Herbie Hancock Quotes
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I think risk-taking is a great adventure. And life should be full of adventures.
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The Internet opens up a whole new range of possibilities in a wide range of areas.
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I've been a religious, spiritual person for a long time.
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Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.
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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.
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At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.
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So in other words, we were constantly challenged to grow, and thats what a master does.
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Jazz is a music that is open enough to borrow from any other form of music, and has the strength to influence any other form of music.
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I have to care and I have to be honest and have the courage to be vulnerable. If that happens, then that's the best I can do. To just be a puppet for the audience is not very courageous. Just to do whatever they say they want - because a lot of times people will hear something new that they hadn't heard before and get turned on by a new experience and will want to hear more of that.
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Most people define themselves by what they do - 'I'm a musician.' Then one day it occurred to me that I'm only a musician when I'm playing music - or writing music, or talking about music. I don't do that 24 hours a day. I'm also a father, a son, a husband, a citizen - I mean, when I go to vote, I'm not thinking of myself as 'a musician.'
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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.
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I keep recycling and repackaging music that I've done in the past, as though I can't write anymore. Like, okay, I'm done with that. But I need to kind of prod myself again into come on, Herbie, get off your duff and start writing some new music.
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The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental.
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It might be something as simple as saying the right word to the right person at the right time-and that could change the course of history. You never really know. But the whole thing is to work at the process of being in sync with the universe, so that everything will align at the proper time so that you can deliver that which is your life mission. And that's why we're here as individuals. And then there's our contribution to the collective. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
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I've been practising Buddhism for forty years, and that's what has led me to this path of discovering my own humanity and recognizing the humanity in others.
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The true artform is being a human being.
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It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.
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I don't mind being classified as a jazz artist, but I do mind being restricted to being a jazz artist. My foundation has been in jazz, though I didn't really start out that way. I started in classical music, but my formative years were in jazz, and it makes a great foundation.
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I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time.
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I don't look at music from the standpoint of being a musician; I look at it from the standpoint of being a human being.
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So I didn't actually change my name the way some people did.
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Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.
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A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students' creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.
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I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.