April 12, 1940
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1947
Hancock begins taking piano lessons.
1951
Hancock performs at a young people’s concert with the Chicago Symphony.
1960
Hancock leaves Grinnell College and moves back to Chicago. He then joins trumpet player Donald Byrd’s band and moves to New York.
1963
Hancock records debut album, Takin’ Off, featuring “Watermelon Man.” Later that year he joins Miles Davis’s band.
1968
Hancock marries Gudrun Meixner. Davis replaces Hancock with Chick Corea.
1970s
Hancock, increasingly drawn to electronic jazz and funk, uses synthesizers and other electronics.
1973
Hancock’s album Headhunters is first jazz album to go platinum. It features hit single “Chameleon.”
1980
Hancock produces Wynton Marsalis’s debut album and tours with him.
1986
Hancock wins an Oscar for scoring the film ’Round Midnight.
1998
Hancock records Gershwin’s World, which wins three Grammys in 1999.
2005
Hancock records Possibilities in collaboration with many famous artists.
2007
Hancock records River: The Joni Letters, featuring jazz treatments of the music of Joni Mitchell.
2009
Hancock performs at the concert opening the inaugural activities for President Barack Obama.