I loved Dinah Washington. She sung jazz, but they called her the Queen of the Blues. She had the control and sophistication of jazz in her note selection and how to attack a song or certain lines, but then attacked it with a painful force of blues behind it. That's why I admired her so much, because of that versatility.
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If it comes out sounding like Dixieland jazz or classical or punk or rock or even slightly metal, that's because that's where I'm going to find inspiration.
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Composing is improvisation slowed down.
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I listened to the radio, so I was influenced by everyone from Michael Jackson to Milli Vanilli. But thankfully my dad had a collection of Cat Stevens albums while my mom was listening to jazz.
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Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America, no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa.
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I always say that the problem with jazz accessibility is not the content of the music, it's people's ability to access it.
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In the beginning of the human race there was no genetic load which would cause undesirable traits such as appear in offspring of marriages between relatives today.
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Don’t just look at the problem that you face; look at the reason behind it
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We only work the most I ever work is three days a week. Very rare that I will work four. If I'm involved in a scenario where they need me to be in it, I don't mind. They always work around my childrens schedule, their sports, and stuff like that. Thats been very important to me.
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I went to India and met some people who had been involved in this guerrilla business, middle-class people who were rather vain and foolish. There was no revolutionary grandeur to it. Nothing.
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I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.
