Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock emerged as one of the great pianists of the post-bop era while supporting Miles Davis. By the ’70s, Hancock was a respected solo artist and leader of the jazz-fusion movement, recording the 1973 masterwork Head Hunters and continuing to explore new electro-jazz sounds through the 1980s, when he fused R&B, funk and hip-hop together on his 1983 hit “Rockit,” one of the first major singles to use turntable scratches. In the decades since, he’s returned to more traditional jazz sounds, but he’s still capable of grand ambition. His most recent major work was 2010’s The Imagine Project, an expansive, world music-inspired album that featured collaborations with John Legend, P!nk, Dave Matthews, Chaka Khan, The Chieftains and many African musicians.