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50 free Herbie Hancock trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Herbie Hancock trivia quiz covers the Chicago prodigy who played Mozart with a symphony orchestra at 11, joined Miles Davis's second great quintet at 23, and went on to reinvent himself in jazz-funk, electro and pop across six decades. The easy questions cover the landmarks: his hometown, his best-known compositions, the Head Hunters album, the breakdance anthem Rockit and the Album of the Year Grammy for River: The Joni Letters. The harder half is for the record collectors: the Blue Note debut, the film that gave him his first score, the Mwandishi era and its synthesizers, the vocoder hits in Britain, the VSOP reunions, the Oscar for Round Midnight, the Buddhist practice he took up in 1972, and the 1963 Shelby Cobra he has owned longer than anyone has owned any Cobra. Every answer was checked against Herbie Hancock's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our jazz and Miles Davis quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Herbie Hancock was born in 1940 in which US city?
Chicago
His parents named him after the singer and actor Herb Jeffries.
Q 02At age 11, Hancock played a movement of a Mozart piano concerto with which ensemble?
The Chicago Symphony
It was the first movement of the 'Coronation' concerto, K. 537, at a young people's concert in February 1952.
Q 03Hancock graduated from Grinnell College in 1960 with degrees in music and which other subject?
Electrical engineering
The technical background foreshadowed his later fascination with synthesizers and electronics.
Q 04Hancock's 1962 debut album for Blue Note was titled what?
Takin' Off
It included 'Watermelon Man', which gave Mongo Santamaría a hit single and caught the ear of Miles Davis.
Q 05Which trumpeter's group gave Hancock his start before Miles Davis came calling?
Donald Byrd
Byrd also suggested he study composition with Vittorio Giannini at the Manhattan School of Music.
Q 06Which 17-year-old drummer introduced Hancock to Miles Davis in 1963?
Tony Williams
Ron Carter played bass; George Coleman and Sam Rivers each held the saxophone chair before it was settled.
Q 07Hancock's first film score, in 1966, was for which Michelangelo Antonioni film?
Blowup
He also wrote jingles for products such as Pillsbury's Space Food Sticks and Virginia Slims.
Q 08Under what pretext was Hancock dismissed from Miles Davis's band in 1968?
He returned late from a honeymoon in Brazil
He kept appearing on Davis records anyway, including In a Silent Way and On the Corner.
Q 09Hancock composed the soundtrack for a 1969 animated TV special about which Bill Cosby character?
Fat Albert
The music resurfaced on Fat Albert Rotunda, his first album for Warner Bros.
Q 10Hancock's early-1970s albums are called the 'Mwandishi' records. What does Mwandishi mean in Swahili?
Writer
Synthesist Patrick Gleeson turned the sextet into a septet for Mwandishi, Crossings and Sextant.
Q 11Hancock's 1973 crossover hit album, one of the best-selling jazz records ever, was titled what?
Head Hunters
Its opening track 'Chameleon' became a standard; the follow-up was Thrust.
Q 12Which member of the Mwandishi sextet was the only one Hancock kept when he formed the Headhunters?
Bennie Maupin
He added Paul Jackson on bass, Bill Summers on percussion and Harvey Mason on drums.
Q 13Hancock scored the first film in which vigilante franchise in 1974?
Death Wish
'Joanna's Theme' from it was re-recorded on his 1997 duet album 1+1.
Q 21Hancock's 1998 album Gershwin's World featured which two famous guests among many others?
Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell
Hancock then toured it with a sextet including Terri Lyne Carrington and Eddie Henderson.
Q 22Hancock's 1995 album The New Standard reinterpreted pop songs by which of these artists?
Nirvana
Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Prince and Peter Gabriel were also covered by an all-star band with John Scofield and Michael Brecker.
Q 23Which saxophonist recorded the 1997 duet album 1+1 with Hancock?
Wayne Shorter
The two later published a dialogue on jazz and Buddhism with Soka Gakkai president Daisaku Ikeda.
Q 14Hancock's late-1970s supergroup VSOP reunited the classic Davis quintet with which trumpeter in Miles's place?
Freddie Hubbard
Wynton Marsalis filled the role in the early-1980s 'VSOP II'; Wallace Roney later played Miles's part on A Tribute to Miles.
Q 15Hancock's late-1970s hits 'I Thought It Was You' and 'You Bet Your Love' put his voice through what device?
A vocoder
Critics were unimpressed, but the disco-era experiments sold.
Q 16Hancock's 1983 hit 'Rockit' is credited as the first mainstream single to feature what technique?
Scratching
It came from the album Future Shock and became an anthem for breakdancers.
Q 17Which bassist-producer worked with Hancock on 'Rockit' and his three 1980s electro albums?
Bill Laswell
The trilogy was Future Shock, Sound-System and Perfect Machine; they reunited on Future2Future in 2001.
Q 18Who directed the robot-filled 'Rockit' video that won five awards at the first MTV Video Music Awards?
Godley and Creme
The video reached heavy MTV rotation and the single hit No. 8 in the UK.
Q 19Hancock won an Academy Award for the score of which 1986 film, in which he also acted?
Round Midnight
Bertrand Tavernier's film starred saxophonist Dexter Gordon; Hancock also scored Colors and Harlem Nights that decade.
Q 20Hancock's 2007 tribute River: The Joni Letters won which top Grammy?
Album of the Year
Norah Jones, Tina Turner and Corinne Bailey Rae sang on it, and Leonard Cohen contributed a spoken piece.
Q 24Hancock has followed which Buddhist tradition since 1972?
Nichiren
He chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo daily as a member of Soka Gakkai International.
Q 25Hancock bought a new AC Shelby Cobra in 1963 and still owns it. What distinction does that give him?
Longest owner of one
It was the sixth Cobra built and the only one fitted with a two-barrel carburettor; he plans to give it to his grandson.
Q 26Hancock's 2005 duets album Possibilities featured which of these guests?
Christina Aguilera
Her 'A Song for You' was Grammy-nominated; Carlos Santana, Paul Simon and Sting also appeared.
Q 27Besides 'Cantaloupe Island', 'Watermelon Man' and 'Chameleon', which jazz standard did Hancock write?
Maiden Voyage
'Maiden Voyage' began life as a cologne advertisement.
Q 28Which UK band's 1982 album New Gold Dream features a Hancock synthesizer solo on 'Hunter and the Hunted'?
Simple Minds
Three years later he guested on So Red the Rose by the Duran Duran offshoot Arcadia.
Q 29Hancock's memoir Possibilities revealed a 1990s addiction to what?
Crack cocaine
His wife and daughter staged the intervention that got him sober.
Q 30In 2013 Hancock became a professor of jazz at which university?
UCLA
He also chaired the institute formerly named for Thelonious Monk, which was renamed for him in 2019.