Herbie Hancock: piano and keyboards, Terence Blanchard: trumpet and keyboards, James Genus: bass, Lionel Loueka: guitar, Jaylen Petinaud: drums.
Herbie came on stage joking with the audience,acting like a man thirty years younger than his 84 years. Introducing “Overture”(many pieces of songs performed over the years). Opening with a trumpet serenade… Blanchard referenced Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis …. hard urban funk …rocking the house…. It was exciting to hear Herbie Hancock direct not just someone influenced by him…Herbie switched from piano to electronic keyboards, and back again… referencing Monk and moving straight into full force, high energy improvisations… drawing from free jazz…. Lionel Loueka took a funky solo, with a funky scat solo on top of it…. like cruising down Broadway in a daddyfat cadillac convertible…. bright pink with whitewalls and street strut…. then all rocking out on “Headhunters”seventies rock funk.
Next was the Wayne Shorter number “Footprints”….. Herbie brought fresh beauty from the melody…. with Blanchard expanding the theme…. then Lionel pulled colours out of the air…. calling and responding with Blanchard.
“Actual Proof” this was drum driven… over the full range of Jaylen Petinaud’s large drum kit,(Herbie actually sang Happy Birthday” to him as he had just turned 26) … I could feel the bass providing Herbie a platform to rock out …. the musicianship was breathtaking from all the musicians…. James Genus took an outstanding melodic bass solo referencing Stanley Clarke.
“We are all one family” Herbie improvised through the vocoder…. vocal improvisations…. saying how everyone was decended from Africa (I have African DNA myself) ….this number had a strong African feel to it…. like a village dance under hard thirty degree blue skies…Blanchard referencing Hugh Masekela….. Herbie strapped on a portable keyboard… calling and responding with Genus and Loueka ….like dancers taking turns to lead the village dance.
The concert ended with “Hang up your hang ups”…Rock it, Spider, and Chameleon referenced….a very enjoyable high energy jazz funk workout… Loueka was amazing doing a hammer-on solo in the style of Stanley Jordan…calling and responding.
Geoffrey Totton
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