Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock has spent more than six decades proving jazz can go anywhere. On Blue Note he wrote 'Watermelon Man' and 'Cantaloupe Island' and made the floating, modal Maiden Voyage and Empyrean Isles, while his rich, shifting harmonies helped reshape Miles Davis's second great quintet.

Then he plugged in. Mwandishi went spacey and experimental, and Head Hunters, with the funky clavinet of 'Chameleon', became one of the best-selling jazz albums ever. 'Rockit' put a scratching DJ on MTV in 1983, and River: The Joni Letters won the Grammy for Album of the Year.