HERBIE HANCOCK
A true icon of modern music, Herbie Hancock has transcended genres and limitations while maintaining his unmistakable voice. Born in Chicago in 1940, Hancock was a piano prodigy who performed a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11. He began playing jazz in high school, but also developed
a passion for electronics and science, and doublemajored in music and electrical engineering at Grinnell College.
In 1960, Hancock was discovered by trumpeter Donald Byrd. After two years of session work Hancock’s 1963 debut Takin’ Off was an immediate success, producing the hit “Watermelon Man.” That year, Miles Davis invited Hancock to join his Quintet. During his five years with Davis, Hancock and his colleagues Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums) recorded such classics as ESP, Nefertiti and Sorcerer. Later, Hancock appeared on Davis’ groundbreaking In a Silent Way. Hancock’s solo career blossomed with classic albums including Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles and Speak Like a Child. He composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow Up, which led to a successful career in film and television music. After leaving Davis, Hancock put together The Headhunters and recorded Head Hunters in 1973. With its crossover hit single “Chameleon,” it became the first jazz album to go platinum. Hancock had 11 albums on the pop charts during the 1970s, inspiring and providing samples for generations of hip-hop and dance music artists. Hancock also stayed close to his love of acoustic jazz in the ’70s, recording and performing with VSOP (reuniting him with his Miles Davis colleagues), and in duet settings with Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson.
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In 1980, Hancock introduced trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to the world, producing his debut album and touring with him. In 1983, a new pull to the alternative side led Hancock to a series of collaborations with Bill Laswell. The first, Future Shock, struck platinum, and the single “Rockit” rocked the dance and R&B charts, winning a Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental. The video of the track won five MTV awards. Its follow-up Sound System also received a Grammy in the same category.
Hancock won an Oscar in 1986 for scoring the film ’Round Midnight, in which he also appeared as an actor. Numerous television appearances over the years led to two hosting assignments in the 1980s: Rock School on PBS and Showtime’s Coast To Coast. After 1994’s
HANCOCK
adventurous Dis Is Da Drum, Hancock formed an all-star band for 1996’s Grammy-winning The New Standard. In 1997, an album of duets with Wayne Shorter, 1+1, was released. The Headhunters reunited in 1998, recording an album and touring. That year also marked the release of Gershwin’s World, which won three Grammys including Best Traditional Jazz Album. Hancock reunited with Bill Laswell to collaborate with young hip-hop and techno artists on 2001’s FUTURE2FUTURE. He also joined with Roy Hargrove and Michael Brecker in 2002 to record Directions In Music: Live at Massey Hall, a tribute to John Coltrane and Miles Davis. 2005’s Possibilities teamed Hancock with pop artists including Sting, Annie Lennox, and Carlos Santana.
In 2007, Hancock released River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to Joni Mitchell, which earned three Grammys, including Album of the Year. 2010 saw the critically-
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acclaimed Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project, which won Grammys for Best Pop Collaboration and Best Improvised Jazz Solo. The project was recorded around the world and features a stellar group of international guest musicians. In 2011 Hancock was designated a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and in 2013 he received a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor. He was named the 2014 Norton Professor Of Poetry at Harvard University, his memoir, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, was published, and in 2016 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
BROWARD CENTER FORT LAUDERDALE
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PHILLIPS CENTER
ORLANDO
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MAHAFFEY
THEATER ST. PETERSBURG
To date, Hancock’s discography consists of more than 100 albums. These Florida dates kick off a six-country tour. More at herbie hancock.com.
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BLUES, BURGERS & BBQ FESTIVAL
VERO BEACH
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PARADISE BAR
PENSACOLA
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LILI MARLENE’S PENSACOLA
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COTTONMOUTH
SOUL KITCHEN
BRADENTON
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TWISTED FORK
PORT CHARLOTTE
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BUCKINGHAM
BLUES BAR
FT. MYERS
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FUNKY BISCUIT
BOCA RATON
Tom Craig
Since receiving his first guitar for his eleventh birthday, Tom Craig has spent more than 40 years sharing his brand of original blues, soul and R&B, impressing critics and fans along the way. Craig’s all-original debut CD, 2016’s Get Ready for Me, received worldwide radio airplay and critical acclaim. In 2017 he represented the Central Delaware Blues Society at the 33rd International Blues Challenge, and his song “She Did It to Me (She’ll Do It to You)” was a semi-finalist in the 2017 International Songwriting Competition. Craig’s second CD, 2021’s Good Man Gone Bad features 13 original songs and received rave reviews and strong radio airplay, debuting at No. 19 on the Roots Music Report Radio Chart. Since its release, Craig has toured extensively through Florida, New England, and Texas. In 2022 he received three Independent Blues Awards nominations: Best Contemporary Blues CD for Good Man Gone Bad, Best Contemporary Blues song for “You Made a Good Man Go Bad” and Best Contemporary Blues Band. Craig’s third project, Get To Work was released earlier this summer, and showcases his maturity and growth as a songwriter as well as his strength as a guitarist and vocalist. Twelve tight arrangements, produced by veteran bluesman Mikey Junior, feature performances from a cadre of superb musicians captured by Grammynominated engineer Dave Gross. More at tomcraigband.com
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SING OUT
LOUD FESTIVAL
ST. AUGUSTINE
Norah Jones
While in high school, Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar) won the Downbeat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996). After leaving Texas for New York City, Jones worked briefly as a lounge singer before launching her solo music career with the 2002 release of Come Away With Me, which was certified a Diamond album in 2002, selling more than 20 million copies. The album earned Jones five Grammys, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her subsequent studio albums – 2004’s Feels like Home, 2007’s Not Too Late and 2009’s The Fall – all gained Platinum status. Jones also sang “Court and Spark” on Herbie Hancock’s 2007 release River: The Joni Letters, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Jones was credited as a featured artist, her ninth Grammy win. In March, Jones released her ninth studio album, Visions, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart. She has collaborated with a long and eclectic list of performers, from Rolling Stone Keith Richards to Cindy Lauper to Seth McFarlane to A Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip. Jones was named Billboard magazine’s 60th-bestselling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade, with more than 37 million albums sold worldwide. More at norah jones. com.
Mc world
Alex Hernandez
Hailing from Miami, first-generation Cuban-American Alex Hernandez studied electric and upright bass in South Florida with Matt Bonelli, Dennis Marks and Luis Gomez-Imbert. He later continued his studies in New York City with the grand master Ron Carter as well as lessons with Andy Gonzales, Larry Grenadier and Orlando LeFlemming. Hernandez has performed, toured, and recorded around the world with an array of artists, most notably as a member of Jerry Gonzales’s Madrid All Star band, with Diego “el Cigala” and Versos en la Boca world tour. In NYC, Hernandez was a member of the Sugar Hill Quartet, one of Harlem’s longest-standing house bands holding down steady gigs at the Lennox Lounge, Minton’s and Smoke, and accompanying artists such as Lillias White, Gregory Porter, and George Coleman. Hernandez was also a house musician at Spanish Harlem’s FB Lounge which featured NYC’s prominent salsa and Latin jazz musicians. As a member of Bobby Sanabria’s Quarteto Ache and Big Ban, Hernandez was featured on their 2008 Grammy-nominatalbum. Hernandez also held the bass chair with tap dancing phenom Savion Glover, performing at jazz clubs, theaters and dance festivals across the U.S. Hernandez has performed with Ira Sullivan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and many, many more. Find him on Facebook.
Bebo Valdes and on Joan Manuel Serrat’s Grammy-nominat ed Big Band Urban Folktales
Bridge
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THE VILLAGES RESIDENTS ONLY
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COTTONMOUTH
SOUL FOOD BRADENTON
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ARTS GARAGE
DELRAY BEACH
Zac Harmon
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Zac Harmon’s professional career started at age 16. Two years later he was playing with Dorothy Moore, Z.Z. Hill, and other top touring blues artists. At age 21 Harmon moved to Los Angeles to take a real shot at the music business. Starting as a studio musician, he soon established a successful career as a songwriter and producer, working on films, TV shows, and national commercials. Harmon wrote songs for the likes of Evelyn “Champagne” King, Freddie Jackson, and the O’Jays. He also wrote and produced songs for reggae band Black Uhuru’s 1993 Grammy-nominated Mystical Truth album. Harmon’s first blues project, 2003’s Live at Babe & Ricky’s Inn, was an electrifying testimony to Mississippi blues and introduced him as a true torchbearer of Jackson’s Farish Street style. In 2004, Harmon and his band the Mid South Blues Revue won the International Blues Challenge title of Best Unsigned Band. According To Zacariah garnered major national airplay in 2005 and led to a Blues Music Award for Best New Artist Debut. Then 2009’s the Root was followed by the Little Milton Guitar Award for Outstanding Guitar Player from The Jus’ Blues Music Foundation. Later that year Harmon and company performed on the site of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, only the second blues act ever to do so; Louis Armstrong was the first. 2021’s As Long As I Got My Guitar received a Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Album of the Year. His latest, Floreada’s Boy, was released just last month. More at zacharmon.com
The Blues
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PHOTO BY DARREN CARROLL
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Spyro Gyra
So far, Spyro Gyra have performed more than 5,000 shows, released 31 albums (not counting compilations), and sold more than ten million albums. They’ve done it by constantly challenging themselves. 2013’s The Rhinebeck Sessions captured their innate ability to construct compositions through a jam approach over three days in the studio. In 2014, the band did an extended Morning Dance tour, playing their landmark album on its 35th anniversary. Then came a text of their 2000s work titled The Best Of The Heads Up Years. 2019 brought Vinyl Tap, an album of classic rock covers. The group was first known simply as Tuesday Night Jazz Jams, with bandleader/saxman Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Jeremy Wall welcoming a rotating cast, including teenaged keyboardist Tom Schuman. In their earliest days, Spyro Gyra took their cues from Weather Report and Return to Forever – bands whose creative flights were fueled by a willingness to do things that had never been done before. Note funk superstar Rick James’ first album featured Beckenstein in the horn section! James then helped fund Spyro Gyra’s eponymous 1977 debut. “When I listen to that recording, I hear seeds of the music that made us popular,” Beckenstein says. “It’s funny how people didn’t know what to make of it then, and now it’s so ubiquitous.” Julio Fernandez became the group’s guitarist in 1984, and bassist Scott Ambush joined in 1991. Drummer Lionel Cordew joined in 2015, and keyboardist Chris Fischer replaced Schuman last year. This year and tour mark the group’s 50th anniversary. More at spyrogyra.com
Tom Hambridge
As a producer, Tom Hambridge earned his first Grammy in 2011, for Buddy Guy’s Living Proof album, and for which he also received three Blues Music Awards: Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year, Album Of The Year, and Song Of The Year for the title track. It was the follow up to Guy’s 2008 Hambridge-produced Skin Deep CD, which won Album Of The Year in 2009 at the BMAs. Hambridge also has several other Grammy nominations, including as producer of Johnny Winter‘s I’m a Bluesman and Susan Tedeschi’s platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated debut Just Won’t Burn. Guy’s 2013 CD and George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ 2011 release Michigan Avenue, both produced by Hambridge, both debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Blues Chart. Other Hambridge productions include albums by James Cotton, Joe Louis Walker, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Devon Allman, Foghat, and Keb’ Mo’. Hambridge’s songs have been recorded by an eclectic group of artists including Rascal Flatts, Delbert McClinton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Meat Loaf, Eric Burdon, The Outlaws, Johnny Winter, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hambridge’s vocals appear in the Disney hits Cars and Ratatouille, and he has contributed music to movies and television programs. Hambridge is also known to take a seat behind the drum kit. He has performed and recorded with many of the names above, and many more. He has also recorded and released seven critically-acclaimed solo CDs, and actively tours with his band, Tom Hambridge & The Rattlesnakes. More at hambridgetunes.com
Rhythm & Blues 2120 South
FROM A PHOTO BY JOSKA BORBELY
