Herbie Hancock Quotes
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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.
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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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Oscar Peterson is the greatest living influence on jazz pianists today.
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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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In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.
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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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You can expand, repeat, even change keys and do other things electronically to give certain elements and phrases more cohesiveness.
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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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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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The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.
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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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Music truly is the universal language.
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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.
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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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You can change your character and, at the same time, change your fortune.
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Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.
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You don't need the fame to be vital.
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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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When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.
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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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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.