Music isn't about music, it's about life.
Herbie HancockRead
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.
Interpretation
Herbie Hancock emphasizes the importance of flexibility and the influence of diverse musical experiences beyond a singular genre.
In this quote, Herbie Hancock reflects on his musical journey, acknowledging his roots in jazz while simultaneously expressing a desire for artistic freedom beyond the confines of a single genre. He highlights the foundational role that jazz played in his development, indicating that while it shaped him, he values the ability to explore and innovate in various musical styles without being pigeonholed.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of artistic diversity and growth.
Music isn't about music, it's about life.
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.
I think people have learned that Herbie Hancock can be defined as someone that you won't be able to figure out what he's going to do next. The sky is the limit as far as I'm concerned.
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.
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.
It's easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn't. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.
Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art.
I've always been interested in photographs, collecting them not systematically but randomly. They get lost, then turn up again.
The science of design, or of line-drawing, if you like to use this term, is the source and very essence of painting, sculpture, architecture... Sometimes... it seems to me that... all the works of the human brain and hand are either design itself or a branch of that art.
Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.
When I was a child, I used to paint intently. The older I become, and the closer death approaches, the brighter my life gets day by day.
There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.
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