VOICES FOR THE AMAZON
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herbie hancock

ARTIST FOR THE AMAZON

Testimonial

One needs to step into the deep jungles of the planet and listen to the overwhelming symphonic song to understand the great and intricate interwoven web of life. Each of the diverse species within the forest is gifted with its own song, unique in its own arrangement of rhythm, melody and pattern. Together these individuals comprise a stunning primordial improvisation of beautiful sounds. We are all connected in some way.

Since the beginning of time humans have been inspired by nature. Between 30,000 and 60,000 years ago our species started creating music and art. The line and colors and the rhythms and melodies of the natural world are our template and inspiration. Whether it is the artist whose palette can be seen on the wings of birds, or the song that echoes the melancholic howling from beneath the silver moon, there is no new sound or rhythm that cannot be found in nature.

Scientists suggest that the Amazon began to emerge 10 million years ago. Now what has taken millions of years to create, a place teeming with life and beauty, is being destroyed at a rapid pace. Some experts have said that at the current rate of destruction, the Amazon could be gone in 40 years.

Can you imagine a world without natural beauty? Help protect the Amazon.

About Herbie Hancock

Now in the sixth decade of his professional life, Herbie Hancock remains where he has always been: in the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music. In addition to being recognized as a legendary pianist and composer, Herbie Hancock has been an integral part of every popular music movement since the 1960’s.  During his tenure as a member of the Miles Davis Quintet that pioneered a groundbreaking, more expansive sound and direction in jazz, he also developed new approaches on his own recordings, followed by his work in the 70s – with record-breaking  albums such as “Headhunters” – that combined electric jazz with funk and rock in an innovative style that continues to influence contemporary music to this day. “Rockit” and “Future Shock” marked Hancock’s foray into electronic dance music and included several chart-topping hits; during the same period he also continued to work in an acoustic setting with V.S.O.P., which included ex-Miles Davis bandmates Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

Hancock received an Academy Award for his Round Midnight film score and 14 Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for “River:  The Joni Letters,” and two 2011 Grammy Awards for the recently released globally collaborative CD, “The Imagine Project.” Many of his compositions, including “Canteloupe Island,” “Maiden Voyage,” “Watermelon Man” and “Chameleon,” are modern standards that have had a profound effect on all styles of contemporary music.

Herbie Hancock also maintains a thriving career outside the performing stage and recording studio. He is the Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, and serves as Institute Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the foremost international organization devoted to the development of jazz performance and education worldwide. Hancock is a founder of The International Committee of Artists for Peace (ICAP), and was recently given the “Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres” by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon – the internationally esteemed Arts Award.

In 2007, Hancock recorded and released ‘River: The Joni Letters’, a tribute to longtime friend and collaborator Joni Mitchell featuring Wayne Shorter (fellow Artist for the Amazon member), guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Dave Holland and drummer

In 2011 Hancock was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.   Recognizing Herbie Hancock’s “dedication to the promotion of peace through dialogue, culture and the arts,” the Director-General  asked the celebrated jazz musician “to contribute to UNESCO’s efforts to promote mutual understanding among cultures with a particular emphasis on fostering the emergence of new and creative ideas amongst youth, to find solutions to global problems, as well as ensuring equal access to the diversity of artistic expressions.”

In December of 2013, Hancock was the recipient of a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2014 he was was named the 2014 Norton Professor Of Poetry at Harvard University,  completing his lectures series,  “The Ethics Of Jazz,” as part of the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture Series for a period of six weeks.   His memoirs, Herbie Hancock:  Possibilities, were published  by Viking in 2014, and in February 2016 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.   A member of The American  Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hancock is currently in the studio at work on a new album.

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