Top 154 Quotes & Sayings by Herbie Hancock - Page 3

I don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.

People are afraid to spend money now because they dont know how long theyre going to be working.

You can change your character and, at the same time, change your fortune.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in.So, I'm concerned about peace.I'm concerned about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

We can all be ourselves, be true to ourselves, and all be together.

Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. That's hard for a lot of people to do. They feel a lot more secure if they kind of put walls around themselves. Then they don't have to trust anybody but themselves. But to allow you to trust not only yourself but trust others means - is what's required to be vulnerable, and to have that kind of trust takes courage.

I never dreamed I would be a Goodwill Ambassador, and for UNESCO. Perfect organization. It is apolitical and it's about education, science and culture. I mean that is what I live. That is what UNESCO is really about; it's all about bringing human beings together with one common goal, which is to move human kind forward.

Wisdom is the key to understanding the age, creating the time.

You can expand, repeat, even change keys and do other things electronically to give certain elements and phrases more cohesiveness.

If you're not judging what happens, then you're trusting what others are doing, what you're playing, and trusting what you're playing.And it can lead you to other ideas, to something maybe you hadn't expressed before.

I keep recycling and repackaging music that I've done in the past, as though I can't write anymore. Like, okay, I'm done with that. But I need to kind of prod myself again into come on, Herbie, get off your duff and start writing some new music.

Fact is that I played piano and performed, as a young kid, a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . Don't forget I was only eleven-years-old and to be on the stage at that age had tremendous impact on me. Basically love for classical music and performing as a kid on the big stage probably led toward this decision, which meant that music is going to be my big love but also my profession.

So in other words, we were constantly challenged to grow, and thats what a master does.

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

Jazz has been the voice of freedom for so many countries over the past half century.

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

I have to care and I have to be honest and have the courage to be vulnerable. If that happens, then that's the best I can do. To just be a puppet for the audience is not very courageous. Just to do whatever they say they want - because a lot of times people will hear something new that they hadn't heard before and get turned on by a new experience and will want to hear more of that.

I don't look at music from the standpoint of being a musician; I look at it from the standpoint of being a human being.

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

Technology has developed to a whole other level and theres the scientist part of me that loves that stuff.

There's so much spontaneity involved, what do you practice? How do you practice teamwork? How do you practice sharing? How do you practice daring? How do you practice being nonjudgmental?

So I didn't actually change my name the way some people did.

When I was young I used to listen to everything.

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

I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.

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.

It might be something as simple as saying the right word to the right person at the right time-and that could change the course of history. You never really know. But the whole thing is to work at the process of being in sync with the universe, so that everything will align at the proper time so that you can deliver that which is your life mission. And that's why we're here as individuals. And then there's our contribution to the collective. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

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.

The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.

Like no matter what happens, this would be the ultimate, they can make something positive happen.

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

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

The first thing I ever heard about synthesizers, they were being used in rock.

Wisdom corresponds to the future; it is philosophy.