Herbie Hancock: Next Generation
Hollywood Bowl, August 21, 2019
Hancock has always been a leader in bringing new sounds to jazz and in crossing over into popular music, so the match between the septugenarian Hancock and players in their 20’s and 30’s never felt forced. Indeed, the juxtaposition and eventual collaboration between players who grew up with hip-hop and the keyboardist who first came on the scene in the era of hard-bop showed contemporary music catching up with Hancock’s ideas at least as much as it did his keeping pace with recent developments. Herbie Hancock’s set included music from all phases of his career, with the Headhunters era particularly well represented by an early set version of “Actual Proof” and a later all-star jam on the heavily sampled “Chameleon,” and generously included features for flautist-singer Elena Pinderhughes, guitarist Lionel Loueke and featured guests Phoelix and Thundercat, whose “Them Changes” was a crowd favorite. Hancock played a few different keyboards, getting sounds from funky to spacey from a Korg Kronos and a Keytar (his call and response on that instrument with sheets of sound soloing from saxophonist Washington was one of the highlights of the night), but he always returned home to a grand piano. Robert Glasper made good use of a Fender Rhodes on the closing jams of “Chameleon” and “Cantaloupe Island.” James Genus and Vinnie Colaiuta ably served the music on bass on drums, Colaiuta in particular driving it home with an approach that at times seemed to be part of a piece’s melody.
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