Herbie Hancock's new album: Everything we know so far
The legendary Herbie Hancock has given us some hints and details of his much-awaited forthcoming album
Last updated 4th Feb 2022
Herbie Hancock's long-awaited and greatly-anticipated new album has been rumoured for a good number of years now.
In an interview with Jazz FM in 2021, Herbie Hancock generated more hype and provided more details of his forthcoming album.
In the interview, the legendary, 14-time Grammy-winning pianist said "I've been working on something now for several years. And just because there are a lot of things that come up and wind up being on my plate, even interviews which I love to do, but that takes up time for us... So, it kind of slows down the process of bringing out a new record which I've been working on for years".
Discussing the concept of the album, he went on to state, “We’re looking at…a new way to look at the whole idea of bringing out what we used to call records. But, that’s almost a thing of the past except, there are some vinyls that come out, but that’s not driving the music industry anymore. And yet, everything that we’ve seen comes off of that previous physical entity, even though everything is digital now. So, I’m looking at some new ideas about approaching things from a digital standpoint and not just a physical standpoint. "
Herbie Hancock's last studio album was The Imagine Project, which was released back in 2010.
What else we know about the new Herbie Hancock album:
In a 2019 interview with the New York Times, Herbie confirmed that he was exploring new musical avenues with a series of younger musicians, having been "hanging out with Flying Lotus". Label owner, beatmaker and producer Flying Lotus produced the Grammy Award-winning album It Is What It Is by bassist Thundercat in 2020.
These details were later confirmed in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, where it is also expected the new album will feature rapper Kendrick Lamar, saxophonist Kamasi Washington as well as saxophone legend Wayne Shorter, with who the pair have been working with each other since the 1960s. Elsewhere, it has been reported that rapper Snoop Dogg, Common, Travis Scott, guitarist Lionel Loueke, tabla player Zakir Hussein and producer Terrace Martin are also involved in the record.
When can we expect the new Herbie Hancock album to be released?
According to Herbie Hancock, the album has been in the works for "years".
The album was originally expected to be released in 2018, but there were also rumours that it might have even been released back in 2016.
Neither an album name nor a specific release date has been given yet. In 2021, Herbie said that "at the early part of summer 2021 for release, but there's more to do. I'm not quite satisfied with what we have. We have a lot of material."
However, with no word or sign of the record since our interview with Herbie in May 2021, we are now hoping to finally see and hear the album in 2022, but until any more details are given, we do not know how long we will have to wait.
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