Went to see Herbie!

[Pale]

I was at Herbie's concert last night! Herbie played a Yamaha piano (I don't know which one) and Kronos 88. He also had a keytar which didn't work (their tech was on the stage half of the show trying to make it work). There were 2 others synths on stage which also, as Herbie said, refused to work. Herbie was rather casual about it, even made a few jokes and said "he's gonna have to do it old school". He then proceeded to do Chameleon on Kronos.

 

Kronos sounds great! He used it for synth solos , everything sounded fat and big. He also had a few ambiental chaotic moments on Kronos where he used a lot of pads and effects. I was really impressed at which speed he was able to switch between 2-3-4-5 different sounds and play them all to fit the arrangement.

 

He had Vinnie Colaiuta, James Genus i Lionel Loueke with him, all of them were pretty great. Loueke had a solo moment that was absolutely amazing. He did a solo piece using guitar, tons of effects on the guitar and his vocals through some kind of harmonizer pedal.

 

The band was great. What I didn't like was extended periods of soloing. They played for 2h and did only 6 songs, one of them was an encore. Maybe I'm just not a hardcore jazz listener, but I couldn't keep focused when they all went from theme to solo to total mayhem and stayed there for 15-18mins before coming back. I prefer my jazz when they play the song in a certain key, and then the venture out to create tension, not the other way when they play most of the time out and come back for 2 seconds just to let you know you are still listening to the same song.

 

That said, out of 6 songs they did every 2nd one was really too my taste. Tight groove, extended tasty synth solos. Herbie is truly a master of pitch bend. Now that I write it, it seems that I prefered all the songs they did on Kronos, and disliked all the piano ones. Go figure.

 

Unrelated to music, Herbie was really relaxed. Made some jokes, took his time walking and talking on the stage, made jokes when half of his setup refused to work and didn't seem annoyed or distracted at all.

 

Great show, great night.

[Analogaddict]

That's how it's done. Herbie is the consummate musician, a great showman and easygoing.

[Doerfler]

Great show, great night.

 

lucky you. Our keyboard hero's are aging so we need to jump on these chances like you did. I have tickets to see Herbie in April 2015, will be my first time. Hopefully I'll be as content as you.