Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. With an illustrious career spanning five decades and 14 Grammy Awards, he has transcended limitations and genres while maintaining his unmistakable voice. Few artists have had more influence on acoustic and electronic jazz and R&B than Herbie Hancock. As the immortal Miles Davis said in his autobiography, “Herbie was the step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”

Born in Chicago, Herbie was a piano prodigy who performed a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He began playing jazz in high school, and in 1960, was discovered by trumpeter Donald Byrd. Two years later he signed with Blue Note Records as a solo artist. His 1963 debut Takin’ Off was an immediate success, producing the hit “Watermelon Man.” That year, Miles Davis invited Herbie to join the Miles Davis Quintet, where he played for five years.

His solo career blossomed on Blue Note, with classic albums and a successful career in feature film and television music. After leaving Davis, Herbie put together a new band called The Headhunters and, in 1973, recorded Head Hunters, the first jazz album to go platinum. By mid-decade, Herbie was playing for stadium-sized crowds all over the world and had no fewer than four albums in the pop charts at once.

In 1980, he introduced trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to the world as a solo artist, producing his debut album and touring with him, as well. Herbie won an Oscar in 1986 for scoring the film ‘Round Midnight, in which he also appeared as an actor. The legendary Headhunters reunited in 1998, recording an album for Herbie’s own Verve-distributed imprint, and touring with the Dave Matthews Band. That year also marked the recording and release of Gershwin’s World, which won three Grammys.

Today, Herbie Hancock maintains a thriving career outside the performing stage and recording studio. Recently named by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Creative Chair for Jazz, he currently also serves as Institute Chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, the foremost international organization devoted to the development of jazz performance and education worldwide.

He is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, a Kennedy Center honoree, 2014’s Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University and has been awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 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. Though one can’t track exactly where he will go next, he is sure to leave his inimitable imprint wherever he lands.