The Jazz Legacy Project (JLP) finished its 2025 season last week after presenting the life and music of jazz great Herbie Hancock.
On stage at Greensboro’s Festival Hall were JLP narrator and drummer Justin Varnes, John Sandfort on saxophone, Kevin Smith on bass, pianist Louis Devereux, and Justin Powell on trumpet.
Hancock, the legendary jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, was born in 1940 in Chicago. He began his career with Donald Byrd’s group before joining the Miles Davis Quintet and later playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among Hancock’s best-known compositions are “Cantaloupe Island,” “Watermelon Man,” “Chameleon,” and “Maiden Voyage.”
Over his career, Hancock won an Academy Award and 14 Grammy Awards, including the 2007 Album of the Year for “River: The Joni Letters,” a tribute to Joni Mitchell. In 2025, he received the Polar Music Prize, and since 2012, he has served as a professor at the University of California, teaching at the USLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He is also the chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, formerly known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
The Jazz Legacy Project will open its 2026 season at Festival Hall on Feb. 4, featuring the life and music of Duke Ellington. For information, visit festivalhallga.com.