Presented by Virginia Arts Festival. Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations, he has transcended limi-tations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. With an illustrious career spanning five decades and 14 Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, he continues to amaze audiences across the globe.
Now in the seventh decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remains where he has always been: at the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music. He has been an integral part of every popular music movement since the 1960’s. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet that pioneered a groundbreaking sound in jazz, he also developed new approaches on his own recordings, followed by his work in the 70s — with record-breaking albums such as “Headhunters” — that combined electric jazz with funk and rock in an innovative style that continues to influence contemporary music. “Rockit” and “Future Shock” marked Hancock’s foray into electronic dance sounds; during the same period, he also continued to work in an acoustic setting with V.S.O.P. His astonishing 34 Grammy nominations, spanning from the late ‘60s to the 2000s, attest to his unquenchable genius and enduring popularity with fans.
Still actively touring, still recording, endlessly engaged in the near-spiritual quest that music has become for him, Hancock has earned the title bestowed on him by The Washington Post: “today’s greatest living artist.”
Photo credit: Danny Clinch