Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer who was 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.

His best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man", "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.

Hancock has releasedf forty-one studio albums, twelve live albums, sixty-two compilation albums, five soundtrack albums, thirty-eight physical singles, nine promo singles and four songs not released as singles, but that charted due downloads.

His first solo album was Takin' Off, released in 1962, with the single "Watermelon Man". That was followed by the albums Empyrean Isles in 1964 and Maiden Voyage in 1965. Hancock also began a career as composer for film and television soundtracks, beginning with Blow-Up in 1966. He released his R&B-oriented Fat Albert Rotunda in 1969 and the electronic-oriented Mwandishi in 1971 and Crossings in 1972.

Hancock would release sixteen studio albums between the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. Head Hunters was released in 1973 which peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and became the best-selling jazz album in history. The album featured Hancock's first mainstream hit, "Chameleon". Other albums that followed were Thrust in 1974 and Man-Child in 1975. In 1978, Hancock added disco influences with "I Thought It Was You" in 1978, "You Bet Your Love" in 1979 and "Tell Everybody" in 1979.

In 1983, Hancock released Future Shock, which featured his biggest hit single, "Rockit", the first jazz hip-hop song in history. It reached the top 10 in several countries and Hancock won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. The album also featured the mainstream hit "Autodrive". Sound-System was released in 1984 and won the Grammy Award in the same category of "Rockit", making Hancock the first solo artist to win in this category for two consecutive years.

Hancock released Dis Is da Drum in 1994 followed by several albums of duets, covers and tributes, such as Gershwin's World in 1998, Possibilities in 2005 and River: The Joni Letters in 2007.