Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.

The word "jazz" (in early years also spelled "jass") began as a West Coast slang term and was first used to refer to music in Chicago at about 1915.

From its beginnings in the early 20th century jazz has spawned a variety of subgenres: New Orleans Dixieland dating from the early 1910s, big band-style swing from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s, free jazz and a variety of Latin jazz fusions, such as Afro-Cuban, from the 1950s and 1960s, jazz fusion from the 1970s, acid jazz from the 1980s (which combines funk and hip-hop elements), and nu jazz in the 1990s. As the music has spread around the world it has drawn on local, national, and regional musical cultures, its aesthetics being adapted to its varied environments and giving rise to many distinctive styles.

Definition

Jazz can be very difficult to define because it spans from Ragtime marches to the present day. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions—using the point of view of European music history or African music for example—but jazz critic Joachim Berendt argues that all such attempts are unsatisfactory. One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term "jazz" more broadly. Berendt defines jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music"; he argues that jazz differs from European music in that jazz has a "special relationship to time, defined as 'swing'", "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role"; and "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician".

Travis Jackson has also proposed a broader definition of jazz which is able to encompass all of the radically different eras: he states that it is music that includes qualities such as "swinging", improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being 'open' to different musical possibilities". Krin Gabbard claims that “jazz is a construct” or category that, while artificial, still is useful to designate “a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition”.

While jazz may be difficult to define, improvisation is clearly one of its key elements. Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, a common element in the African American oral tradition. A form of folk music which rose in part from work songs and field hollers of rural Blacks, early blues was also highly improvisational. These features are fundamental to the nature of jazz. While in European classical music elements of interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment are sometimes left to the performer's discretion, the performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written.

In jazz, however, the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same way twice. Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician/performer may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will. The jazz soloist is supported by a rhythm section who "comp", by playing chords and rhythms that outline the song structure and complement the soloist. European classical music has been said to be a composer's medium. Jazz, however, is often characterized as the product of egalitarian creativity, interaction and collaboration, placing equal value on the contributions of composer and performer, 'adroitly weigh[ing] the respective claims of the composer and the improviser'.

In New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns playing the melody, while others improvised countermelodies. By the swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear and memorized—many early jazz performers could not read music. Individual soloists would improvise within these arrangements. Later, in bebop the focus shifted back towards small groups and minimal arrangements; the melody (known as the "head") would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece but the core of the performance would be the series of improvisations in the middle. Later styles of jazz such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise even more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, even call for, abandoning chords, scales, and rhythmic meters.

Debates

There have long been debates in the jazz community over the definition and the boundaries of “jazz”. Although alteration or transformation of jazz by new influences has often been initially criticized as a “debasement,” Andrew Gilbert argues that jazz has the “ability to absorb and transform influences” from diverse musical styles. While some enthusiasts of certain types of jazz have argued for narrower definitions which exclude many other types of music also commonly known as "jazz," jazz musicians themselves are often reluctant to define the music they play. Duke Ellington summed it up by saying, "It's all music." Some critics have even stated that Ellington's music was not jazz because it was arranged and orchestrated. On the other hand Ellington's friend Earl Hines's twenty solo "transformative versions" of Ellington compositions (on ''Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington'' recorded in the 1970s) were described by Ben Ratliff, the ''New York Times'' jazz critic, as "as good an example of the jazz process as anything out there."

Commercially oriented or popular music-influenced forms of jazz have both long been criticized, at least since the emergence of Bop. Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed Bop, the 1970s jazz fusion era [and much else] as a period of commercial debasement of the music. According to Bruce Johnson, jazz music has always had a "tension between jazz as a commercial music and an art form". Gilbert notes that as the notion of a canon of jazz is developing, the “achievements of the past” may become "...privileged over the idiosyncratic creativity...” and innovation of current artists. ''Village Voice'' jazz critic Gary Giddins argues that as the creation and dissemination of jazz is becoming increasingly institutionalized and dominated by major entertainment firms, jazz is facing a "...perilous future of respectability and disinterested acceptance." David Ake warns that the creation of “norms” in jazz and the establishment of a “jazz tradition” may exclude or sideline other newer, avant-garde forms of jazz.

Etymology of "Jazz"

The origin of the word ''jazz'' is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English. The word's intrinsic interest—the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century—has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. The word began as West Coast slang around 1912, the meaning of which varied but did not refer to music or sex. It came to refer to the music in Chicago around 1915. The music was played in New Orleans prior to that time but was not referred to by that name.

The word jazz makes one of its earliest appearances in San Francisco baseball writing in 1913. Jazz was introduced to San Francisco in 1913 by William (Spike) Slattery, sports editor of the ''Call'', and propagated by a band-leader named Art Hickman. It reached Chicago by 1915 but was not heard of in New York until a year later. One of the first known uses of the word appears in a March 3, 1913, baseball article in the ''San Francisco Bulletin'' by E. T. "Scoop" Gleeson.

Origins

By 1808 the Atlantic slave trade had brought almost half a million Africans to the United States. The slaves largely came from West Africa and brought strong tribal musical traditions with them. Lavish festivals featuring African dances to drums were organized on Sundays at ''Place Congo'', or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843; there were similar gatherings in New England and New York. African music was largely functional, for work or ritual, and included work songs and field hollers. The African tradition made use of a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, but without the European concept of harmony. Rhythms reflected African speech patterns, and the African use of pentatonic scales led to blue notes in blues and jazz. In the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European-American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized such music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted African-American cakewalk music, South American, Caribbean and other slave melodies as piano salon music. Another influence came from black slaves who had learned the harmonic style of hymns and incorporated it into their own music as spirituals. The origins of the blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. Paul Oliver has drawn attention to similarities in instruments, music and social function to the griots of the West African savannah.

1890s–1910s

Ragtime

The abolition of slavery led to new opportunities for the education of freed African-Americans. Although strict segregation limited employment opportunities for most blacks, many were able to find work in entertainment. Black musicians were able to provide "low-class" entertainment in dances, minstrel shows, and in vaudeville, by which many marching bands formed. Black pianists played in bars, clubs, and brothels, as ragtime developed.

Ragtime appeared as sheet music, popularized by African American musicians such as the entertainer Ernest Hogan, whose hit songs appeared in 1895; two years later Vess Ossman recorded a medley of these songs as a banjo solo "Rag Time Medley". Also in 1897, the white composer William H. Krell published his "Mississippi Rag" as the first written piano instrumental ragtime piece, and Tom Turpin published his Harlem Rag, that was the first rag published by an African-American. The classically trained pianist Scott Joplin and the acknowledged "king of ragtime" produced his "Original Rags" in the following year, then in 1899 had an international hit with "Maple Leaf Rag". He wrote numerous popular rags, including, "The Entertainer", combining syncopation, banjo figurations and sometimes call-and-response, which led to the ragtime idiom being taken up by classical composers including Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. Blues music was published and popularized by W. C. Handy, whose "Memphis Blues" of 1912 and "St. Louis Blues" of 1914 both became jazz standards.

New Orleans music

The music of New Orleans had a profound effect on the creation of early jazz. Many early jazz performers played in venues throughout the city; the brothels and bars of the red-light district around Basin Street, called "Storyville". was only one of numerous neighborhoods relevant to the early days of New Orleans jazz. In addition to dance bands, numerous marching bands played at lavish funerals arranged by the African American and European American community. The instruments used in marching bands and dance bands became the basic instruments of jazz: brass and reeds tuned in the European 12-tone scale and drums. Small bands mixing self-taught and well educated African American musicians, many of whom came from the funeral-procession tradition of New Orleans, played a seminal role in the development and dissemination of early jazz, traveling throughout Black communities in the Deep South and, from around 1914 on, Afro-Creole and African American musicians playing in vaudeville shows took jazz to western and northern US cities. The cornetist Buddy Bolden led a band often mentioned as one of the prime movers of the style later to be called "jazz". He played in New Orleans around 1895–1906. No recordings remain of Bolden. Several tunes from the Bolden band repertory, including "Buddy Bolden Blues", have been recorded by many other musicians. (Bolden became mentally ill and spent his later decades in a mental institution.) Afro-Creole pianist Jelly Roll Morton began his career in Storyville. From 1904, he toured with vaudeville shows around southern cities, also playing in Chicago and New York. His "Jelly Roll Blues", which he composed around 1905, was published in 1915 as the first jazz arrangement in print, introducing more musicians to the New Orleans style. In the northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime had developed, notably James Reese Europe's symphonic Clef Club orchestra in New York which played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. The Baltimore rag style of Eubie Blake influenced James P. Johnson's development of "Stride" piano playing, in which the right hand plays the melody, while the left hand provides the rhythm and bassline.

The Original Dixieland Jass Band made the music's first recordings early in 1917, and their "Livery Stable Blues" became the earliest released jazz record. That year numerous other bands made recordings featuring "jazz" in the title or band name, mostly ragtime or novelty records rather than jazz. In September 1917 W.C. Handy's Orchestra of Memphis recorded a cover version of "Livery Stable Blues." In February 1918 James Reese Europe's "Hellfighters" infantry band took ragtime to Europe during World War I, then on return recorded Dixieland standards including "Darktown Strutters' Ball".

New Orleans brass bands are a lasting influence contributing horn players to the world of professional jazz with the distinct sound of the city while helping black children escape poverty. The leader of the Camelia Brass Band, D'Jalma Ganier, taught Louis Armstrong to play trumpet.

1920s and 1930s

The Jazz Age

Prohibition in the United States (from 1920 to 1933) banned the sale of alcoholic drinks, resulting in illicit speakeasies becoming lively venues of the "Jazz Age", an era when popular music included current dance songs, novelty songs, and show tunes. Jazz started to get a reputation as being immoral and many members of the older generations saw it as threatening the old values in culture and promoting the new decadent values of the Roaring 20s. Professor Henry Van Dyke of Princeton University wrote “...it is not music at all. It’s merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing, a sensual teasing of the strings of physical passion.”

Even the media began to denigrate jazz. The New York Times took stories and altered headlines to pick at Jazz. For instance, villagers used pots and pans in Siberia to scare off bears, and the newspaper stated that it was Jazz that scared the bears away. Another story claims that Jazz caused the death of a celebrated conductor. The actual cause of death was a fatal heart attack (natural cause). From 1919 Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz Band of musicians from New Orleans played in San Francisco and Los Angeles where in 1922 they became the first black jazz band of New Orleans origin to make recordings. However, the main centre developing the new "Hot Jazz" was Chicago, where King Oliver joined Bill Johnson. That year also saw the first recording by Bessie Smith, the most famous of the 1920s blues singers. Bix Beiderbecke formed The Wolverines in 1924. Also in 1924 Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson dance band as featured soloist for a year, then formed his virtuosic Hot Five band, also popularizing scat singing. Jelly Roll Morton recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in an early mixed-race collaboration, then in 1926 formed his Red Hot Peppers. There was a larger market for jazzy dance music played by white orchestras, such as Jean Goldkette's orchestra and Paul Whiteman's orchestra. In 1924 Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'', which was premièred by Whiteman's Orchestra. Other influential large ensembles included Fletcher Henderson's band, Duke Ellington's band (which opened an influential residency at the Cotton Club in 1927) in New York, and Earl Hines's Band in Chicago (who opened in The Grand Terrace Cafe there in 1928). All significantly influenced the development of big band-style swing jazz.

Swing

The 1930s belonged to popular swing big bands, in which some virtuoso soloists became as famous as the band leaders. Key figures in developing the "big" jazz band included bandleaders and arrangers Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Earl Hines, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. Swing was also dance music. It was broadcast on the radio 'live' nightly across America for many years especially by Hines and his Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra broadcasting coast-to-coast from Chicago, well placed for 'live' time-zones. Although it was a collective sound, swing also offered individual musicians a chance to 'solo' and improvise melodic, thematic solos which could at times be very complex and 'important' music. Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in America: white bandleaders began to recruit black musicians and black bandleaders white ones. In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. An early 1940s style known as "jumping the blues" or jump blues used small combos, uptempo music, and blues chord progressions. Jump blues drew on boogie-woogie from the 1930s. Kansas City Jazz in the 1930s as exemplified by tenor saxophonist Lester Young marked the transition from big bands to the bebop influence of the 1940s.

Beginnings of European jazz

Outside of the United States the beginnings of a distinct European style of jazz emerged in France with the Quintette du Hot Club de France which began in 1934. Belgian guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt popularized gypsy jazz, a mix of 1930s American swing, French dance hall "musette" and Eastern European folk with a languid, seductive feel. The main instruments are steel stringed guitar, violin, and double bass. Solos pass from one player to another as the guitar and bass play the role of the rhythm section. Some music researchers hold that it was Philadelphia's Eddie Lang (guitar) and Joe Venuti (violin) who pioneered the gypsy jazz form, which was brought to France after they had been heard live or on Okeh Records in the late 1920s.

1940s and 1950s

Dixieland revival

In the late 1940s there was a revival of "Dixieland" music, harkening back to the original contrapuntal New Orleans style. This was driven in large part by record company reissues of early jazz classics by the Oliver, Morton, and Armstrong bands of the 1930s. There were two populations of musicians involved in the revival. One group consisted of players who had begun their careers playing in the traditional style, and were either returning to it, or continuing what they had been playing all along, such as Bob Crosby's Bobcats, Max Kaminsky, Eddie Condon, and Wild Bill Davison. Most of this group were originally Midwesterners, although there were a small number of New Orleans musicians involved. The second population of revivalists consisted of young musicians such as the Lu Watters band. By the late 1940s, Louis Armstrong's Allstars band became a leading ensemble. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Dixieland was one of the most commercially popular jazz styles in the US, Europe, and Japan, although critics paid little attention to it.

Bebop

In the early 1940s bebop performers helped to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music." Differing greatly from swing, early bebop divorced itself from dance music, establishing itself more as an art form but lessening its potential popular and commercial value. Since bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it used faster tempos. Beboppers introduced new forms of chromaticism and dissonance into jazz; the dissonant tritone (or "flatted fifth") interval became the "most important interval of bebop" and players engaged in a more abstracted form of chord-based improvisation which used "passing" chords, substitute chords, and altered chords. The style of drumming shifted as well to a more elusive and explosive style, in which the ride cymbal was used to keep time, while the snare and bass drum were used for accents. These divergences from the jazz mainstream of the time initially met with a divided, sometimes hostile response among fans and fellow musicians, especially established swing players, who bristled at the new harmonic sounds. To hostile critics, bebop seemed to be filled with "racing, nervous phrases". Despite the initial friction, by the 1950s bebop had become an accepted part of the jazz vocabulary. The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach.

Cool jazz

By the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency towards calm and smoothness, with the sounds of cool jazz, which favoured long, linear melodic lines. It emerged in New York City, as a result of the mixture of the styles of predominantly white jazz musicians and black bebop musicians, and it dominated jazz in the first half of the 1950s. The starting point were a series of singles on Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950 of a nonet led by trumpeter Miles Davis, collected and released first on a ten-inch and later a twelve-inch as the ''Birth of the Cool''. Cool jazz recordings by Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and the Modern Jazz Quartet usually have a "lighter" sound which avoided the aggressive tempos and harmonic abstraction of bebop. Cool jazz later became strongly identified with the West Coast jazz scene, but also had a particular resonance in Europe, especially Scandinavia, with emergence of such major figures as baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin and pianist Bengt Hallberg. The theoretical underpinnings of cool jazz were set out by the blind Chicago pianist Lennie Tristano, and its influence stretches into such later developments as Bossa nova, modal jazz, and even free jazz. See also the List of Cool jazz and West Coast jazz musicians for further detail.

Hard bop

Hard bop is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music that incorporates influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Hard bop was developed in the mid-1950s, partly in response to the vogue for cool jazz in the early 1950s. The hard bop style coalesced in 1953 and 1954, paralleling the rise of rhythm and blues. Miles Davis' performance of "Walkin' ", the title track of his album of the same year, at the very first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, announced the style to the jazz world. The quintet Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, fronted by Blakey and featuring pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown, were leaders in the hard bop movement along with Davis.

Modal jazz

Modal jazz is a development beginning in the later 1950s which takes the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Previously, the goal of the soloist was to play a solo that fit into a given chord progression. However, with modal jazz, the soloist creates a melody using one or a small number of modes. The emphasis in this approach shifts from harmony to melody. The modal theory stems from a work by George Russell, but again Miles Davis unveiled this shift to the rest of the jazz world with ''Kind of Blue'', an exploration of the possibilities of modal jazz and the best selling jazz album of all time. Other innovators in this style include Jackie McLean, John Coltrane and Bill Evans, also present on ''Kind of Blue'', as well as later musicians such as Herbie Hancock.

Free jazz

Free jazz and the related form of avant-garde jazz broke through into an open space of "free tonality" in which meter, beat, and formal symmetry all disappeared, and a range of World music from India, Africa, and Arabia were melded into an intense, even religiously ecstatic or orgiastic style of playing. While loosely inspired by bebop, free jazz tunes gave players much more latitude; the loose harmony and tempo was deemed controversial when this approach was first developed. The bassist Charles Mingus is also frequently associated with the avant-garde in jazz, although his compositions draw from myriad styles and genres. The first major stirrings came in the 1950s, with the early work of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. In the 1960s, performers included John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, and others. Free jazz quickly found a foothold in Europe in part because musicians such as Ayler, Taylor, Steve Lacy and Eric Dolphy spent extended periods in Europe. A distinctive European contemporary jazz (often incorporating elements of free jazz but not limited to it) flourished also because of the emergence of musicians (such as John Surman, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler and Mike Westbrook) anxious to develop new approaches reflecting their national and regional musical cultures and contexts. Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from criticism by traditionalists in the 1990s and 2000s.

1960s and 1970s

Latin jazz

Latin jazz combines rhythms from African and Latin American countries, often played on instruments such as conga, timbales, güiro, and claves, with jazz and classical harmonies played on typical jazz instruments (piano, double bass, etc.). There are two main varieties: Afro-Cuban jazz was played in the US right after the bebop period, while became more popular in the 1960s. Afro-Cuban jazz began as a movement in the mid-1950s as bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban bands influenced by such Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians as Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente and Arturo Sandoval. Brazilian jazz such as bossa nova is derived from samba, with influences from jazz and other 20th century classical and popular music styles. Bossa is generally moderately paced, with melodies sung in Portuguese or English. The style was pioneered by Brazilians João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim. The related term jazz-samba describes an adaptation of bossa nova compositions to the jazz idiom by American performers such as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.

Bossa nova was made popular by Elizete Cardoso's recording of ''Chega de Saudade'' on the ''Canção do Amor Demais'' LP, composed by Vinícius de Moraes (lyrics) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (music). The initial releases by Gilberto and the 1959 film ''Black Orpheus'' brought significant popularity in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, which spread to North America via visiting American jazz musicians. The resulting recordings by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz cemented its popularity and led to a worldwide boom with 1963's ''Getz/Gilberto'', numerous recordings by famous jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald (''Ella Abraça Jobim'') and Frank Sinatra (''Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim'') and the entrenchment of the bossa nova style as a lasting influence in world music for several decades and even up to the present.

Post bop

Post-bop jazz is a form of small-combo jazz derived from earlier bop styles. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Generally, the term post-bop is taken to mean jazz from the mid-sixties onward that assimilates influence from hard bop, modal jazz, the avant-garde, and free jazz, without necessarily being immediately identifiable as any of the above.

Much "post-bop" was recorded on Blue Note Records. Key albums include ''Speak No Evil'' by Wayne Shorter; ''The Real McCoy'' by McCoy Tyner; ''Maiden Voyage'' by Herbie Hancock; ''Miles Smiles'' by Miles Davis; and ''Search for the New Land'' by Lee Morgan (an artist not typically associated with the post-bop genre). Most post-bop artists worked in other genres as well, with a particularly strong overlap with later hard bop.

Soul jazz

Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often the organ trio, which partnered a Hammond organ player with a drummer and a tenor saxophonist. Unlike hard bop, soul jazz generally emphasized repetitive grooves and melodic hooks, and improvisations were often less complex than in other jazz styles. Horace Silver had a large influence on the soul jazz style, with songs that used funky and often gospel-based piano vamps. It often had a steadier "funk" style groove, different from the swing rhythms typical of much hard bop. Important soul jazz organists included Jimmy McGriff and Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith, and influential tenor saxophone players included Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Stanley Turrentine. (See also List of soul-jazz musicians.)

Jazz fusion

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion was developed by combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments and the highly amplified stage sound of rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix. All Music Guide states that "..until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate." However, "...as rock became more creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas and occasionally combine forces." Miles Davis made the breakthrough into fusion in 1970s with his album ''Bitches Brew''. Musicians who worked with Davis formed the four most influential fusion groups: Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra emerged in 1971 and were soon followed by Return to Forever and The Headhunters. Although jazz purists protested the blend of jazz and rock, some of jazz's significant innovators crossed over from the contemporary hard bop scene into fusion. Jazz fusion music often uses mixed meters, odd time signatures, syncopation, complex chords and harmonies. In addition to using the electric instruments of rock, such as the electric guitar, electric bass, electric piano and synthesizer keyboards, fusion also used the powerful amplification, "fuzz" pedals, wah-wah pedals, and other effects used by 1970s-era rock bands. Notable performers of jazz fusion included Miles Davis, keyboardists Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, vibraphonist Gary Burton, drummer Tony Williams, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, guitarists Larry Coryell, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Frank Zappa, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassists Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke. Jazz fusion was also popular in Japan where the band Casiopea released over thirty fusion albums.

In the twenty-first century, almost all jazz has influences from other nations and styles of music, making jazz fusion as much a common practice as style. The host of a progressive radio jazz program, Passport to Modern Jazz on KRVS-FM, D'Jalma Garnier, plays New Orleans jazz from all periods, as well as latest contemporary and avant-garde, like the Bulgarian wedding band Ivo Papasov that successfully fuses Bulgarian folk using the kaval with American free jazz instrumentation and riffs.

Jazz funk

Developed by the mid-1970s, is characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers. The integration of Funk, Soul and R&B; music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is indeed quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals.

At the jazz end of the spectrum, jazz-funk characteristics include a departure from ternary rhythm (near-triplet), i.e. the "swing", to the more danceable and unfamiliar binary rhythm, known as the "groove". Jazz-funk also draws influences from traditional African music, Latin American rhythms and Jamaican reggae, most notably Kingston band leader Sonny Bradshaw. A second characteristic of jazz-funk music is the use of electric instruments, and the first use of analogue electronic instruments notably by Herbie Hancock, whose jazz-funk period saw him surrounded on stage or in the studio by several Moog synthesizers. The ARP Odyssey, ARP String Ensemble and Hohner D6 Clavinet also became popular at the time. A third feature is the shift of proportions between composition and improvisation. Arrangements, melody and overall writing were heavily emphasized.

Other trends

There was a resurgence of interest in jazz and other forms of African American cultural expression during the Black Arts Movement and Black nationalist period of the early 1970s. Musicians such as Pharoah Sanders, Hubert Laws and Wayne Shorter began using African instruments such as kalimbas, cowbells, beaded gourds and other instruments not traditional to jazz. Musicians began improvising jazz tunes on unusual instruments, such as the jazz harp (Alice Coltrane), electrically amplified and wah-wah pedaled jazz violin (Jean-Luc Ponty), and even bagpipes (Rufus Harley). Jazz continued to expand and change, influenced by other types of music, such as world music, avant garde classical music, and rock and pop music. Guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra played a mix of rock and jazz infused with East Indian influences. The ECM record label began in Germany in the 1970s with artists including Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, the Pat Metheny Group, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, John Surman and Eberhard Weber, establishing a new chamber music aesthetic, featuring mainly acoustic instruments, and sometimes incorporating elements of world music and folk music.

1980s–2010s

In 1987, the US House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill proposed by Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. to define jazz as a unique form of American music stating, among other things, "...that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated."

Traditionalist and Experimental divide

In the 1980s, the jazz community shrank dramatically and split. A mainly older audience retained an interest in traditional and straight-ahead jazz styles. Wynton Marsalis strove to create music within what he believed was the tradition, creating extensions of small and large forms initially pioneered by such artists as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. In the 2000s, straight-ahead jazz continues to appeal to a core group of listeners. Well-established jazz musicians, such as Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, Sonny Rollins, and Wayne Shorter continue to perform and record. In the 1990s and 2000s, a number of young musicians emerged, including US pianists Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard, saxophonists Chris Potter and Joshua Redman and bassist Christian McBride.

In the United States, several musicians and groups explored the more experimental end of the spectrum, including trumpeters Rob Mazurek and Cuong Vu, saxophonist Ken Vandermark, guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Todd Sickafoose, keyboardist Craig Taborn, drummer/percussionist John Hollenbeck, guitarist John Scofield and the groups Medeski Martin & Wood and The Bad Plus. Outside of the US, the Swedish group E.S.T. and British groups Acoustic Ladyland, Led Bib and Polar Bear gained popularity with their progressive takes on jazz. A number of new vocalists have achieved popularity with a mix of traditional jazz and pop/rock forms, such as Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling and Jamie Cullum.

Smooth jazz

In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called pop fusion or "smooth jazz" became successful and garnered significant radio airplay. Smooth jazz saxophonists include Grover Washington, Jr., Kenny G, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and David Sanborn. Smooth jazz received frequent airplay with more straight-ahead jazz in "quiet storm" time slots at radio stations in urban markets across the U.S., helping to establish or bolster the careers of vocalists including Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Sade. In this same time period Chaka Khan released ''Echoes of an Era'', which featured Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. She also released the song "And the Melody Still Lingers On (Night in Tunisia)" with Dizzy Gillespie reviving the solo break from "Night in Tunisia".

In general, smooth jazz is downtempo (the most widely played tracks are in the 90–105 BPM range), layering a lead, melody-playing instrument (saxophones–especially soprano and tenor–are the most popular, with legato electric guitar playing a close second) over a backdrop that typically consists of programmed electronic drum rhythms, synth pads and samples. In his ''Newsweek'' article "The Problem With Jazz Criticism" Stanley Crouch considers Miles Davis' playing of fusion as a turning point that led to smooth jazz. In Aaron J. West's introduction to his analysis of smooth jazz, "Caught Between Jazz and Pop" he states,

I challenge the prevalent marginalization and malignment of smooth jazz in the standard jazz narrative. Furthermore, I question the assumption that smooth jazz is an unfortunate and unwelcomed evolutionary outcome of the jazz-fusion era. Instead, I argue that smooth jazz is a long-lived musical style that merits multi-disciplinary analyses of its origins, critical dialogues, performance practice, and reception.

Acid jazz, nu jazz and jazz rap

Acid jazz developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and influenced by jazz-funk and electronic dance music. Jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd are often credited as forerunners of acid jazz. While acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including sampling or live DJ cutting and scratching), it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. Nu jazz is influenced by jazz harmony and melodies, there are usually no improvisational aspects. It ranges from combining live instrumentation with beats of jazz house, exemplified by St Germain, Jazzanova and Fila Brazillia, to more band-based improvised jazz with electronic elements such as that of The Cinematic Orchestra, Kobol, and the Norwegian "future jazz" style pioneered by Bugge Wesseltoft, Jaga Jazzist, Nils Petter Molvær, and others. Nu jazz can be very experimental in nature and can vary widely in sound and concept.

Jazz rap developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and incorporates jazz influence into hip hop. In 1988, Gang Starr released the debut single "Words I Manifest", sampling Dizzy Gillespie's 1962 "Night in Tunisia", and Stetsasonic released "Talkin' All That Jazz", sampling Lonnie Liston Smith. Gang Starr's debut LP, ''No More Mr. Nice Guy'' (Wild Pitch, 1989), and their track "Jazz Thing" (CBS, 1990) for the soundtrack of ''Mo' Better Blues'', sampling Charlie Parker and Ramsey Lewis. Gang Starr also collaborated with Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.Groups making up the collective known as the Native Tongues Posse tended towards jazzy releases; these include the Jungle Brothers' debut ''Straight Out the Jungle'' (Warlock, 1988) and A Tribe Called Quest's ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm'' (Jive, 1990) and ''The Low End Theory'' (Jive, 1991). ''The Low End Theory'' has become one of hip hop's most acclaimed albums, and earned praise too from jazz bassist Ron Carter, who played double bass on one track. Rap duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth incorporated jazz influences on their 1992 debut Mecca and the Soul Brother. Beginning in 1993, rapper Guru's Jazzmatazz series used jazz musicians during the studio recordings. Though jazz rap had achieved little mainstream success, jazz legend Miles Davis' final album (released posthumously in 1992), ''Doo-Bop'', was based around hip hop beats and collaborations with producer Easy Mo Bee. Davis' ex-bandmate Herbie Hancock returned to hip hop influences in the mid-nineties, releasing the album ''Dis Is Da Drum'' in 1994.

Punk jazz and jazzcore

The relaxation of orthodoxy concurrent with post-punk in London and New York City led to a new appreciation for jazz. In London, the Pop Group began to mix free jazz, along with dub reggae, into their brand of punk rock. In NYC, No Wave took direct inspiration from both free jazz and punk. Examples of this style include Lydia Lunch's ''Queen of Siam'', the work of James Chance and the Contortions, who mixed Soul with free jazz and punk, Gray, and the Lounge Lizards, who were the first group to call themselves "punk jazz".

John Zorn began to make note of the emphasis on speed and dissonance that was becoming prevalent in punk rock and incorporated this into free jazz. This began in 1986 with the album ''Spy vs. Spy'', a collection of Ornette Coleman tunes done in the contemporary thrashcore style. The same year, Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brötzmann, Bill Laswell, and Ronald Shannon Jackson recorded the first album under the name Last Exit, a similarly aggressive blend of thrash and free jazz. These developments are the origins of ''jazzcore'', the fusion of free jazz with hardcore punk.

In the 1990s, punk jazz and jazzcore began to reflect the increasing awareness of elements of extreme metal (particularly thrash metal and death metal) in hardcore punk. A new style of "metallic jazzcore" was developed by Iceburn, from Salt Lake City, and Candiria, from New York City, though anticipated by Naked City and Pain Killer. This tendency also takes inspiration from jazz inflections in technical death metal, such as the work of Cynic and Atheist.

M-Base

The M-Base movement was started in the 1980s by a loose collective of young African-American musicians (Steve Coleman, Graham Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Greg Osby etc.) who emerged in New York with a new sound and specific ideas about creative expression. With a strong foothold as well as in the tradition represented by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane as in contemporary African-American groove music and with a high degree of musical skills, the saxophonists Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, and Gary Thomas developed unique and complex, nevertheless grooving musical languages. In the 1990s most participants of the M-Base movement turned to more conventional music but Steve Coleman, the most active participant, continued developing his music in accordance with the M-Base concept. In a long research process he developed a philosophical and spiritual concept connecting with certain cultural efforts that express fundamental aspects of nature and human existence in a holistic way. Steve Coleman found these efforts all over the world and they reach far back into ancient times. Thus, he gave his music a specific meaning which is similar to the intentions of religious music, of European composers like J.S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as of musicians in the tradition represented by John Coltrane. In accordance to this spiritual perspective, Coleman’s music became rather advanced in several aspects. His audience decreased a bit but his music and concepts have been a heavy influence on many musicians - both in terms of music-technique and of the music’s meaning. Hence, “M-Base” changed from a movement of a loose collective of young musicians to a kind of informal Steve Coleman “school” with a much advanced but already originally implied concept.

See also

Glossary of jazz and popular musical terms

Jazz poetry

List of jazz festivals

List of jazz guitarists

List of jazz institutions and organizations

List of jazz pianists

List of jazz violinists

List of jazz vocalists

Museum of African American Music

Timeline of jazz education

Notes

References

Adorno, Theodor. "Prisms." The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. 1967.

Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McLim Garrison, eds. 1867. ''Slave Songs of the United States''. New York: A Simpson & Co. Electronic edition, Chapel Hill, N. C.: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000.

Joachim Ernst Berendt, Günther Huesmann (Bearb.): Das Jazzbuch. 7. Auflage. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-10-003802-9

Burns, Ken, and Geoffrey C. Ward. 2000. ''Jazz—A History of America's Music''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Also: The Jazz Film Project, Inc.

.

Carr, Ian. ''Music Outside: Contemporary Jazz in Britain.'' 2nd edition. London: Northway. ISBN 978-0-9550908-6-8

Collier, James Lincoln. ''The Making of Jazz: A Comprehensive History'' (Dell Publishing Co., 1978)

Davis, Miles.

Elsdon, Peter. 2003. "''The Cambridge Companion to Jazz'', Edited by Mervyn Cooke and David Horn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Review." ''Frankfürter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft'' 6:159–75.

Gang Starr. 2006. ''Mass Appeal: The Best of Gang Starr''. CD recording 72435-96708-2-9. New York: Virgin Records.

Giddins, Gary. 1998. ''Visions of Jazz: The First Century'' New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195076753

Godbolt, Jim. 2005. ''A History of Jazz in Britain 1919–50'' London: Northway. ISBN 0-9537040-5-X

Gridley, Mark C. 2004. ''Concise Guide to Jazz'', fourth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131826573

Kenney, William Howland. 1993. ''Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904–1930''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195064534 (cloth); paperback reprint 1994 ISBN 0195092600

.

Mandel, Howard. 2007. ''Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz''. Routledge. ISBN 0415967147.

Porter, Eric. 2002. ''What Is This Thing Called Jazz? African American Musicians as Artists, Critics and Activists''. University of California Press, Ltd. London, England.

Ratliffe, Ben. 2002. ''Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings''. The New York Times Essential Library. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0805070680

Scaruffi, Piero: ''A History of Jazz Music 1900–2000''. 2007. Omniware. ISBN 978-0-9765531-3-7

Schuller, Gunther. 1968. ''Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development.'' Oxford University Press. New printing 1986.

Schuller, Gunther. 1991. ''The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945.'' Oxford University Press.

Searle, Chris. 2008. ''Forward Groove: Jazz and the Real World from Louis Armstrong to Gilad Atzmon.'' London: Northway. ISBN 978-0-9550908-7-5

Szwed, John Francis. 2000. ''Jazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz''. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0786884967

Vacher, Peter. 2004. ''Soloists and Sidemen: American Jazz Stories.'' London: Northway. ISBN 978-0953704040

Yanow, Scott. 2004. ''Jazz on Film: The Complete Story of the Musicians and Music Onscreen''. (Backbeat Books) ISBN 0879307838

External links

Jazz Foundation of America

Jazz @ the Smithsonian

Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians

Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame website

Jazz Artist and Discography Resource

Red Hot Jazz.com

Jazz at Lincoln Center website

* Jazz At Lincoln Center Hall of Fame

American Jazz Museum website

The International Archives for the Jazz Organ

Classic and Contemporary Jazz Music

The Jazz Archive at Duke University

Jazz Festivals in Europe

Free 1920s Jazz Collection available for downloading at Archive.org

A List of Jazz Lists

Category:African-American culture Category:African American history Category:African American music Category:American styles of music

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Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Name	Herbie Hancock
Landscape	yes
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Alias	Herbie Hancock
Born	April 12, 1940Chicago, IllinoisUnited States
Instrument	piano, synthesizer, organ, clavinet, keytar, vocoder
Genre	Jazz, bebop, post bop, jazz fusion, hard bop, jazz-funk, funk, R&B;, electro funk, classical
Occupation	Musician, composer, bandleader
Years active	1961–present
Label	Columbia, Blue Note, Verve, Warner Bros. Records
Associated acts	Miles Davis Quintet, Jaco Pastorius, Stevie Wonder
Website	Official website of Herbie Hancock }}

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (b. April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music (characterized by syncopated drum beats). Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album ''River: The Joni Letters'' won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.

As a member of Soka Gakkai, Hancock is an adherent of the Nichiren school of Mahayana Buddhism.

On 22 July 2011 at a ceremony in Paris, Hancock was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of Intercultural Dialogue.

Early life and career

Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois. Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education. He studied from age seven, and his talent was recognized early. Considered a child prodigy, he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 5 at a young people's concert with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.

Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher, but developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo's:

..by the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings -like the harmonies I used on 'Speak Like a Child' -just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. 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 music after two years.

In 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once, and begged him to accept him as a student. Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru. Hancock left Grinnell College, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. (He later graduated from Grinnell, which also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972). Donald Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini, which he did for a short time in 1960. The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album ''Takin' Off'' for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from ''Takin' Off'') was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, ''Takin' Off'' caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.

Miles Davis quintet and Blue Note

Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963, he joined Miles Davis's "second great quintet." This new band was essentially Miles Davis surrounded by fresh, new talent. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz. The rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot, the quintet would gel with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. This quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles, and the rhythm section has been especially praised for its innovation and flexibility.

The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own voice as a pianist. Not only did he find new ways to use common chords, but he also popularized chords that had not previously been used in jazz. Hancock also developed a unique taste for "orchestral" accompaniment – using quartal harmony and Debussy-like harmonies, with stark contrasts then unheard of in jazz. With Williams and Carter he wove a labyrinth of rhythmic intricacy on, around and over existing melodic and chordal schemes. In the later half of the sixties their approach became so sophisticated and unorthodox that conventional chord changes would hardly be discernible; hence their improvisational concept would become known as "Time, No Changes".

While in the Davis' band, Hancock also found time to record dozens of sessions for the Blue Note label, both under his own name and as a sideman with other musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

His albums ''Empyrean Isles'' (1964) and ''Maiden Voyage'' (1965) were to be two of the most famous and influential jazz LPs of the sixties, winning praise for both their innovation and accessibility (the latter demonstrated by the subsequent enormous popularity of the ''Maiden Voyage'' title track as a jazz standard, and by the jazz rap group US3 having a hit single with "Cantaloop" (derived from "Cantaloupe Island" on ''Empyrean Isles'') some twenty five years later). ''Empyrean Isles'' featured the Davis rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams with the addition of Freddie Hubbard on cornet, while ''Maiden Voyage'' also added former Davis saxophonist George Coleman (with Hubbard remaining on trumpet). Both albums are regarded as among the principal foundations of the post-bop style. Hancock also recorded several less-well-known but still critically acclaimed albums with larger ensembles – ''My Point of View'' (1963), ''Speak Like a Child'' (1968) and ''The Prisoner'' (1969) featured flugelhorn, alto flute and bass trombone. 1963's ''Inventions and Dimensions'' was an album of almost entirely improvised music, teaming Hancock with bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin percussionists, Willie Bobo and Osvaldo Martinez.

During this period, Hancock also composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni's film ''Blowup'', the first of many soundtracks he recorded in his career.

Davis had begun incorporating elements of rock and popular music into his recordings by the end of Hancock's tenure with the band. Despite some initial reluctance, Hancock began doubling on electric keyboards including the Fender Rhodes electric piano at Davis's insistence. Hancock adapted quickly to the new instruments, which proved to be instrumental in his future artistic endeavors.

Under the pretext that he had returned late from a honeymoon in Brazil, Hancock was dismissed from Davis's band. In the summer of 1968 Hancock formed his own sextet. However, although Davis soon disbanded his quintet to search for a new sound, Hancock, despite his departure from the working band, continued to appear on Miles Davis records for the next few years. Noteworthy appearances include ''In a Silent Way'', ''A Tribute to Jack Johnson'' and ''On the Corner''.

''Fat Albert'' and ''Mwandishi''

Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing up with Warner Bros. Records. In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack for the Bill Cosby animated children's television show ''Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids''. Titled ''Fat Albert Rotunda'', the album was mainly an R&B;-influenced album with strong jazz overtones. One of the jazzier songs on the record, "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", was later re-worked as a more electronic sounding song for the Quincy Jones album, ''Sounds...and Stuff Like That''.

Hancock became fascinated with accumulating musical gadgets and toys. Together with the profound influence of Davis's ''Bitches Brew'', this fascination would culminate in a series of albums in which electronic instruments are coupled with acoustic instruments.

Hancock's first ventures into electronic music started with a sextet comprising Hancock, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart, and a trio of horn players: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), and multireedist Bennie Maupin. Dr. Patrick Gleeson was eventually added to the mix to play and program the synthesizers. In fact, Hancock was one of the first jazz pianists to completely embrace electronic keyboards.

The sextet, later a septet with the addition of Gleeson, made three experimental albums under Hancock's name: ''Mwandishi'' (1971), ''Crossings'' (1972) (both on Warner Bros. Records), and ''Sextant'' (1973) (released on Columbia Records); two more, '' Realization'' and ''Inside Out'', were recorded under Henderson's name with essentially the same personnel. The music often had very free improvisations and showed influence from the electronic music of some contemporary classical composers.

Synthesizer player Patrick Gleeson, one of the first musicians to play synthesizer on any jazz recording, introduced the instrument on ''Crossings'', released in 1972, one of a handful of influential electronic jazz/fusion recordings to feature synthesizer that same year. On ''Crossings'' (as well as on ''I Sing the Body Electric''), the synthesizer is used more as an improvisatory global orchestration device than as a strictly melodic instrument. This reflected Gleeson's (and Powell's) interest in contemporary European electronic music techniques and in the West Coast synthesis techniques of Morton Subotnick and other contemporaries, several of whom were resident at one time or another, as was Gleeson, at The Mills College Tape Music Center. An early review of ''Crossings'' in Downbeat magazine complained about the synthesizer, but a few years later the magazine noted in a cover story on Gleeson that he was "a pioneer" in the field of electronics in jazz. Gleeson used a modular Moog III for the recording of the album, but used an ARP 2600 synthesizer, and occasionally an ARP Soloist for the group's live performances. On ''Sextant'' Gleeson used the more compact ARP synthesizers instead of the larger Moog III for both studio and live performances. In the albums following ''The Crossings'', Hancock started to play synth himself and unlike Gleeson, he plays it as a melodical and rhythm instrument just like electric pianos.

Hancock's three records released in 1971–1973, became later known as the "Mwandishi" albums, so-called after a Swahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era (''Mwandishi'' is Swahili for ''writer''). The first two, including ''Fat Albert Rotunda'' were made available on the 2-CD set ''Mwandishi: the Complete Warner Bros. Recordings'', released in 1994, but are now sold as individual CD editions. Of the three electronic albums, ''Sextant'' is probably the most experimental since the Arp synthesizers are used extensively, and some advanced improvisation ("post-modal free impressionism") is found on the tracks "Hornets" and "Hidden Shadows" (which is in the meter 19/4). "Hornets" was later revised on the 2001 album ''Future2Future'' as "Virtual Hornets".

Among the instruments Hancock and Gleeson used were Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, ARP Pro Soloist Synthesizer, a Mellotron and the Moog synthesizer III.

All three Warner Bros. albums ''Fat Albert Rotunda'', ''Mwandishi'', and ''Crossings'', were remastered in 2001 and released in Europe but were not released in the U.S.A. as of June 2005. In the Winter of 2006–2007 a remastered edition of Crossings was announced and scheduled for release in the Spring.

Headhunters and Death Wish

After the sometimes "airy" and decidedly experimental "Mwandishi" albums, Hancock was eager to perform more "earthy" and "funky" music. The ''Mwandishi'' albums – though these days seen as respected early fusion recordings – had seen mixed reviews and poor sales, so it is probable that Hancock was motivated by financial concerns as well as artistic restlessness. Hancock was also bothered by the fact that many people did not understand avant-garde music. He explained that he loved funk music, especially Sly Stone's music, so he wanted to try to make funk himself.

He gathered a new band, which he called The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason. The album ''Head Hunters'', released in 1973, was a major hit and crossed over to pop audiences, though it prompted criticism from some jazz fans. Head Hunters was recorded at Different Fur studios.

Despite charges of "selling out", Stephen Erlewine of ''Allmusic'' positively reviewed the album amongst other friendly critics, saying, "''Head Hunters'' still sounds fresh and vital three decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop."

Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, ''Thrust'', the following year. (A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first two ''Head Hunters'' releases was released in 1975 as ''Flood''. The record has since been released on CD in Japan.) This was almost as well-received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album (called ''Survival of the Fittest'') without Hancock, while Hancock himself started to make even more commercial albums, often featuring members of the band, but no longer billed as The Headhunters. The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for ''Return of the Headhunters'', and a version of the band (featuring Jackson and Clark) continues to play live and record.

In 1973, Hancock composed his second masterful soundtrack to the controversial film ''The Spook Who Sat By The Door''. Then in 1974, Hancock also composed the soundtrack to the first ''Death Wish'' film. One of his memorable songs, "Joanna's Theme", would later be re-recorded in 1997 on his duet album with Wayne Shorter ''1 + 1''.

Hancock's next jazz-funk albums of the 1970s were ''Man-Child'' (1975), and ''Secrets'' (1976), which point toward the more commercial direction Hancock would take over the next decade. These albums feature the members of the 'Headhunters' band, but also a variety of other musicians in important roles.

Back to the Basics: VSOP and the Future Shock

During late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his "V.S.O.P." quintet, which featured all the members of the 1960s Miles Davis quintet except Davis, who was replaced by trumpet giant Freddie Hubbard. There was constant speculation that one day Davis would reunite with his classic band, but he never did so. VSOP recorded several live albums in the late 1970s, including ''VSOP'' (1976), and ''VSOP: The Quintet'' (1977).

In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who had replaced him in the Miles Davis band a decade earlier. He also released a solo acoustic piano album titled ''The Piano'' (1978), which, like so many Hancock albums at the time, was initially released only in Japan. (It was finally released in the US in 2004.) Several other Japan-only releases have yet to surface in the US, such as ''Dedication'' (1974), ''VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum'' (1977), and ''Direct Step'' (1978). ''Live Under the Sky'' was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004, and included an entire second concert from the July 1979 tour.

From 1978–1982, Hancock recorded many albums consisting of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with ''Sunlight'' (featuring guest musicians like Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on the last track) (1978). Singing through a vocoder, he earned a British hit, "I Thought It Was You", although critics were unimpressed. This led to more vocoder on the 1979 follow-up, ''Feets, Don't Fail Me Now'', which gave him another UK hit in "You Bet Your Love". The video won five different categories at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell: ''Future Shock'' (1983), ''Sound-System'' (1984) and ''Perfect Machine'' (1988). Despite the success of "Rockit", Hancock's trio of Laswell-produced albums (particularly the latter two) are among the most critically derided of his entire career, perhaps even more so than his erstwhile pop-jazz experiments. Hancock's level of actual contribution to these albums was also questioned, with some critics contending that the Laswell albums should have been labelled "Bill Laswell featuring Herbie Hancock".

During this period, he appeared onstage at the Grammy awards with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, and Thomas Dolby, in a famous synthesizer jam (The video on Youtube can be found here.). Lesser known works from the 80s are the live album ''Jazz Africa'' and the studio album ''Village Life'' (1984) which were recorded with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso. Also, in 1985 he performed as a guest on the album So Red The Rose by the Duran Duran shoot off group Arcadia. He also provided introductory and closing comments for the PBS rebroadcast in the United States of the BBC educational series from the mid-1980s, ''Rockschool'' (not to be confused with the most recent ''Gene Simmons' Rock School'' series).

In 1986, Hancock performed and acted in the film '''Round Midnight''. He also wrote the score/soundtrack, for which he won an Academy Award for Original Music Score. Often he would write music for TV commercials. "Maiden Voyage", in fact, started out as a cologne advertisement. At the end of the ''Perfect Machine'' tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship.

As of June 2005, almost half of his Columbia recordings have been remastered. The first three US releases, ''Sextant'', ''Head Hunters'' and ''Thrust'' as well as the last four releases ''Future Shock'', ''Sound-System'', the soundtrack to ''Round Midnight'' and ''Perfect Machine''. Everything released in America from ''Man-Child'' to ''Quartet'' has yet to be remastered. Some albums, made and initially released in the US, were remastered between 1999 and 2001 in other countries such as ''Magic Windows'' and ''Monster''. Hancock also re-released some of his Japan-only releases in the West, such as ''The Piano.''

1990s and later

After leaving Columbia, Hancock took a break. Then, with friends Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, they recorded ''A Tribute to Miles'' which was released in 1994. The album contained two live recordings and studio recording classics with Roney playing Davis's part as trumpet player. The album won a Grammy for best group album. He also toured with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny in 1990 on their Parallel Realities tour, which included a memorable performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1990.

Hancock's next album, ''Dis Is Da Drum'' released in 1994 saw him return to Acid Jazz. Also in 1994, Hancock appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine.

1995's ''The New Standard'' found him and an all-star band including John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette and Michael Brecker interpreting pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and others. A 1997 duet album with Wayne Shorter titled ''1 + 1'' was successful, the song "Aung San Suu Kyi" winning the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and Hancock also achieved great success in 1998 with his album ''Gershwin's World'' which featured inventive readings of George & Ira Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars including Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Shorter. Hancock toured the world in the support of ''Gershwin's World'' with a sextet that featured Cyro Baptista, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ira Coleman, Eli Degibri and Eddie Henderson.

In 2001, Hancock recorded ''Future2Future'', which reunited Hancock with Bill Laswell and featured doses of electronica as well as turntablist Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. Hancock later toured with the band, and released a live concert DVD with a different lineup which also included the "Rockit" music video. Also in 2001, Hancock partnered with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane called ''Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall'' recorded live in Toronto. The threesome toured t support the album, and have toured on and off through 2005.

2005 saw the release of a duet album called ''Possibilities''. It features duets with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others. In 2006, ''Possibilities'' was nominated for Grammy awards in two categories: "A Song For You", featuring Christina Aguilera was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and "Gelo No Montanha", featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance. Neither nomination resulted in an award.

Also in 2005, Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that included Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and explored textures ranging from ambient to straight jazz to African music. Plus, during the Summer of 2005, Hancock re-staffed the famous Head Hunters and went on tour with them, including a performance at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.

However, this lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group included Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Lionel Loueke and John Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence for Bonnaroo that summer.

Also in 2006, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock's old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospective ''The Essential Herbie Hancock''. This two-disc set is the first compilation of Herbie's work at Warner Bros. Records, Blue Note Records, Columbia and at Verve/Polygram. This became Hancock's second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-only "The Herbie Hancock Box" which was released at first in a plastic 4x4 cube then re-released in 2004 in a long box set. Hancock also in 2006, recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest) titled "Machine". It is featured on Josh Groban's CD "Awake". Hancock also recorded and improvised with guitarist Lionel Loueke on Loueke's debut album Virgin Forest on the ObliqSound label in 2006, resulting in two improvisational tracks "Le Réveil des Agneaux (The Awakening of the Lambs)" and "La Poursuite du lion (The Lion's Pursuit)".

Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Joni Mitchell released a 2007 album, ''River: The Joni Letters'', that paid tribute to her work. Norah Jones and Tina Turner recorded vocals, as did Corinne Bailey Rae, and Leonard Cohen contributed a spoken piece set to Hancock's piano. Mitchell herself also made an appearance. The album was released on September 25, simultaneously with the release of Mitchell's album ''Shine''. "River" was nominated for and won the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award, only the second jazz album ever to receive either honor. The album also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and the song "Both Sides Now" was nominated for Best Instrumental Jazz Solo.

Recently Hancock performed at the Shriner's Children's Hospital Charity Fundraiser with Sheila E, Jim Brickman, Kirk Whalum and Wendy Alane Wright.

His latest work includes assisting the production of the Kanye West track "RoboCop", found on 808s & Heartbreak.

On June 14, 2008, Hancock performed at Rhythm on the Vine at the South Coast Winery in Temecula, California for Shriners Hospital for Children. Other performers at the event, that raised $515,000 for Shriners Hospital, were contemporary music artist Jim Brickman, and Sheila E. & the E. Family Band.

On January 18, 2009, Hancock performed at the We Are One concert, marking the start of inaugural celebrations for American President Barack Obama. Hancock also performed the Rhapsody in Blue at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards with classical pianist Lang Lang. Hancock was named as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's creative chair for jazz for 2010–12. In June 2010, Hancock released his newest album, ''The Imagine Project''.

On June 5, 2010, Hancock received an Alumni Award from his alma mater, Grinnell College.

Discography

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" border="0" |- style="background:#ffdead;" ! align="left" style="border-bottom:1px solid grey; border-top:1px solid grey;" | Title ! width="10" style="border-bottom:1px solid grey; border-top:1px solid grey;" | ! align="left" style="border-bottom:1px solid grey; border-top:1px solid grey;" | Year ! width="10" style="border-bottom:1px solid grey; border-top:1px solid grey;" | ! align="left" style="border-bottom:1px solid grey; border-top:1px solid grey;" | Label |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Takin' Off'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1962 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''My Point of View'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1963 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Inventions and Dimensions'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1963 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Empyrean Isles'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1964 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Maiden Voyage'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1965 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Blow-Up'' (Soundtrack) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1966 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | MGM |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Speak Like a Child'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1968 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''The Prisoner'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1969 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Blue Note |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Fat Albert Rotunda'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1969 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Warner Bros. |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Mwandishi'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1970 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Warner Bros. |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''He Who Lives In Many Places'' (with bassist Terry Plumeri) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1971 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Airborne. |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Crossings'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1972 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Warner Bros. |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Sextant'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1973 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Head Hunters'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1973 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Thrust'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1974 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Death Wish'' (Soundtrack) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1974 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Dedication'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1974 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Man-Child'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1975 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Flood'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1975 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Secrets'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1976 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''VSOP'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1976 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Herbie Hancock Trio'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1977 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''VSOP: The Quintet'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1977 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1977 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Sunlight'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1977 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Directstep'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1978 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert'' (Live album with Chick Corea) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1978 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''The Piano'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1979 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Feets, Don't Fail Me Now'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1979 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''VSOP: Live Under the Sky'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1979 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''CoreaHancock'' (Live album with Chick Corea) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1979 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Polydor |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Monster'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1980 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Mr. Hands'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1980 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Herbie Hancock Trio'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1981 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Magic Windows'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1981 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Lite Me Up'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1982 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Quartet'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1982 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Future Shock'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1983 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Sound-System'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1984 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Village Life'' (with Foday Musa Suso) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1985 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Round Midnight'' (Soundtrack) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1986 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Jazz Africa'' (Live album with Foday Musa Suso) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1987 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Polygram |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Perfect Machine'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1988 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Columbia |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''A Tribute to Miles'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1994 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Qwest/Warner Bros. |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Dis Is Da Drum'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1994 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve/Mercury |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''The New Standard'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1995 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''1 + 1'' (with Wayne Shorter) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1997 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Gershwin's World'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 1998 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Future2Future'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2001 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Transparent |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall'' (Live album) | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2002 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Possibilities'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2005 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Concord/Hear Music |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''River: The Joni Letters'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2007 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''Then and Now: the Definitive Herbie Hancock'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2008 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Verve |- | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | ''The Imagine Project'' | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | 2010 | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | | style="border-bottom:1px solid grey;" | Hancock |}

Filmography

As a Leader

2000: '' Dejohnette, Hancock, Holland and Metheny – Live in Concert''

2002: ''Herbie Hancock Trio: Hurricane!'' with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham

2002: '' The Jazz Channel Presents Herbie Hancock (BET on Jazz)'' with Cyro Baptista, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ira Coleman, Eli Degibri and Eddie Henderson

2004: ''Herbie Hancock – Future2Future Live''

2006: ''Herbie Hancock – Possibilities'' with John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Joss Stone, and more

Awards

Academy Awards

1986, Original Soundtrack, for ''Round Midnight''

Grammy Awards

# 1984, Best R&B; Instrumental Performance, for ''Rockit'' # 1985, Best R&B; Instrumental Performance, for ''Sound-System'' # 1988, Best Instrumental Composition, for ''Call Sheet Blues'' # 1995, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group, for ''A Tribute to Miles'' # 1997, Best Instrumental Composition, for ''Manhattan (Island Of Lights And Love)'' # 1999, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), for ''St. Louis Blues'' # 1999, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group, for ''Gershwin's World'' # 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, for ''Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall'' # 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for ''My Ship'' # 2005, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for ''Speak Like a Child'' # 2008, Album of the Year, for ''River: The Joni Letters'' # 2008, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, for ''River: The Joni Letters'' # 2011, Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for ''A Change Is Gonna Come'' # 2011, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for ''Imagine''

Playboy Music Poll

Best Jazz Group, 1985

Best Jazz Keyboards, 1985

Best Jazz Album – Rockit, 1985

Best Jazz Keyboards, 1986

Best R&B; Instrumentalist, 1987

Best Jazz Instrumentalist, 1988

Keyboard Magazine's Readers Poll

Best Jazz & Pop Keyboardist, 1983

Best Jazz Pianist, 1987

Best Jazz Keyboardist, 1987

Best Jazz Pianist, 1988

Other notable awards

MTV Awards (5 awards in total) – Best Concept Video – ''Rockit'', 1983–84

Gold Note Jazz Awards – NY Chapter of the National Black MBA Association, 1985

French Award Officer of the Order of Arts & Letters-Paris, 1985

BMI Film Music Award "Round Midnight", 1986

U.S. Radio Award "Best Original Music Scoring – Thom McAnn Shoes", 1986

Los Angeles Film Critics Association "Best Score – Round Midnight", 1986

BMI Film Music Award "Colors", 1989

Miles Davis Award, granted by the Montreal International Jazz Festival, 1997

Soul Train Music Award "Best Jazz Album – The New Standard", 1997

Festival International Jazz de Montreal Prix Miles Davis, 1997

VH1's 100 Greatest Videos "Rockit" is "10th Greatest Video", 2001

NEA Jazz Masters Award, 2004

Downbeat Magazine Readers Poll Hall of Fame, 2005

References

External links

Official website of Herbie Hancock

Official Herbie Hancock MySpace page

Herbie Hancock at Verve Records

River:The Joni Letters at Verve Records

Possibilities Herbie Hancock

Discography Herbie Hancock Discography

Interview with Herbie Hancock on music and technology from AppleMatters

Interview with Herbie Hancock on the "Possibilities" album release from LiveDaily

Herbie Hancock: Outside The Comfort Zone Herbie Hancock interview from JamBase

"Herbie Hancock: Essential Recordings" by Ted Gioia (www.jazz.com)

Herbie Hancock's Grinnell College Alumni Award citation from Grinnell College Alumni Assembly on June 5, 2010.

Category:1940 births Category:20th-century classical composers Category:African American songwriters Category:American Buddhists Category:American funk keyboardists Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz pianists Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grinnell College alumni Category:Hard bop pianists Category:Jazz fusion pianists Category:Jazz-funk pianists Category:Living people Category:Miles Davis Category:Blue Note Records artists Category:Modal jazz pianists Category:Post-bop pianists Category:Converts to Buddhism Category:Members of Soka Gakkai Category:Keytarists

an:Herbie Hancock bn:হার্বি হ্যানকক ca:Herbie Hancock cs:Herbie Hancock da:Herbie Hancock de:Herbie Hancock es:Herbie Hancock eo:Herbie Hancock fr:Herbie Hancock gl:Herbie Hancock io:Herbie Hancock id:Herbie Hancock it:Herbie Hancock he:הרבי הנקוק ka:ჰერბი ჰენკოკი hu:Herbie Hancock nl:Herbie Hancock ja:ハービー・ハンコック no:Herbie Hancock oc:Herbie Hancock nds:Herbie Hancock pl:Herbie Hancock pt:Herbie Hancock ru:Хэнкок, Херби sk:Herbie Hancock fi:Herbie Hancock sv:Herbie Hancock th:เฮอร์บี แฮนค็อก tr:Herbie Hancock uk:Гербі Генкок

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	Art Blakey
landscape	yes
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Arthur Blakey
alias	Abdullah Ibn Buhaina
born	October 11, 1919Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaUnited States
died	October 16, 1990New York City, New York, U.S.
instrument	Drums, percussion
genre	Hard bopBebop
occupation	Drummer, bandleader
years active	1942–1990
label	Blue Note Records
associated acts	Art Blakey & the Jazz MessengersArt Blakey QuartetArt Blakey QuintetArt Blakey & the Afrocuban Boys
website	http://www.artblakey.com/
notable instruments	}}

Arthur "Art" Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990), known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, he was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. He is known as a powerful musician and a vital groover; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz. The band's legacy is thus not only known for the often exceptionally fine music it produced, but as a proving ground for several generations of jazz musicians; Blakey's groups are matched only by those of Miles Davis in this regard.

Blakey was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Before the Messengers

Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing the piano full-time, leading a commercial band. Shortly afterwards, reputedly because he thought he would be unable to compete with the emerging pianist Erroll Garner, he taught himself to play the drums in the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc. He joined Mary Lou Williams as a drummer for an engagement in New York in autumn 1942. He then toured with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (1939–1942). During his years with Billy Eckstine’s big band (1944–7), Blakey became associated with the bebop movement, along with his fellow band members Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro and others.

By the late forties and early fifties, Blakey was backing musicians such as Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk — he is often considered to have been Monk's most empathetic drummer, and he played on both Monk's first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between.

He claimed that he then travelled to Africa during 1948–49; however, no documentation has been uncovered that supports this claim. He did though convert to Islam during this period and took the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (which led to the nickname "Bu"). In the early 1950s he performed and broadcast with such musicians as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis

From his earliest recording sessions with Eckstine, and particularly in his historic sessions with Monk in 1947, Blakey exuded power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare- and bass-drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. Although Blakey discouraged comparison of his own music with African drumming, he adopted several African devices, including rapping on the side of the drum and using his elbow on the tom-tom to alter the pitch. His much-imitated trademark, the forceful closing of the hi-hat on every second and fourth beat, was part of his style from 1950 to '51. A loud and domineering drummer, Blakey also listened and responded to his soloists. His contribution to jazz as a discoverer and molder of young talent over three decades was no less significant than his very considerable innovations on his instrument.

The Jazz Messengers

In 1947 Blakey organized the Seventeen Messengers, a rehearsal band, and recorded with an octet called the Jazz Messengers. The use of the Messengers tag only stuck with the group co-led at first by both Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, though the name was not used on the earliest of their recordings. Blakey and Silver recorded together on several occasions, including live at Birdland with trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto-saxophonist Lou Donaldson in 1954 for Blue Note, having formed in 1953 a regular cooperative group with Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham.

The "Jazz Messengers" name was first used for this group on a 1954 recording nominally led by Silver, with Blakey, Mobley, Dorham and Doug Watkins — the same quintet would record ''The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia'' the following year, still functioning as a collective. Donald Byrd replaced Dorham, and the group recorded an album called simply ''The Jazz Messengers'' for Columbia Records in 1956. Blakey took over the group name when Silver left after the band's first year (taking Mobley, Byrd and Watkins with him to form a new quintet with a variety of drummers), and the band was known as "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" from then onwards with Blakey being the sole leader, and he remained associated with it for the rest of his life. It was the archetypal hard-bop group of the 1950s, playing a driving, aggressive extension of bop with pronounced blues roots. Towards the end of the 1950s, the saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Benny Golson were in turn briefly members of the group. Golson, as music director, wrote several jazz standards which began as part of the band book such as "I Remember Clifford", and "Blues March" was regularly revived by later editions of the group. "Along Came Betty" and "Are You Real" were other Golson compositions for Blakey.

From 1959 to 1961 the group featured Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons. The second line-up (1961–1964) was a sextet that added trombonist Curtis Fuller and replaced Morgan and Timmons with Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton, respectively. Shorter was now the musical director of the group, and many of his original compositions such as "Lester Left Town" remained repertoire staples later on. (Other players over the years made permanent marks on Blakey's repertoire — Timmons, composer of "Dat Dere" and "Moanin'", and later, Bobby Watson.) Shorter's more experimental inclinations pushed the band at the time into an engagement with the 1960s "New Thing", as it was called: the influence of Coltrane's contemporary records on Impulse! is evident on ''Free For All'' (1964), often cited as the greatest document of the Shorter-era Messengers (and certainly one of the most fearsomely powerful examples of hard bop on record).

Up to the 1960s Blakey also recorded as a sideman with many other musicians: Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, and Jazz Messengers graduates Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, amongst many others. However, after the mid-1960s he mostly concentrated on his own work as a leader.Blakey also made a world tour in 1971–2 with the Giants of Jazz (with Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Al McKibbon).

Later career

Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers — he had a policy of encouraging young musicians: as he remarked on-mike during the live session which resulted in the ''A Night at Birdland'' albums in 1954: "I'm gonna stay with the youngsters. When these get too old I'll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active." After weathering the fusion era in the 1970s with some difficulty (recordings from this period are less plentiful and include attempts to incorporate instruments like electric piano), Blakey's band got revitalized in the early 1980s with the advent of neotraditionalist jazz. Wynton Marsalis was for a time the band's trumpeter and musical director, and even after Marsalis's departure Blakey's band continued as a proving ground for many "Young Lions" like Johnny O'Neal, Philip Harper, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Kenny Garrett.

Blakey continued performing and touring with the group into the late 1980s; Ron Wynn notes that Blakey had "played with such force and fury that he eventually lost much of his hearing, and at the end of his life, often played strictly by instinct." Some reports suggest Blakey had hearing problems as early as 1959. Blakey died in 1990 in New York City, leaving behind a vast legacy and approach to jazz which is still the model for countless hard-bop players.

Jazz Messengers alumni

;Piano Wynton Kelly, Joanne Brackeen, Donald Brown, Walter Davis, Jr., Sam Dockery, Kenny Drew, Benny Green, John Hicks, Keith Jarrett, Geoffrey Keezer, Mulgrew Miller, Johnny O'Neal, Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, James Williams ;Reeds Dale Barlow, Gary Bartz, Kenny Garrett, Lou Donaldson, John Gilmore, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, Billy Harper, Donald Harrison, Javon Jackson, Branford Marsalis, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Bill Pierce, David Schnitter, Wayne Shorter, Ira Sullivan, Jean Toussaint, Bobby Watson ;Trumpet Terence Blanchard, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, Philip Harper, Freddie Hubbard, Brian Lynch, Chuck Mangione, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Valery Ponomarev, Charles Tolliver ;Trombone Steve Davis, Robin Eubanks, Curtis Fuller, Frank Lacy ;Bass Spanky DeBrest, Charles Fambrough, Dennis Irwin, Jymie Merritt, Curly Russell, Victor Sproles, Doug Watkins, Wilbur Ware, Reggie Workman, Stanley Clarke ;Guitar Bobby Broom, Kevin Eubanks

Awards

Jazz Mobile ''Development and Preservation of Jazz'' (1970)

Newport Jazz Festival Hall of Fame (1976)

Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame ''Reader's Choice Award'' (1981)

Smithsonian Performing Arts ''Certificate of Appreciation'' (1982)

Lee Morgan Memorial Award (1982)

Jazz Hall of Fame Induction (1982)

Grammy Award Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group (1984) for the album New York Scene

Jazznote Award (1986)

''Doctorate of Music'' (1987; Berklee College of Music)

Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award (1991)

Grammy Hall of Fame Induction for the album ''Moanin''' (2001)

Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Award

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2005; awarded posthumously)

Discography

References

External links

Official Art Blakey website

Art Blakey University School Of Hard Bop

Article about Art Blakey and "A Night in Tunisia"

"Art Blakey: Twelve Essential Performances" by Eric Novod, (Jazz.com).

Category:1919 births Category:1990 deaths Category:ABC Records artists Category:African American musicians Category:African American Muslims Category:American Ahmadis Category:American jazz drummers Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American Muslims Category:Bebop drummers Category:Blue Note Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Converts to Islam Category:Converts to Islam from Christianity Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Hard bop drummers Category:Impulse! Records artists Category:Jazz bandleaders Category:Musicians from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:Riverside Records artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Timeless Records artists

cs:Art Blakey da:Art Blakey de:Art Blakey es:Art Blakey eo:Art Blakey fa:آرت بلیکی fr:Art Blakey it:Art Blakey he:ארט בלייקי sw:Art Blakey hu:Art Blakey nl:Art Blakey ja:アート・ブレイキー no:Art Blakey nn:Art Blakey pl:Art Blakey pt:Art Blakey ru:Блэйки, Арт simple:Art Blakey fi:Art Blakey sv:Art Blakey th:อาร์ท แบลคคี uk:Арт Блейкі

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	Ken Burns
birth name	Kenneth Lauren Burns
birth date	July 29, 1953
birth place	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
spouse	Julie Deborah Brown (2003-present)Amy Stechler Burns (1982-1993)
years active	1981 – present
website	}}

Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American director and producer of documentary films known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. Among his most notable productions are ''The Civil War'' (1990), ''Baseball'' (1994), ''Jazz'' (2001), ''The War'' (2007), and ''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' (2009).

Burns' documentaries have been nominated for two Academy Awards (''Brooklyn Bridge'' in 1982 and ''The Statue of Liberty'' in 1986) and have won seven Emmy Awards.

Personal life

Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Lylia (née Tupper), a homemaker, and Robert Kyle Burns, an anthropology professor. His brother Ric Burns also has become a noted documentary filmmaker.

Burns graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1975, and went on to be one of the co-founders of Florentine Films. The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees, Burns is a sought-after public speaker, appearing at colleges, civic organizations and business groups throughout the country. He resides in Walpole, New Hampshire with his wife Julie.

Career

As chief cinematographer on many of his documentaries, he has shaped the overall looks of the works. A key visual trait is the filming of live-action material (such as old houses, or battlefield locations) during the low sunlight of dawn or dusk. As a result, much of the original filmed material in a typical Ken Burns documentary contains a distinctive golden cast of low light.

Burns frequently incorporates simple musical leitmotifs or melodies. For example, his acclaimed ''The Civil War'' features a distinctive violin melody throughout, "Ashokan Farewell", which was performed for the film by the musician Jay Ungar. In a review of Burns' work, the online journal Salon.com noted, "One of the most memorable things about ''The Civil War'' was its haunting, repeated violin melody, whose thin, yearning notes seemed somehow to sum up all the pathos of that great struggle."

Burns often gives "life" to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to rest on the player who is the subject of the narrator.

This technique, possible in many professional and home software applications, was affectionately named "The Ken Burns Effect" in Apple Inc.'s iPhoto and iMovie software applications. It also figures in the sixth-generation iPod interface in the cover art of the main menu.

Of Burns' many film series, ''The Civil War'' is generally considered to be his masterpiece. He was director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the series. It has been honored with more than 40 major film and television awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America, a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award, a duPont-Columbia Award, a D.W. Griffith Award, and the $50,000 Lincoln Prize, among dozens of others. The nine episodes explore the Civil War through personal stories and photos. During the creation of the movie, Burns filmed thousands of archived photographs. ''The Civil War'' has been seen by more than 40 million people.

''The War'', 15 hours in length and seven years in the making, tells the story of the Second World War from the personal perspective of the men and women from four geographically distributed American towns: Waterbury, CT; Mobile, AL; Sacramento, CA; and Luverne, MN. Airing in the fall of 2007, it was the most watched series in the last ten years on PBS. 117 PBS stations across the nation participated in some form of community outreach (local documentaries, screenings, workshops, etc.) and nearly 30,000 educator guides went to every high school in the country.

''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' was a 2009 documentary broadcast on PBS that explored the history of America's national parks, along with interviews with the people who helped create and influence the parks and park policies. Like his previous most prominent films, ''The National Parks'' was very well received. In a review, ''New York Times'' critic Mike Hale stated that the first episodes and John Muir's writings read aloud were Burns' best effort in the series, however, the following episodes lost focus. Hale stated that the "folksy music" in Burns' national park series was a distraction rather than adding anything valuable to historical context.

Politics

Burns is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, with almost $40,000 in political donations. In 2008, the Democratic National Committee chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Edward Kennedy's August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention, a video described by ''Politico'' as a "Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port." In endorsing Barack Obama for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln. He plans to be a regular contributor to Keith Olbermann's ''Countdown'' show on Current TV.

Filmography

''Brooklyn Bridge'' (1981)

''The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God'' (1984)

''The Statue of Liberty'' (1985)

''Huey Long'' (1985)

''The Congress'' (1988)

''Thomas Hart Benton'' (1988)

''The Civil War'' (1990)

''Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio'' (1991)

''Baseball'' (1994), updated with the ''10th Inning'' (2010)

''Thomas Jefferson'' (1997)

''Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery'' (1997)

''Frank Lloyd Wright'' (1998)

''Not For Ourselves Alone: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony'' (1999)

''Jazz'' (2001)

''Mark Twain'' (2001)

''Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip'' (2003)

''Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson'' (2005)

''The War'' (2007)

''The National Parks: America's Best Idea'' (2009)

''Prohibition'' (2011) ''The Dust Bowl'' (scheduled for 2012)

''The Central Park Five'' (2013)

''The Roosevelts'' (2013)

''The Vietnam War'' (2016)

;Under Burns's name only

''The West'' (1996) (Executive Producer, Directed by Stephen Ives)

;Short films

''William Segal (Biography)'' (1992)

''Vezelay'' (1996)

''In the Marketplace'' (2000)

;Film roles

''Gettysburg'' (1993) - Hancock's staff officer

References

External links

Ken Burns interviewed on ''Conversations from Penn State''

Blue Ridge Country - Ken Burns: The Interview with Blue Ridge County Magazine

Florentine Films - Ken Burns's production company

''Write TV'' Public Television Interview with Ken Burns

Ken Burns at MyNorthwest.com

Ken Burns on PBS

Downloadable 15-minute interview with Ken Burns from Wisconsin Public Television Ken Burns talks about his passion for filmmaking, his upcoming project "The War," and the controversies surrounding it.

Ken Burns bibliography

Ken Burns Archive of American Television Interview

Speaking Profile Ken Burns's profile and lecture topics on the Random House Speakers Bureau

Category:1953 births Category:American documentary filmmakers Category:Documentary film directors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hampshire College alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from New Castle County, Delaware Category:Winners of the Lincoln Prize Category:People from Cheshire County, New Hampshire Category:National Humanities Medal recipients

de:Ken Burns es:Ken Burns eo:Ken Burns fr:Ken Burns he:קן ברנס no:Ken Burns nn:Ken Burns fi:Ken Burns sv:Ken Burns

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	Joshua Redman
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
born	February 01, 1969Berkeley, CaliforniaUnited States
instrument	Saxophone
genre	Jazz
occupation	Musician, Composer
label	Warner Bros., Nonesuch
associated acts	Joshua Redman Quartet Yaya3 James Farm
website	Joshua Redman James Farm }}

Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.

Biography

Redman, who is both African American and Jewish American, was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. He was exposed to many kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, where his mother studied South Indian dance. Some of his earliest lessons in music and improvisation were on recorder with gamelan player Jody Diamond. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, the Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music.

He graduated from Berkeley High School, class of 1986, after having been a part of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble for all 4 years of high school.

In 1991, he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society. He had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. Some of his friends (former students at the Berklee College of Music whom Joshua had met while in Boston) had recently relocated to Brooklyn, and they were looking for another housemate to help with the rent. Redman accepted their invitation to move in, and almost immediately he found himself immersed in the New York jazz scene. He began jamming and gigging regularly with some of the leading jazz musicians of his generation: Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings, Kevin Hays, Roy Hargrove, Geoff Keezer, Leon Parker, Jorge Rossy and Mark Turner (to name just a few).

Redman won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991, and began focusing on his musical career. Now fully committed to a life in music, Redman was quickly signed by Warner Bros. Records and issued his first, self-titled album in the spring of 1993, which subsequently earned Redman his first Grammy nomination. Redman continued to develop his style throughout the 1990s, beginning with a sideman appearance on Elvin Jones' ''Youngblood'' alongside Javon Jackson (recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in April 1991), and following up with an appearance on his father Dewey's 1992 record ''Choices''. On his second album as a leader, ''Wish'', he was joined by a notable lineup consisting of guitarist Pat Metheny, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins; he would later tour this album as ''The Joshua Redman Quartet'', featuring Christian McBride in place of Charlie Haden. He continued to work with various quartets, including one with pianist Brad Mehldau until forming a new trio, ''Elastic'', with keyboardist Sam Yahel and drummer Brian Blade. The trio debuted under the moniker ''Yaya3'', producing one album under this name. The same group of musicians made up the core on Redman's ''Elastic'' album, before becoming known as the ''Joshua Redman Elastic Band''. Some of his works were featured on The Weather Channel's ''Local On The 8s''.

In 1994, Redman appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, appearing on a track titled "The Scream" along side Us3 and Tony Remy. The album was named "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine. He also appeared as a member of the "Louisiana Gator Boys" in the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000.

In 2000, Redman was named Artistic Director for the Spring Season of the non-profit jazz-presenting organization SFJAZZ. Redman and SFJAZZ Executive Director Randall Kline had an idea that The New York Times called a “eureka moment”; the creation of the SFJAZZ Collective, an ensemble distinguished both by the creativity of its members and a unique primary emphasis on composition. Inaugurated in 2004, the eight-piece band consists of a multi-generational cast of accomplished musicians. The Collective’s repertoire features both commissioned works and new arrangements of the work of great modern jazz composers. In March 2007, Redman announced that he was taking a hiatus from both the SFJAZZ Artistic Directorship and the SFJAZZ Collective in order to focus on new projects.

Redman has made a guest appearance on an episode of the TV show ''Arthur'' as the uncle of Francine, one of the main characters. The episode also depicts him in a boxing match against classic cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He also appeared on ''Reading Rainbow'', episode 127 "Hip-Cat", in which Redman discussed with host LeVar Burton the importance of music and how jazz had affected his life, which he followed with a live performance. Redman also performed on the soundtrack of the made for TV film "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story" (1995).

Redman has also appeared on recordings and in live performances by Umphrey's McGee.

In April 2007, Nonesuch released Redman’s first ever piano-less trio record, ''Back East'', featuring Joshua alongside three bass and drum rhythm sections (Larry Grenadier & Ali Jackson, Christian McBride & Brian Blade, Reuben Rogers & Eric Harland) and three guest saxophonists (Chris Cheek, Joe Lovano and Dewey Redman). His January 2009 release, ''Compass'', continues the trio tradition, and even includes some tracks with a double-trio set-up, featuring saxophone, two basses, and two drummers.

Starting in late 2009, Joshua Redman began performing with a new collaborative band called James Farm, featuring pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland. They released their first album on April 26, 2011.

Redman was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

Discography

As leader

!align=left1993 1993 1994 1994 199519961998200020012002200520072009

Title !!width=100|Year of Release!!Label||
align=left	''Joshua Redman''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Wish''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Moodswing''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Joshua Redman Captured Live''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Spirit of the Moment - Live at the Village Vanguard''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Freedom in the Groove''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Timeless Tales for Changing Times''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Beyond''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Passage of Time''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Elastic''	|	Warner Bros.
align=left	''Momentum''	|	Nonesuch
align=left	''Back East''	|	Nonesuch
align=left	''Compass''	|	Nonesuch

With James Farm

''James Farm'' (2011, Nonesuch Records)

As sideman

With Jonny King

''Notes from the Underground'' (1996, Enja Records)

With Joe Lovano

''Tenor Legacy'' (Blue Note, 1993)

With Christian McBride

''Gettin' To It'' (1993)

With Brad Mehldau

''Highway Rider'' (2010, Nonesuch)

With Paul Motian

''Paul Motian and the Electric Bebop Band'' (JMT, 1993)

With Dewey Redman

''Choices'' (Enja, 1992)

''African Venus'' (Evidence, 1992)

With Kurt Rosenwinkel

''Deep Song'' (2005)

References

External links

Official website

(New England Jazz History Database) Worcester Magazine - "Joshua Redman Launches City Jazz Fest" by Chet Williamson

Category:African American musicians Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists Category:American jazz soprano saxophonists Category:Soul-jazz saxophonists Category:Jazz fusion saxophonists Category:Jazz-funk saxophonists Category:Mainstream jazz saxophonists Category:Jazz saxophonists Category:Jews in the African diaspora Category:People from Berkeley, California Category:Harvard University alumni Category:American Jews Category:1969 births Category:Living people

da:Joshua Redman de:Joshua Redman es:Joshua Redman fr:Joshua Redman ko:조슈아 레드맨 id:Joshua Redman it:Joshua Redman he:ג'ושוע רדמן nl:Joshua Redman ja:ジョシュア・レッドマン no:Joshua Redman nn:Joshua Redman pl:Joshua Redman