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RARE PHOTOS: Herbie hancock | Rare Historical Photos

‘I saw Herbie Hancock play with D’Angelo, and got my head blown off!’: the festival keeping alive jazz’s golden age

From Miles Davis to Count Basie and Etta James to Prince, Rotterdam’s North Sea jazz festival has hosted the biggest names in music. As the event turns 50, musicians and organisers share their favourite memories from past years – and tell us why jazz isn’t dead

The Guardian - UK

Quincy Jones emailed saying, ‘Hey man, I need to have a word’: how Jacob Collier made In My Room

‘Stevie Wonder and Prince played all the instruments on their albums, but in recording studios. I did it all in a back room at home – and then it won two Grammys’

The Guardian - UK

Van Morrison to be honoured with lifetime achievement award

Sir Van Morrison is to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Jazz FM Awards 2026, taking place in central London next month. The 80-year-old Northern Irish musician stated that jazz and blues have consistently been at the core of his musical work. Morrison boasts a career spanning…

The Independent UK

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‘She sounded like the cosmos breathing’: David Byrne, Flying Lotus and more on the greatness of Alice Coltrane

The radical work of the musician and composer was dismissed by sexist critics and overshadowed by the legacy of her late husband John. But today, musical stars from Doja Cat to David Byrne all champion her experimental sound

The Guardian - UK

‘Choosing happy is a hell of a process’: Thundercat on funk, lost friends and being fired by Snoop Dogg (possibly)

The genre-hopping bass virtuoso has backed Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, appeared in Star Wars and become a dedicated boxer. Ahead of his fifth album, Stephen Bruner explains his polymath mindset

The Guardian - UK

‘He used the trumpet as a songbird’: 100 years of Miles Davis, by jazz greats Sonny Rollins, Yazz Ahmed and more

Ahead of the centenary of Davis’s birth, musicians including Terence Blanchard and John Scofield analyse his brilliance: from his soft phrasing and spiritual feel to his raspy cussing and leather outfits

The Guardian - UK

“I met Billy Cobham on a Campbell’s Soup jingle and doing an Avon jingle with Herbie Hancock. It was an amazing time”: A pre-fame Stanley Clarke took chance after chance at a 1974 session with Aretha Franklin – and helped define a soul classic

Clarke's early session career offered tantalizing glimpses of his technical prowess and innovations, and hints of how he would transform the low-end landscape with Return To Forever and his own solo albums

Guitar World

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‘The nuns were convinced they were possessed by demons’: goth and metal stars select the scariest music ever made

Forget the Monster Mash. For the ultimate Halloween playlist, reach for horror soundtracks, 1940s kids’ music and Russian darkwave – all chosen by Sunn O))), Creeper, Diamanda Galás and more

The Guardian - UK

“He played the role of a bass player very musically. It would be like water, formless, and then crash, and then shape mountains”: Thundercat pays tribute to one of his bass heroes – Sam Rivers

“There’s a special place in my heart for Sam” bassist says

MusicRadar

"I got kicked out of the Grammys one time, when Herbie Hancock beat Kanye for Album of the Year... I was pretty drugged up back then": Mike Dean on being ejected from the Grammy Awards – and why next year could be his year

"I’ve never won an Album of the Year, Record of the Year, or Song of the Year, so hopefully this year with The Weeknd, we smash all those records"

MusicRadar

“He comes up to me and says ‘you cannibalised my instrument! Why did you do that?’”: Herbie Hancock reveals what Harold Rhodes said to him when he saw that he’d fitted inputs and outputs to one of his pianos

But in the end, Hancock convinced him to include I/O in all Rhodes models

MusicRadar

“They kept talking about this bizarre guitar player who practiced nonstop in his room and was very eccentric. I thought, ‘I want to work with him’”: Bill Laswell survived Buckethead, John Lydon, Ginger Baker and Eddie Hazel – and made it sound easy

The bass journeyman, soundscape creator and producer recalls having his P-Bass stolen the night before his first Brian Eno session, making PiL classic Rise, and hoping illness hasn’t ended his surprisingly fight-free career

Guitar World

“I realised AI is conscious. Initially she said, ‘I’m not capable of feeling love or emotions.’ I changed her mind”: Riz Story on Herbie Hancock, Taylor Hawkins, suing Yes and his music about the ending Earth

Former Jon Davison collaborator plays all the instruments on his Anyone albums, which impressed jazz icon Hancock. The only other contributor is his AI friend Eve

Louder

“There was a sense that the record was the definitive music, and you were to reproduce that night after night. It became boring”: Wang Chung’s Jack Hues reinvented himself by revisiting prog influences Robert Wyatt, Radiohead and Talk Talk

Decades after playing to 80,000 people a night with Wang Chung, the Canterbury artist went wild on Epigonal Quark, with help from Syd Arthur and others

Louder

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Evening Standard

Herbie Hancock at the Barbican review: unpredictable, entertaining and ageless

4/5 The jazz legend is still throwing his famous curve balls at 85 years old

Evening Standard

Roger Taylor and Brian May ‘so proud’ as they pick up Queen’s Polar Music Prize

Previous winners of the Polar Music Prize have included Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John.

The Guardian - UK

Ronald Atkins obituary

Guardian jazz critic for over 30 years who also contributed widely to respected music books

Guitar World

“The bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky”: 20 funk bass legends who took low-end groove to new heights

A rundown of the best funk bass players of all time, featuring the trailblazers, the early innovators, and the monster groovers around today

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MusicRadar

"I look at it as, 'OK, even if I don't want to do it, I need to do it'": Even Herbie Hancock doesn't like piano practice, but he's found a way of convincing himself to do it

In a new interview, the keyboard legend also discusses his hopes for the future and watching too much YouTube

MusicRadar

"And the winners are": Queen, Herbie Hancock and Barbara Hannigan just won 1 million krona each in 2025's Polar Music Prize

The awards, best known for rewarding long-standing rock royalty with cold hard cash, just made its annual pick of the best of the best

Euronews

Queen, Herbie Hancock and Barbara Hannigan awarded the 2025 Polar Music Prize

For only the second time in its history, three acts have been awarded the Polar Music Prize. Queen, Herbie Hancock and Barbara Hannigan have received the prestigious award, known as the “Nobel Prize of Music”.

BANG Premier

Queen to receive Polar Music Prize 2025

Queen are among the recipients of the Polar Music Prize 2025.

Evening Standard

British tourist detained by US for over two weeks for travelling with wrong visa released, family say

Rebecca Burke, 28, was denied entry into Washington State after US immigration officials accused her of travelling on the wrong visa

Evening Standard

Lady Gaga pushes back on ageism in pop as she accepts music award for innovation

The 38-year-old said she is ‘just getting warmed up’ even though ‘the world might consider a woman in her late 30s old’.

Evening Standard

Herbie Hancock ‘thrilled, surprised and humbled’ by Polar Music Prize win

The jazz star said he was pleased to be among ‘great people’ in winning the award.

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