HERBIE HANCOCK, REVIEWED (2024): Lessons in fun and how to rockit

A few weeks ago we interviewed the great Herbie Hancock and asked, politely, what possesses a man of 84 to go on the road and get up on stage to play for a couple of hours when he could comfortably be at home.

He laughed and said something about paying the mortgage, then offered, “it's a privilege to be able to express myself with a great band and to play music I've written or they've written.

“Each night we get a chance to rewrite those through improvisation. And we're doing it for an audience of hopefully adoring fans. There's nothing like it.”

Well, the capacity audience at Auckland's Aotea Centre were certainly adoring, and rightly so because Hancock and his stellar band -- who we introduced here -- rewrote electro-funk jazz in an exciting way that hasn't been seen in the city since his former boss Miles Davis rocked the St James back in 1988.

With all due respect to the great Hancock, if he hadn't been there you would still have paid good money to see the Terence Blanchard Quartet or the Lionel Loueke Quartet because that trumpeter and that guitarist are leaders in their own right.

Loueke has a very respectable career outside the band and it's clear he has assimilated jazz guitar from the likes of James Blood Ulmer and Jean-Paul Bourelly but in his style – his fingers on each hand racing like spiders on crack – he also brought elements of West African guitar and deft shifts of tone.

Blanchard rarely seemed to break a sweat but pursued some of the highest and hardest notes a trumpet can hit, and you never felt he was showcasing.

The stage set-up was interesting with Loueke and bassist James Genus (a star in his own right, like a more funk-rock Jaco Pastorius) to the front, Blanchard a few steps back between them in front of hot drummer Jaylen Petinaud.

And Hancock?
He was set up well back, upstage right, behind his Korg keyboard and with an acoustic piano.

As the set spun out, the visual attention was mostly on the other players but behind them all Hancock conjured up pure magic with seemingly effortless ease, not just in his solo spaces but in adventurous and inventive comping.

About two thirds the way through a woman four or five rows behind us shouted “play some of the hits” which rather missed the point.

It is always less what they play than how they play. And even, in this case, that they play.

He got to Rockit – a Loueke overhaul of the arrangement – but what was spell-binding was just how they shifted emphasis, admired each other's playing with mutual appreciation and clearly enjoyed the night.

Hancock played Happy Birthday for drummer Petinaud (we sang along and offered three cheers) and he never looked happier than at the end when he strapped on what looked like a hefty white key-tar for duelling solos at the front of the stage.

He bunny-hopped with Loueke.

If there was a criticism it's that at times between the musical magic Hancock did appear every inch his age: he forgot to introduce one of the band members, seemed a little lost for words at times and then behind his electronic keyboard plugged in his Vocoder for a rather rambling meditation on Covid and ended up asking how many families are there in the world. Answer: just one.

It was the kind of quasi-philosophical train of thought that speaks more of age than his genius, which lies elsewhere.

Herbie Hancock won't play in this city again and its unlikely we would see members of that extraordinary band here either.

But for this giant of 20^th and 21^st century music – be it jazz, pop, electro-funk or whatever – it was mission accomplished: a great band rewriting great music in the moment . . . and before an adoring audience.

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Herbie Hancock and band, Aotea Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, October 8 2024

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There are previous interviews, concert and album reviews of Herbie Hancock at Elsewhere starting here.

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Elsewhere tries to take a different approach to reviewing live concerts, often looking at the bigger picture or wider context rather just a setlist recount of the show.

You can find those in other forums.

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