Herbie Hancock

Virginia Arts Festival

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. Herbie Hancock 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.

Hancock received an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for "River: The Joni Letters," and two 2011 Grammy Awards for the globally collaborative CD, "The Imagine Project."

Hancock serves as Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and as Institute Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. In 2011 Hancock was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and in December of 2013, received a Kennedy Center Honor. His memoir, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, was published by Viking in 2014, and in February 2016 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Hancock is currently in the studio at work on a new album.