Herbie Hancock Quotes (173 Quotes)

I don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.

I'm an American man, and I'm concerned about the present and the future as has as this country and its people are concerned.

My taste is broad, and my interest in exploration is broad,

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

The result is a music that allows us to all go outside the pigeonholes the music business forces us to stay in. We're breaking down expectations, walking the tightrope, while not scaring our fan bases away.

There was a radio station in Chicago, there was a guy named Al Benson, and he pretty much dominated black radio in the '50s.

As far as actually writing scripts or stories... now scenarios, most people have ideas for scenarios that could be the basis for a film.

Here was this young beautiful black woman that just kind of opened Miles' eyes up.

We're dealing with jazz, so we don't have popmainstream budgets.

In the past, there's always been one leader that has led the pack to development of the music.

Everything has focused on what the technology is capable of doing and making tools and then taking human beings and saying, what can you do with that.

We decided it would be interesting to approach the music as a group solo.

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.

It gets boring when you look out at the audience and you see that 90 percent of the people out there are males.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Also, I haven't heard an synthesizer yet that I can truly say has the resolution and is capable of the nuances of the acoustic piano, so I don't even try and compare those anymore.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

We've been looking at machines for so long, I really wish the technology community would look at human beings first for a change, let's balance the thing out.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

On a human level, the garbage man is just as important as the teacher or a rock star or a president, because you have to have them. The world would have been dead a long time ago without garbage men.

I wasn't concerned about jazz - that's just one of the tools.

It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I had to almost hide my face, because tears were welling up in my eyes. Just the thought of playing with Bird, wow

Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

I was a jazz purist at the time, I had tunnel vision about jazz and classical music,

Tradition can be negative though, if the importance of having roots outweighs the importance of searching for what's valuable in new things being presented.

Miles' sessions were not typical of anybody else's sessions. They were totally unique.

It's very different from classical music. In classical music, you are playing something that is written by someone else.

When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my best.

The other reason is the concept of attitude. I didn't want to appear angry, but it's okay to appear serious or to not smile.

If people are pleased that there is a popular acceptance of anything that came from me, I'm thrilled, you know, and flattered.

But in jazz, the song may be written by somebody else, but how you treat it is entirely with your notes and your expression.

One thing that attracted me to Buddhism was the support for this larger vision of values.

The fact that young hip-hop artists are searching for the jazz roots of their music acknowledges the greatness of roots, helps a person get a sense of being grounded, of being attached, of coming from somewhere.

Buddhism opened me up to seeing things from the standpoint of being a human being - looking at the purpose of action and the effects on life.

Things like creating in the moment, being in the moment, trusting your instincts, not being afraid to go outside the comfort zone.

We live on a planet that now must face, hopefully, a form of globalization inclusive of a vision to make the world a better place for the many -not just a select few -and I believe that the arts are in the forefront of that dream.

But, the truth is that everyone is somebody already.

While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.

I've had a lot of music in my own head.

Wisdom is the key to understanding the age, creating the time.

I try to practice with my life.

I was very much aware of blues, because it was on the radio all the time.

And that was fascinating, because you could do something different every time.

When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.

There are some other things I'm looking for in the future. I'm getting ready to put together something, to open up a new avenue for myself, having to do with a symphony orchestra.

I wanted to work with artists who were strong enough personalities that they'd all have something of their own to bring. My foundation is jazz, which is all about interaction. Jazz gives you a lot of tools to play with.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.