Herbie Hancock Jazz Quotes & Sayings

My first Grammy wasn't even in a jazz category, but of course I was really excited. 'Rockit' was the beginning of kind of a new era for the whole hip-hop movement. — Herbie Hancock

The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental. — Herbie Hancock

Jazz is about being in the moment. — Herbie Hancock

I know Mother named me after a railroad man, but it's too late now, I'm afraid. Much, much too late. — Hoagy Carmichael

I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time. — Herbie Hancock

Jazz is really about the human experience. It's about the ability of human beings to take the worst of circumstances and struggles and turn it into something creative and constructive. That's something that's built into the fiber of every human being. And I think that's why people can respond to it. They feel the freedom in it. And the attributes of jazz are also admirable. It's about dialogue. It's about sharing. And teamwork. It's in the moment, and it's nonjudgmental. — Herbie Hancock

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing. — Herbie Hancock

I love nineties stuff like Alice in Chains and Nine Inch Nails. It'd be my dream to have a Radiohead-themed episode of 'Glee.' I also love jazz greats like Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Herbie Hancock. — Mark Salling

When a human being is oppressed, the natural tendency is to feel anger. Jazz is a response to oppression that is not bullets and blood. Jazz is the expression of harmony ... and at the same time of hope and freedom. — Herbie Hancock

I think I was supposed to play jazz. — Herbie Hancock

A year of hell is worth three minutes in heaven. Or so they say. — Kim Harrison

Life is a journey, photography is thy shepherd. — Destin Sparks

Humiliation scars deeper than the lash. — Tobsha Learner

It's not easy to play in a framework that requires simplicity and to tastefully find ways to interject the kind of freedom that we have in playing jazz. — Herbie Hancock

On the throne of the world, any delusion can become fact. — Gore Vidal

The function of music is to liberate in the soul those feelings which normally we keep locked up in the heart. — Sebastian Faulks

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people. — Herbie Hancock

We're witches - of course the house is haunted. But — Deborah Harkness

One of the greatest attributes of jazz, I think, is that it is that open. — Herbie Hancock

I don't mind being classified as a jazz artist, but I do mind being restricted to being a jazz artist. My foundation has been in jazz, though I didn't really start out that way. I started in classical music, but my formative years were in jazz, and it makes a great foundation. — Herbie Hancock

When you shoot nude, you always find a way to, like, cover yourself up in a way. So you really don't feel like you're truly naked because you're still covering yourself. — Ronda Rousey

I spent five years, at least, working with Miles. Together, we recorded ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer
and I can tell you; each of these albums instantly became jazz classics. Hey, we had Wayne Shorter playing tenor sax, Ron [Carter] on bass, Tony Williams played drums. That was great band we had. — Herbie Hancock

Jazz to me is the spirit of freedom. I mean real freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to express. Freedom to pour out your guts. — Herbie Hancock

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

I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences and moved by the story about the irrevocability of lost love. — Tom Perrotta

One of the most important functions of jazz has been to encourage a hope for freedom, for people living in situations of intolerance or struggle. — Herbie Hancock

I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music. — Herbie Hancock

In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered. — Herbie Hancock

Oscar Peterson is the greatest living influence on jazz pianists today. — Herbie Hancock

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners. — Herbie Hancock

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness. — Herbie Hancock

There are a lot of records coming out, in every field of music, not just jazz. — Herbie Hancock

Books educate people and educated people ask awkward questions of those who govern them. The educated, in short, are considered ungovernable. Better to keep people ignorant of the past and to concentrate their minds on the utopia that lies ahead. — The Economist

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since. — Herbie Hancock

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

It's funny that because a lot of old jazz is being sampled now, you are finding a lot of young kids, a lot of scenesters and clubgoers, who are getting praise, laurels and dates with women because they listen to people like Herbie Hancock. In my day, listening to Herbie Hancock would have gotten you beaten up. — Brett Milano

Jazz has been the voice of freedom for so many countries over the past half century, — Herbie Hancock

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music. — Herbie Hancock

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