Herbie Hancock Quotes
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Oscar Peterson is the greatest living influence on jazz pianists today.
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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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Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.
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It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.
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In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.
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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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It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.
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Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept. He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.
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You can expand, repeat, even change keys and do other things electronically to give certain elements and phrases more cohesiveness.
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Music truly is the universal language.
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The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.
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I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.
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When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.
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You don't need the fame to be vital.
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You can change your character and, at the same time, change your fortune.
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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.
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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 try stuff. I synthesize what's of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.
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Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.
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Like no matter what happens, this would be the ultimate, they can make something positive happen.
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I never dreamed I would be a Goodwill Ambassador, and for UNESCO. Perfect organization. It is apolitical and it's about education, science and culture. I mean that is what I live. That is what UNESCO is really about; it's all about bringing human beings together with one common goal, which is to move human kind forward.
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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 look for what's of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize.
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Of course, it's not the technique that makes the music; it's the sensitivity of the musician and his ability to be able to fuse his life with the rhythm of the times. This is the essence of music.