Mon 23 Apr – Herbie Hancock, Vinnie Colaiuta, Lionel Loueke, Nathan East

It was a rainy Monday evening for Herbie Hancock's first Sydney concert in 10 years. The venue was the State Theatre, a beautiful old picture palace (have a look at the picture at the bottom of the page if you are not familiar with the State). Herbie's career has been a long one: his first concert was at age eleven in 1951, playing with the Chicago Symphony. His recording output over more than 40 years has ranged from classic 1960s cool jazz with Blue Note, through fusion, funk, electronic, african, back to jazz and even a bit of pop. Given this diversity and the fact that the most recent album in my collection is the 1995 The New Standard, I had no idea what to expect from the concert.

The stage was sparsely set, with a grand piano, keyboards, a drum-kit and some mikes. Shortly after 8pm, Herbie walked on stage with little ceremony (he was already bowing to the applause before the spotlight found him) and then took his seat at the keyboard. He began with a wandering ambient piece which would not have been out of place on a Global Communication album. After a while, he switched to the piano, continuing in a gently hypnotic style which had hints of Satie. As he continued to play, his fellow musicians joined him on stage, providing mellow accompaniment. These co-performers were Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Lionel Loueke on guitar and Nathan East on bass.

After winding up the opening number, Herbie stepped out to the front with the mike and announced that he'd started out slowly, but things were about to get harder. And with that, the band launched into a pounding rendition of "Absolute Proof" from Thrust. I really wasn't expecting anything from Herbie's 70s funk period with The Headhunters, so this was an exciting surprise and set the tone for much of the rest of the night.

Next Herbie gave some background to his recent album Possibilities, which featured a huge range of celebrity guests, including Christina Aguilera, Sting, Santana and Paul Simon. Commenting on the collapse of Tower Records, Herbie explained that he had done a deal with Starbucks to sell Possibilities at their coffee shops. He was surprised how well the discs sold, but noted that Starbucks had thousands of shops, while Tower Records (in their day) had only hundreds and, furthermore, Tower Records sold thousands of albums while Starbucks only sold a few.

All that said, Herbie checked the playlist and realised he'd got ahead of himself: the next piece was not from Possibilities but was instead a crowd-pleaser: Watermelon Man. There was a twist: it was combined with a Lionel Loueke composition. Loueke's piece was inspired by the music of his native Benin and, as Herbie emphasised, had the unusual time signature of 17 beats to the bar. This hybrid rendition of Watermelon Man was closer to the version on Headhunters than the original on Takin' Off and the band really began to fire. The drummer was pounding away like a maniac and part-way through, Herbie grabbed slung a little keyboard over his shoulder (the one in the picture) and launched into call and response jamming with the bass and the guitar. Some of the improvisation here was a little rough in parts, but Herbie was clearly having fun.


(Source: Wikipedia)

Then the pace wound back a little as they moved on to Stitched Up from Possibilities. Since none of the celebs had come on the tour, Nathan East would be the stand-in for all the vocals on the night. The two other songs from the album were versions of I Just Called To Say I Love You and, the best of the three, When Love Comes To Town. These, along with some more gentle wandering interludes, provided some dynamic balance from the heavier funk pieces.

Perhaps the most interesting performance of the night was a solo piece by Lionel Loueke. Making full use of his array of effects pedals (chorus, reverb, etc.) Loueke coaxed some extraordinary sounds from his guitar while singing, growling, popping and clicking. For a while he was a one-man African, electronic, avant-garde orchestra.

The encore started with another crowd-pleaser: Cantaloupe Island. With the melody played by guitar in place of trumpet, this was once more a powerfully funky performance. The night ended in Headhunters mode with Chameleon. By this point, Vinnie Colaiuta looked spent but Herbie, despite his 67 years, looked relaxed and happy. Loueke and East were also beaming. As well they should: the band had torn the roof off with some driving funk, while delivering the favourites that many of the audience would have hoped for.


(Source: State Theatre)