Last Saturday I went to see Herbie Hancock, it was amazing!
His current band:
Herbie Hancock – Piano, Synth, Keytar
Terence Blanchard – Trumpet, Synth
Lionel Loueke – Guitar
James Genus – Bass
Jaylen Petinaud – Drums
The highlight for me was the young drummer – he’s only 26 – who was incredibly skilled and energetic, had great dynamic control and created a very modern sound using a setup that is not common in straight ahead jazz drumming (e.g. among others he used a clap stack cymbal and a spiral cymbal). The concert had an experimental vibe at times, the trumpeter had a number of effects that made him sound like a whole horns section, the guitarsit did a lot of rhythmic percussive parts and during some solos his guitar sounded like a guitar synth. The bassist at one point, using a looper pedal, played a whole piece by himself (chords and lead) while the rest of the band took a break. Herbie himself made use of some vocoder based patches and played a “spoken words” vocoder solo that had a spiritual vibe, where he talked about his Buddhist faith and the fact that he believes all humans are part of the same family. As a whole the band were incredibly groovy and the concert had high intensity. Herbie, despite his age (he is 84) ended the last piece jumping up and down while playing a keytar, it was very entertaining. There was a well deserved, long standing ovation at the end.