Herbie Hancock

One of modern jazz music's true game-changers, pianist, composer and bandleader Herbie Hancock continually helped to redefine the genre by embracing a broad variety of styles and new technology, while still retaining his traditional roots. A former child prodigy, Hancock evolved into a first-rate adult musician when he became both an integral member of Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet and a key signing of the Blue Note label, where he recorded dozens of sessions as a sideman and a string of influential solo LPs which pioneered the post-bop style. Hancock went onto form several of his own forward-thinking backing bands, release a ground-breaking trilogy which introduced the jazz world to synths, and cross over to the MTV generation with a number of pop-oriented hits and attention-grabbing videos. Hancock maintained his impossible-to-pigeonhole reputation throughout the 80s and 90s by tackling everything from Oscar-winning film scores to the standards of Ira and George Gershwin. But it was in the 21st Century where he achieved his commercial peak thanks to various high-profile collaborative records and an Album of the Year Grammy-winning tribute to Joni Mitchell.