{"id":3615,"date":"2024-10-20T16:30:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/?p=3615"},"modified":"2024-11-02T16:40:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T06:10:43","slug":"chameleon-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/?p=3615","title":{"rendered":"Chameleon Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Herbie Hancock
\nFestival Theatre.
\nOctober 20.<\/p>\n

It was (almost) fifty years ago today that Herbie Hancock got the band to play : Head Hunters<\/em>. The million-seller jazz fusion break-out of 1974. It was a much acclaimed album along with the first releases from Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra and indicative of Hancock\u2019s versatility and keen sense of the way the wind was blowing.<\/p>\n

A classical prodigy, at the age of eleven he played a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony. But listening to records by piano greats such as George Shearing, Errol Garner, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson brought him ever closer to jazz. At 21 he was working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins. Then, in 1962, his Blue Note solo album Takin\u2019Off<\/em> took off with the signature hit \u201cWatermelon Man\u201d.<\/p>\n

The world was listening \u2013 including Miles Davis who, in 1963 hired Hancock for his celebrated quintet until 1968. It was there, in the company of Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter that he cemented his early promise. Hancock featured on such classic pressings as Miles Smiles, Sorceror<\/em> and Nefertiti.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Miles in the Sky<\/em> went electric \u2013 Carter on bass, Hancock on piano \u2013 it was the beginning of the fusion adventure which incorporated the burgeoning funk and rock sounds of the late Sixties with the rapid evolution of keyboard technology \u2013 Fender Rhodes, Arp Odyssey, the Hohner clavinet and much more. Hancock stayed with Davis as he forged into places many disdained to tread. He played on the Jack Johnson<\/em> and On the Corner<\/em> sessions which sound even more amazing than they did fifty-five years ago.<\/p>\n

Hancock\u2019s other projects took a different turn and are among his most enduring. Mwandishi<\/em> released in 1971, followed by Crossings<\/em> a year later featured a quintet of the highest order. Taking on Swahili names in acknowledgement of the Back to Africa project in American Black politics at that time, the band \u2013 including trumpeter Eddie Henderson, reedman Bennie Maupin, the ethereal trombonist Julian Priester and a rhythm section comprising Billy Hart and Buster Williams \u2013 created a textured, fluid sound with almost disconcerting time changes of considerable subtlety and beauty. It is still one of my favourite periods of Hancock\u2019s extraordinary career.<\/p>\n

Onstage at the Festival Centre Herbie Hancock is still in complete command of his musical destiny. At 83, after 62 years as an undisputed leader in jazz he radiates a delight in his calling and pleasure in his continuing invention. Dressed in a long black frock coat, tinted specs, his hair crimped and gleaming, he is as stylish as ever, princely even. As the band assembles he takes up the microphone to introduce the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Always affable and urbane Hancock immediately acknowledges the band- \u201cThese guys are so creative, as you will hear.\u201d And \u2013 in a good way \u2013 he also flatters the audience . We are not only going to be a fantastic audience, we are central to the dynamic of the performance. They are not a quintet, he observes, the presence of the audience makes them a sextet- \u201cYou are part of what makes us play\u201d.<\/p>\n

Looking down at his setlist he introduces the \u201cOverture\u201d aka \u201cPrehistoric Predator\u201d \u2013 an obscure reference he quickly discards to say it will be \u201cbits and pieces from the past fifty years or so.\u201d The band proceeds to unleash a farrago of sounds \u2013 rushing surges, whistles, whoops, squelch accents, and then Hancock\u2019s familiar clusters and chords on the piano.<\/p>\n

It gathers strength and momentum \u2013 and volume. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard provides an assured, tensile lead (as he will all evening) James Genus\u2019s bass looms low and ominously, Lionel Loucke\u2019s heavily processed guitar adds fills and ripples while Jaylen Petinaud guides, bob and weaves with his immaculate drumming. It is a thrilling combination and it brings the reveries and questioning dissonances of the Mwandishi<\/em> and Crossings<\/em> period recordings vividly to life. Those extended explorations such as \u201cWandering Spirit Song\u201d and Sleeping Giant\u201d are evoked if not directly quoted.<\/p>\n

Hancock\u2019s acoustic piano playing (on a Venetian Fazioli which he stipulated for all concerts in this Australian tour) is dexterous and hypnotic before he swivels to his favoured Korg Kronos keyboard for the hard-edged funk fanfare opening to \u201cChameleon\u201d, centrepiece from the Head Hunters<\/em> album and leitmotif for much of the evening. The band goes full throttle and the precision is delectable.<\/p>\n

The setlist consists of just six items- which are pretty much unvarying in the setlists for the whole tour. Hancock pays understated but heartfelt tribute to \u201cmy best friend,\u201d the late Wayne Shorter, with a reading of \u201cFootprints\u201d composed by Shorter for his 1967 album Adam\u2019s Apple<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Opening with Genus\u2019s cavernous bass, Loueke vamping on guitar and Hancock\u2019s decorative piano, the fifteen minute rendition is led by Blanchard\u2019s superb musicianship. That the central melody is played on a trumpet and not saxophone, as Shorter would have done, is both audacious and revelatory.<\/p>\n

Hancock\u2019s solo is archetypically playful and melodic, then Loueke\u2019s guitar deals in with a swing rhythm, while Genus thrums bass and Petinaud\u2019s drumming is crisp and emphatic. All of this, though, is to serve Blanchard\u2019s majestic trumpet. Sometimes it sounds like Jon Hassell, others Dizzy Gillespie \u2013 and often, the Picasso of jazz, Miles Davis, master of timbre and mood. Composer of more than 80 film scores and two operas performed at the New York Met, Terence Blanchard, with his bleached cropped hair, conspicuous bling, and iridescent leather britches, is a star to rival Hancock himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cActual Proof \u201c from the 1974 Thrust<\/em> album is the next excursion. Beginning with drum agitations from Petinaud and strutting and fretting from Loueke\u2019s ever-morphing guitar, Blanchard then continues with what might be the melody line before Herbie takes charge with cascades of frenetic funk-bop – swivelling from Korg to piano as the band splendidly threads together once more. James Genus takes another intrepid solo before getting into lock-step with Petinaud, who delivers a solo voyage of his own to conclude.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not easy playing with these guys,\u201d Hancock exclaims after this actual proof of the band\u2019s prowess. Then he grins with pride- \u201cBut it\u2019s not that hard either.\u201d Introducing the players he says of Jaylen Petinaud \u2013\u201che\u2019s young enough to be my grandson\u201d adding that the next generation of jazz is in safe hands.<\/p>\n

James Genus, we are reminded, is resident bassist with Saturday Night Live<\/em> and attention turns to Lionel Loueke. \u201cHave you ever heard anyone play guitar like that ? \u201c Hancock exudes. From Benin, Loueke brings an extraordinary range of effects and rhythms, pressing pedals which turn his instrument into a West African kora and other traditional sounds.<\/p>\n

Along with his pioneering synth and clavinet work Herbie Hancock was an early adopter of the vocoder, a gizmo favoured by Kraftwerk, ELO, Daft Punk and numerous others that turns the human voice into data signals which compress, encrypt and transform range and sounds into electronica. After some light-hearted demos of its wizardry, Hancock performs (with vocal assist from Loueke, and a meditative solo from Genus) his heartfelt hymn to peace and harmony \u2013 \u201cWe Are All One Family\u201d.<\/p>\n

The program definitely favours the fifty year vintage repertoire with \u201cThree-in-one\u201d – a medley mashup of \u201cHang Up Your Hang Ups\u201d, \u201cRockit\u201d and \u201cSpider\u201d. For \u201cRockit\u201d Hancock takes up his other early prototype instrument , the Keytar \u2013 a keyboard designed to be slung over the shoulder like a guitar with fret-like fingering as well as piano keys. It is not the neon sizzling \u201cRockit\u201d sound of the famous Top Ten hit and Grammy winner, rather the band finds a more restrained and nimble funk vibe, assisted by Blanchard on keyboards. And this brilliant new variation is just as catchy and ear-wormy as ever.<\/p>\n

And speaking of ear-worms, \u201cChameleon\u201d comes back as the closer . Those opening fanfares, again from the keytar. Hancock mooches, like Chuck Berry, closer to the rhythm section, duetting with the bass and urging on Petinaud\u2019s flawless drum rhythms. Loucke dials up more unguitar-like sounds and also pairs with Hancock, generating a groove like two aliens introducing themselves to each other in the intergalactic language of Electrofunk, Herbie doing a little bouncy Moon shuffle of sheer elation.<\/p>\n

Hancock chose his song well. He is a musical Chameleon who has adapted, shapeshifted and morphed, remade and renewed himself many times in his stellar career. But, at the same time, his style and signatures have never really changed.<\/p>\n

Who was it who said \u2013 \u201cWe shall not cease from exploration\/ And the end of all our exploring\/Will be to arrive where we started\/And know the place for the first time.\u201d ?<\/p>\n

murraybramwell.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herbie Hancock Festival Theatre. October 20. It was (almost) fifty years ago today that Herbie Hancock got the band to play : Head Hunters. The million-seller jazz fusion break-out of 1974. It was a much acclaimed album along with the first releases from Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra and indicative of Hancock\u2019s versatility and keen sense of the way the wind was blowing. A classical prodigy, at the age of eleven he played a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-46","category-archive","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3622,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3615\/revisions\/3622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}