Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award and Grammy award-winning American jazz pianist and composer. He embraced elements of rock, funk, and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz.
As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. Later, he was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk. Yet for all his restless experimentalism, Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieve success among pop audiences.
Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaria), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the single "Rockit." His 2007 tribute album, "River: The Joni Letters" won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award.
Thrust is a Herbie Hancock fusion album released in 1974. It served as a follow up to Herbie's 1973 album Head Hunters, and achieved similar commercial success, as the album reached as high as number 13 on the Billboard Hot 200 LP listing. The lineup for Thrust is Herbie Hancock on keys, Bennie Maupin on reeds, Paul Jackson on the electric bass, Bill Summers on percussion, and Mike Clark on drums. This is the same lineup as on Head Hunters, except Mike Clark replaced Harvey Mason on drums.
"Butterfly" would subsequently be performed on a live album, Flood, and two more studio releases: Direct Step and Dis Is Da Drum.
Tags: Jazz rock Fussion Prog Progressive