Bring Down the Birds

Herbie Hancock recorded 'Bring Down the Birds' for the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up, cut in London in 1966 with a studio ensemble assembled for the score, featuring Hancock on keyboards alongside session players chosen to blend jazz sensibility with the film's mod London aesthetic. The track appeared on the soundtrack to Blow-Up, one of the defining art films of the 1960s, giving Hancock's composition enormous international exposure and associating his music with the peak of European cinematic modernism and Swinging London culture. 'Bring Down the Birds' became one of Hancock's most sampled compositions, with its lush, orchestrated groove attracting hip-hop producers across decades, and it remains a touchstone of late-1960s jazz-inflected film scoring and a foundational crate-digging reference.