Herbie Hancock @ The PerthConcert Hall (06/05/11)

Mon 9th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Who am I? I caught my break as a jazz pianist for Miles Davis as part of his ‘second great quintet’. I’ve spent over fifty years as an iconic name in jazz music, collaborating with hundreds of artists from different cultures and genres, and I look damn good with a keytar. If you guessed Herbie Hancock, you’d be right.

Hancock performed at the salubrious Perth Concert Hall to fanatic crowd of jazz aficionados last Friday night in his first Perth tour date since 2007. The Concert Hall provided a classy, refined atmosphere for the concert. Ushering you to your seats were finely dressed staff that addressed you as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madame’ making a pleasant change from the archetypical concert where the bouncers are as likely to snap you in half as show you to your seat.

Hancock chose to forgo the traditional support act in favour of a three-hour concert in which he showcased many of his old hits, as well as songs from his recently released album The Imagine Project. Backed by famed musicians James Genus, Trevor Lawrence and singer Kristina Train Hancock had decided to strip back his performance to the bare essentials: drums, bass, keys, and a violin played by Train, with backing tracks supplementing his usual instrumentation.

The band played well together, trying to throw each other off in a jovial fashion while audience members sat in attentive silence, absorbing the cerebral music. The inclusion of Hancock’s Imagine Project songs made for an interesting shake up in the set. Beginning with his more identifiable jazz classics, Hancock then introduced Train to sing a cover of John Lennon’s Imagine, the first song on the album. Beginning with a doleful piano melody, the song plunged in to an upbeat, Afro-inspired rhythm that kicked the song up a notch. This unusual take on classic pop songs was continued with Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a-Changin’ which had been mixed with influences of Irish folk, and a funky version of Bob Marley’s Exodus with an Arabic touch.

Augmenting these songs was the considerable soloing talents of the band. There were plenty to go around; Hancock ensuring every musician had their ten minutes in the spotlight. Some of the most notable included the keytar/bass face-off between Hancock and Genus and a performance of Morning Dew on the violin by Train.

Hancock then took the opportunity to address the crowd on his environmental and cultural beliefs, calling for all cultures to embrace each other and use technology to save the world from ourselves, saying: “This is the birth of globalisation, a really globalised world. We need it.” After this Hancock continued the set playing some old classics including an extended version of Watermelon Man.

After a few more light-hearted exchanges by the band, a few more songs and many more solos, Hancock and his band took a bow and left, departing to a deafening chorus of cheers. Hancock was soon coaxed back on stage however by the incessant demands of the audience to play an extended version of Headhunter’s hit Chameleon.

Despite Hancock’s excellent performance, compared to his last trip it was slightly lacklustre. The addition of a guitarist would have done well to fill out the sound a little more, though Genus was more than capable enough to supplement several guitar melodies. However the night was still spectacular and it remains true that the only person you can compare Hancock to, is Hancock himself.