Illinois State Society of Washington, DC

Illinois Hall of Fame: Mel Torme

By Mark Rhoads

Mel Torme was one of the best American male jazz singers and composers of the 20th Century. He wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs including a Christmastime standard that opens with the lyrics "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." It was recorded by fellow Chicagoan Nat King Cole in 1946.  He was also a movie star, radio and TV star, and an author.

Notwithstanding his fame for seasonal songs of Christmas, Mel Torme was born on the south side of Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants on Sept. 23, 1925.  From about the age of four he was recognized as a child prodigy. While barely in grade school he was singing as a child star for the Coon Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk Restaurant at 139 N. Wabash.

Mel was only age seven in 1933 when he won a talent competition for child singers at the Century of Progress World's Fair.  The competition led to his work as a child star on two of the most famous radio serials of the time, The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

By Mark Rhoads

Mel Torme was one of the best American male jazz singers and composers of the 20th Century. He wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs including a Christmastime standard that opens with the lyrics "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." It was recorded by fellow Chicagoan Nat King Cole in 1946.  He was also a movie star, radio and TV star, and an author.

Notwithstanding his fame for seasonal songs of Christmas, Mel Torme was born on the south side of Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants on Sept. 23, 1925.  From about the age of four he was recognized as a child prodigy. While barely in grade school he was singing as a child star for the Coon Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk Restaurant at 139 N. Wabash.

Mel was only age seven in 1933 when he won a talent competition for child singers at the Century of Progress World's Fair.  The competition led to his work as a child star on two of the most famous radio serials of the time, The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Eric Ruske

By Mark Rhoads

Eric Ruske is rated by most international music critics as the best French Horn player in the world.  Eric was born in Chicago in 1963 and raised in La Grange where he attended public schools. He graduated from Lyons Township High School in 1981.

At the age of 20, Eric was an associate principal horn player with the Cleveland Orchestra. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1985 and toured in Europe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  In 1988 he captured the highest prize in the Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in France. He has performed as a soloist with the Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee symphonies, the Boston Pops, the Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. His recitals have been heard at the University ofillinois, Stanford University, the University of Iowa, and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, as well as a pair of recitals at the Louvre in Paris. In addition, he has also performed with the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv and made an appearance with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinborough. Eric's has two CDs to his credit called Night Poems and Mozart Horn Concerti.

By Mark Rhoads

Eric Ruske is rated by most international music critics as the best French Horn player in the world.  Eric was born in Chicago in 1963 and raised in La Grange where he attended public schools. He graduated from Lyons Township High School in 1981.

At the age of 20, Eric was an associate principal horn player with the Cleveland Orchestra. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1985 and toured in Europe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  In 1988 he captured the highest prize in the Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in France. He has performed as a soloist with the Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee symphonies, the Boston Pops, the Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. His recitals have been heard at the University ofillinois, Stanford University, the University of Iowa, and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, as well as a pair of recitals at the Louvre in Paris. In addition, he has also performed with the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv and made an appearance with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinborough. Eric's has two CDs to his credit called Night Poems and Mozart Horn Concerti.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Miles Davis

By Mark Rhoads

Miles Davis is found on any short list of great jazz musicians in the 20th Century.  He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Miles was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He grew up mostly in East St. Louis from 1927 to 1944 and attended local schools.  Miles was from a relatively well-off family.  His father Dr. Miles Henry Davis was a dentist and the family also owned a ranch. His mother was Cleota Henry Davis who was a blues pianist. She wanted Miles to study classical music and the violin. But at age 13, Dr. Davis gave Miles a trumpet and arranged for a local music teacher and trumpet player Elwood Buchanan to teach Miles a variety of musical styles that embraced classical, dance music, and jazz.

During his high school years, Miles had diverse musical experiences.  He studied trumpet with members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.  Miles was also hired for a three-week temporary job to play third trumpet with Billy Eckstein's band when Billy was on tour in southern Illinois and Missouri in 1944.  He met trumpet legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie ("Bird") Parker who were with the band.  In the fall of 1944, Miles left Illinois for New York to attend the famous Julliard School of Music on a scholarship.  But his real goal was to get back together with Gillespie and Parker to play, write, and arrange jazz compositions. 

By Mark Rhoads

Miles Davis is found on any short list of great jazz musicians in the 20th Century.  He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Miles was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He grew up mostly in East St. Louis from 1927 to 1944 and attended local schools.  Miles was from a relatively well-off family.  His father Dr. Miles Henry Davis was a dentist and the family also owned a ranch. His mother was Cleota Henry Davis who was a blues pianist. She wanted Miles to study classical music and the violin. But at age 13, Dr. Davis gave Miles a trumpet and arranged for a local music teacher and trumpet player Elwood Buchanan to teach Miles a variety of musical styles that embraced classical, dance music, and jazz.

During his high school years, Miles had diverse musical experiences.  He studied trumpet with members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.  Miles was also hired for a three-week temporary job to play third trumpet with Billy Eckstein's band when Billy was on tour in southern Illinois and Missouri in 1944.  He met trumpet legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie ("Bird") Parker who were with the band.  In the fall of 1944, Miles left Illinois for New York to attend the famous Julliard School of Music on a scholarship.  But his real goal was to get back together with Gillespie and Parker to play, write, and arrange jazz compositions. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Burl Ives

By Mark Rhoads

Burl Ives was an Academy Award-winning actor, a musician, a composer, folk signer, and author. More than eleven years after his death, millions of younger Americans who do not know his name or movie roles nevertheless cannot avoid hearing his voice on radio every Christmas season singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Holly Jolly Christmas, and other holiday classics.

He was born June 14, 1909 one of six children of Scots-Irish heritage.  They all lived on a farm in Hunt City Township of Jasper County in southeast Illinois. Then as now, Hunt City Township was one of the most rural townships in Illinois. Today there are fewer than 400 residents in 128 housing units in thirty-six square miles.

A local official once said "Hunt City Township is not near anything." But if it were near a larger place, that place would likely be Effingham to the northwest if you first went through Newton. In high school Burl played football and played the guitar.  He graduated from Newton High School in 1927 and enrolled at Eastern Illinois Teacher's College at Charleston where he also played football and guitar. The school is now called Eastern Illinois University and Ives is one of the school's most famous alumni.

By Mark Rhoads

Burl Ives was an Academy Award-winning actor, a musician, a composer, folk signer, and author. More than eleven years after his death, millions of younger Americans who do not know his name or movie roles nevertheless cannot avoid hearing his voice on radio every Christmas season singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Holly Jolly Christmas, and other holiday classics.

He was born June 14, 1909 one of six children of Scots-Irish heritage.  They all lived on a farm in Hunt City Township of Jasper County in southeast Illinois. Then as now, Hunt City Township was one of the most rural townships in Illinois. Today there are fewer than 400 residents in 128 housing units in thirty-six square miles.

A local official once said "Hunt City Township is not near anything." But if it were near a larger place, that place would likely be Effingham to the northwest if you first went through Newton. In high school Burl played football and played the guitar.  He graduated from Newton High School in 1927 and enrolled at Eastern Illinois Teacher's College at Charleston where he also played football and guitar. The school is now called Eastern Illinois University and Ives is one of the school's most famous alumni.

Illinois Hall of Fame: James C. Petrillo

By Mark Rhoads

Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in "The Bells of St. Mary's" tells the mother of a student how he located the girl's father who was a pianist. "He's a musician, so he must be in the union. I went right to the top, Petrillo!"

In the middle of the 20th Century, the name "Petrillo" was well known in America. He was a labor leader who was often in the news because of so many battles he fought on behalf of his members in a rapidly changing world for musicians. Jimmy Petrillo was President of Local 10 of the Chicago Federation of Musicians for forty years from 1922 to 1962.  He also served as president of the American Federation of Musicians for 18 years from 1940 to 1958. The Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park was named in his honor in 1976.

James Caesar Petrillo was born near the corner of DeKoven and Taylor Street in Chicago on March 16, 1892. He loved to play the trumpet but he concluded in his early twenties that he did not have enough talent to make his living as a trumpet player. So starting in 1919, James devoted his life to organizing musicians into effective union locals. Petrillo once said many years later, 'If I was a good trumpet player I wouldn’t be here. I got desperate. I hadda look for a job. I went into the union business."

Illinois Hall of Fame: Nat King Cole

By Mark Rhoads

"Twenty-third and Wentworth, was it's beating Heart, ...But there was everything, back when Jazz was King, on the South Side of Chicago."

-- Ray Price song in 1974

Nat King Cole was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama where his father was a butcher and a deacon in the Baptist Church. His actual birth name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. When Nat was two years old in 1921, the family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side where his father became a minister.  In those days, Bronzeville ran between State Street on the west and Grand Boulevard on the east (now called Martin Luther King Drive) and between 31st Street on the north and Pershing Road on the south. Naturally enough, gospel music from his father's Baptist Church was an early influence on Nat. When Nat was just 12, his first performance in public was Yes, we have no bananas!

Ragtime and jazz music was flourishing in the small clubs of Bronzeville in the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the immediate Bronzeville neighborhood, most of the South Side was alive with the hottest Jazz anywhere in the country. From 1922 to 1930, Louis Armstrong was playing at Lincoln Gardens on 47th Street and he met and married his second wife Lil Hardin in Chicago.  Other great stars were playing in Chicago clubs such as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Jimmy Noone.

Nat and his older brother Eddie hung out at the clubs as kids whenever they could getting to know the music and the musicians. Nat graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1935. He also studied in the music program of Walter Dyet at Du Sable High School. Just out of high school in 1936, Nat had formed his own band at age 17 and they made their first recording featuring Eddie Cole on bass and Nat on piano. 

By Mark Rhoads

"Twenty-third and Wentworth, was it's beating Heart, ...But there was everything, back when Jazz was King, on the South Side of Chicago."

-- Ray Price song in 1974

Nat King Cole was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Alabama where his father was a butcher and a deacon in the Baptist Church. His actual birth name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. When Nat was two years old in 1921, the family moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side where his father became a minister.  In those days, Bronzeville ran between State Street on the west and Grand Boulevard on the east (now called Martin Luther King Drive) and between 31st Street on the north and Pershing Road on the south. Naturally enough, gospel music from his father's Baptist Church was an early influence on Nat. When Nat was just 12, his first performance in public was Yes, we have no bananas!

Ragtime and jazz music was flourishing in the small clubs of Bronzeville in the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the immediate Bronzeville neighborhood, most of the South Side was alive with the hottest Jazz anywhere in the country. From 1922 to 1930, Louis Armstrong was playing at Lincoln Gardens on 47th Street and he met and married his second wife Lil Hardin in Chicago.  Other great stars were playing in Chicago clubs such as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Jimmy Noone.

Nat and his older brother Eddie hung out at the clubs as kids whenever they could getting to know the music and the musicians. Nat graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1935. He also studied in the music program of Walter Dyet at Du Sable High School. Just out of high school in 1936, Nat had formed his own band at age 17 and they made their first recording featuring Eddie Cole on bass and Nat on piano. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Gene Krupa

By Mark Rhoads

Gene Krupa's Polish-American mother was a hard-working hat-maker who was a devout Roman Catholic. She wanted Gene to study for the priesthood. He attended several parochial schools in Chicago and studied one year at St. Joseph's College, a prep school seminary in Rensselaer, Indiana. Instead, Gene wound up being one of the most exciting pioneer drummers of the age of Swing and Jazz.  He became known to millions by his professional moniker, "The Chicago Flash."

If there is one distinctive recording that comes to mind when people mention his name, it is without doubt one that was made during a high-energy live performance in January 1938 as part of Benny Goodman's historic jazz concert at Carneigie Hall in New York. Even listening to that recording of Sing Sing Sing today, a listener cannot help but feel the electricity in that hall 68 years ago.

According to legend, in the middle of the song Gene started to play the first extended drum solo in history as other musicians left the stage to leave Gene alone in the spotlight.  The solo seemed like an eternity but was really only a few very intense minutes of non-stop fast-paced tom toms.  Finally the musicians returned to an exhausted Gene Krupa just in time to blast away the final stanzas. The solo itself drew a sponaneous round of cheers and when the song finished the hall exploded with decibels never heard before in such a refined venue. Soon, audiences all over the country were demanding drum solos in every upbeat jazz song. Krupa had put jazz drummers on the map.

Gene Krupa was born in Chicago on January 5, 1909. He was the youngest of nine children born to Bartley and Ann Krupa. His father died when Gene was very young and all of the children went to work at least part-time before finishing grammar school. At age 11, Gene's brother Pete got him a job as a chore boy to wash windows and stack inventory at Brown's Music Store on the South Side. Gene tried out several instruments including the saxaphone but a set of drums was the cheapest. "They only cost me sixteen beans," said Gene.

By Mark Rhoads

Gene Krupa's Polish-American mother was a hard-working hat-maker who was a devout Roman Catholic. She wanted Gene to study for the priesthood. He attended several parochial schools in Chicago and studied one year at St. Joseph's College, a prep school seminary in Rensselaer, Indiana. Instead, Gene wound up being one of the most exciting pioneer drummers of the age of Swing and Jazz.  He became known to millions by his professional moniker, "The Chicago Flash."

If there is one distinctive recording that comes to mind when people mention his name, it is without doubt one that was made during a high-energy live performance in January 1938 as part of Benny Goodman's historic jazz concert at Carneigie Hall in New York. Even listening to that recording of Sing Sing Sing today, a listener cannot help but feel the electricity in that hall 68 years ago.

According to legend, in the middle of the song Gene started to play the first extended drum solo in history as other musicians left the stage to leave Gene alone in the spotlight.  The solo seemed like an eternity but was really only a few very intense minutes of non-stop fast-paced tom toms.  Finally the musicians returned to an exhausted Gene Krupa just in time to blast away the final stanzas. The solo itself drew a sponaneous round of cheers and when the song finished the hall exploded with decibels never heard before in such a refined venue. Soon, audiences all over the country were demanding drum solos in every upbeat jazz song. Krupa had put jazz drummers on the map.

Gene Krupa was born in Chicago on January 5, 1909. He was the youngest of nine children born to Bartley and Ann Krupa. His father died when Gene was very young and all of the children went to work at least part-time before finishing grammar school. At age 11, Gene's brother Pete got him a job as a chore boy to wash windows and stack inventory at Brown's Music Store on the South Side. Gene tried out several instruments including the saxaphone but a set of drums was the cheapest. "They only cost me sixteen beans," said Gene.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Josephine Baker

By Mark Rhoads

Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who became famous as an American expatirate in France in the 1920s and 1930s.  It was also the time of the lost generation of American writers who lived there such as Ernest Hemingway from Oak Park, Illinois, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Because there is much incorrect information about her life on internet sites, I need to state that most of this information and quotes come from either the Encyclopedia of World Biography, Second Edition or from the Black History Biographical Index of Thomson-Gale publications.  Far too many sources site her birthplace as St. Louis, Missoui. This is not correct and comes from careless researchers who apparently do not understand that East St. Louis is a separate city in Illinois on the east side of the Mississippi River and not a section of the Missouri city.  While this is a common mistake it is still careless and the fact that internet misinformation is so often duplicated makes the job of finding accurate information more challenging.

Josephine was born in a poor, Black slum in East St. Louis, Illinois, on June 3, 1906, to 21-year-old Carrie MacDonald. Her mother hoped to be a music hall dancer but made her living in 1906 taking in laundry to wash for neighbors. Josephine had a mixed ethnic heritage. She descended from Apalachee Indians and Black slaves in South Carolina. Her father was Eddie Carson, a vaudeville drummer, who had little contact with Josephine.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Lou Rawls

By Mark Rhoads

The mellow voice of Lou Rawls covered a range of musical styles including gospel, soul, jazz, do wop, and contemporary easy listening classics. One of his last albums was even a tribute to the songs of Frank Sinatra. Like fellow-Chicagoan Nat King Cole before him, Lou Rawls was a crossover artist before that term was invented, meaning simply that he had many fans in both black and white audiences. Some of his most memorable hits included You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine and Love is a Hurtin' Thing.

Lou was born in Chicago on Dec. 1, 1933. He was raised on the south side by his grandmother Eliza Rawls who introduced him to gospel music in a Baptist Church choir when Lou was age 7. He attended the Doolittle Grammar School on 35th Street where one of his classmates was legendary rock-n-roll music writer and arranger Sam Cooke. The Staple Sisters were also friends in grammar school.  As early teens, they formed a street-corner singing group called The Ditry Thirties. Lou and Sam were also classmates at Dunbar Vocational High School at 3000 S. Grand Boulevard (now called Martin Luther King Drive) where they formed a group called The Teenage Harmony Kings in about 1950.

A great influence on Lou's early life was The Chicago Regal Theatre then located at 4719 South Grand Boulevard.  Lou saw many great artists perform at The Regal such as Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, Count Baise, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald.

The Regal was demolished in 1973 and the lot remained vacant for more than twenty years. In the early 1990s, Lou Rawls and Third Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman met with Mayor Richard M. Daley to push plans for a redevleopment of the site. But the project faced many delays and false starts with one ground breaking in 1993 and another five years later in 1998. Lou distanced himself somewhat from the project during the first series of delays. Finally the plan came together and the $4.2 million project that was started in 1998 was completed in 2004.

For a time during planning and early construction the project was called The Lou Rawls Theater Cultural Center.  But Ald. Tillman unilaterally changed the name to The Harold Washington Cultural Center. Lou told reporter Dave Hoekstra of The Chicago Sun-Times that he was not unhappy about the name change, only that Tillman did not consult him after the two had collaborated closely on so many aspects of the redevelopment.

According to Dave Hoekstra, Lou Rawls very much wanted the project to succeed in any form. 

"47th and King is too important of a corner and street to let it die," Mr. Rawls told Hoekstra in a 1993 interview. "Most of the entertainers from Chicago cut their teeth in that neighborhood. Myself. Sam Cooke. The Staple Singers. We saw all the live shows at the Regal. When I was growing up, everyone in your neighborhood knew you. They knew your folks. If they saw you doing something wrong, they would call you on it. Every neighborhood was a village."

Lou Rawls died in California on Jan. 6, 2006 at the age of 72.

For more about the life and music of Lou Rawls, see his official web site biography by clicking here.

By Mark Rhoads

The mellow voice of Lou Rawls covered a range of musical styles including gospel, soul, jazz, do wop, and contemporary easy listening classics. One of his last albums was even a tribute to the songs of Frank Sinatra. Like fellow-Chicagoan Nat King Cole before him, Lou Rawls was a crossover artist before that term was invented, meaning simply that he had many fans in both black and white audiences. Some of his most memorable hits included You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine and Love is a Hurtin' Thing.

Lou was born in Chicago on Dec. 1, 1933. He was raised on the south side by his grandmother Eliza Rawls who introduced him to gospel music in a Baptist Church choir when Lou was age 7. He attended the Doolittle Grammar School on 35th Street where one of his classmates was legendary rock-n-roll music writer and arranger Sam Cooke. The Staple Sisters were also friends in grammar school.  As early teens, they formed a street-corner singing group called The Ditry Thirties. Lou and Sam were also classmates at Dunbar Vocational High School at 3000 S. Grand Boulevard (now called Martin Luther King Drive) where they formed a group called The Teenage Harmony Kings in about 1950.

A great influence on Lou's early life was The Chicago Regal Theatre then located at 4719 South Grand Boulevard.  Lou saw many great artists perform at The Regal such as Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, Count Baise, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald.

The Regal was demolished in 1973 and the lot remained vacant for more than twenty years. In the early 1990s, Lou Rawls and Third Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman met with Mayor Richard M. Daley to push plans for a redevleopment of the site. But the project faced many delays and false starts with one ground breaking in 1993 and another five years later in 1998. Lou distanced himself somewhat from the project during the first series of delays. Finally the plan came together and the $4.2 million project that was started in 1998 was completed in 2004.

For a time during planning and early construction the project was called The Lou Rawls Theater Cultural Center.  But Ald. Tillman unilaterally changed the name to The Harold Washington Cultural Center. Lou told reporter Dave Hoekstra of The Chicago Sun-Times that he was not unhappy about the name change, only that Tillman did not consult him after the two had collaborated closely on so many aspects of the redevelopment.

According to Dave Hoekstra, Lou Rawls very much wanted the project to succeed in any form. 

"47th and King is too important of a corner and street to let it die," Mr. Rawls told Hoekstra in a 1993 interview. "Most of the entertainers from Chicago cut their teeth in that neighborhood. Myself. Sam Cooke. The Staple Singers. We saw all the live shows at the Regal. When I was growing up, everyone in your neighborhood knew you. They knew your folks. If they saw you doing something wrong, they would call you on it. Every neighborhood was a village."

Lou Rawls died in California on Jan. 6, 2006 at the age of 72.

For more about the life and music of Lou Rawls, see his official web site biography by clicking here.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Herbie Hancock

By Mark Rhoads

Jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago on April 12, 1940.  He was a child prodigy trained in classical music.  In 1951 at the age of only eleven, Herbie performed the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto Number Five in D Major at a young people's concert with the Chicago Symphony Orechestra.  Herbie graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1958.  While he never had a formal music teacher, Herbie studied the recordings of Oscar Peterson and George Shearing and other great pianists in different styles.  He attended Grinell College in Iowa where he studied for a double major in music and electrical engineering.

In 1960 when Herbie was twenty and still in college, he was asked by trumpeter Donald Byrd to join his group and Byrd also introduced Herbie to executives at Blue Note records and he signed with that label.  In 1963, Herbie was invited by Miles Davis to join his second great quintet.

Herbie reinvented the role of a jazz rhythm section and played with Miles Davis for five years until 1968 when he formed his own group.  Some of his best-known solo works were Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Maiden Voyage, and Chameleon.  Since the 1960s, Herbie has won ten Grammy Awards for his original compositions.  He has written many scores for movies and TV shows.  He also won an Oscar for best original musical score in 1986 for the motion picture Round Midnight.  He won five MTV Video Awards, a Soul Train music award, and several Keyboard Magazine reader's poll awards.  In 1995, Herbie Hancock was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.  To learn more about the music of Herbie Hancock, readers may visit the official Herbie Hancock Web Site.

By Mark Rhoads

Jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago on April 12, 1940.  He was a child prodigy trained in classical music.  In 1951 at the age of only eleven, Herbie performed the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto Number Five in D Major at a young people's concert with the Chicago Symphony Orechestra.  Herbie graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1958.  While he never had a formal music teacher, Herbie studied the recordings of Oscar Peterson and George Shearing and other great pianists in different styles.  He attended Grinell College in Iowa where he studied for a double major in music and electrical engineering.

In 1960 when Herbie was twenty and still in college, he was asked by trumpeter Donald Byrd to join his group and Byrd also introduced Herbie to executives at Blue Note records and he signed with that label.  In 1963, Herbie was invited by Miles Davis to join his second great quintet.

Herbie reinvented the role of a jazz rhythm section and played with Miles Davis for five years until 1968 when he formed his own group.  Some of his best-known solo works were Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Maiden Voyage, and Chameleon.  Since the 1960s, Herbie has won ten Grammy Awards for his original compositions.  He has written many scores for movies and TV shows.  He also won an Oscar for best original musical score in 1986 for the motion picture Round Midnight.  He won five MTV Video Awards, a Soul Train music award, and several Keyboard Magazine reader's poll awards.  In 1995, Herbie Hancock was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.  To learn more about the music of Herbie Hancock, readers may visit the official Herbie Hancock Web Site.