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The playful, melancholic genius of Erik Satie

Poetry that blends music, mortality and fame

The Critic Books

Great pianist who was self-taught from the age ...

For 60 years, HERBIE HANCOCK has taken the bonnet off music, hacking its valves and gears, forging a future as yet unseen. He shaped jazz and funk and synth-rock; Miles and Joni felt the benefit. Now he's a Polar Music Prize laureate. "I've always been this geek, this nerdy guy,"

● ONE MORNING IN 2007 I KNOCKED at ...