“He comes up to me and says ‘you cannibalised my instrument! Why did you do that?’”: Herbie Hancock reveals what Harold Rhodes said to him when he saw that he’d fitted inputs and outputs to one of his pianos

American pianist Herbie Hancock performs live on stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival at the County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California on 16th September 1972. (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns).

Few people know the Rhodes piano as well as Herbie Hancock. In fact, he actually knew the instrument’s inventor, Harold Rhodes.

It turns out, though, that one of Hancock’s early encounters with Rhodes was a little awkward, with Harold not taking too kindly to some of the modifications that Herbie had made to one of his instruments.