Music isn't about music, it's about life.
Herbie HancockRead
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.
Interpretation
Herbie Hancock's unpredictable creativity illustrates that there are no limits to what one can achieve.
This quote by Herbie Hancock encapsulates the idea that true success and creativity are characterized by unpredictability and boundless potential. It suggests that rather than conforming to expectations, an individual can continuously evolve and surprise, indicating that there are no ceilings to what one can accomplish.
In practice
In a motivational speech to young musicians, this quote can inspire them to embrace their unique path.
Music isn't about music, it's about life.
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.
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.
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.
You will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses.
I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results.
If you don't sell, it's not the product that's wrong, it's you.
I want to be remembered as part of the group of the greatest players ever.
One of the benefits of playing to small audiences in small clubs for a few years is that you're allowed to fail.
Leave bands, go back to obscurity if I choose to, without a great sense of loss of security because it's all been based on the fact that I did it on my own or was doing, enjoying doing it on my own in the first place.
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