I just saw Herbie Hancock performing in my littletown of San Miguel de Allende, MX!

[Doug Robinson]

San Miguel has a some very good and even excellent jazz players living here. I'm somewhere on that spectrum but I'm far from the only one. Our concerts are usually about half full--not mine because I know how to promote and have a good following--so imagine our surprise with the local government began promoting four free concerts in the main town square can calling it The City of Jazz! None of us were even considered, even though jazz players from Mexico City and nearby Queretaro were.

 

Still, the concerts all looked good and the kicker was that Saturday night, it was the one and only Herbie Hancock. My gf and I went early, around 3 pm to save about 12 seats for friends. Out comes Herbie at 82 for his soundcheck. Steinway grand and a Korg synth--not sure of the model as a music stand blocked my view for a few inches.

James Genus on bass, Justin Tyson on drums--both highly competent players. The biggest surprise was Terrance Blanchard on trumpet--holy moly, what an exciting player. He used an octave divider on his horn for many melodies which gave the flavor of a tenor sax doubling his trumpet but an octave lower. It really, really worked.

Herbie has always been a hero since the '60s, and then in the '70s and the '80s and so on. He was simply amazing, creative, relaxed, funny. Great energy--I think he was genuinely touched by the 7000 people chanting "Herbie! Herbie!"

 

The music ranged from somewhat harmonically obscure acoustic jazz to fiery fusion. His synth work was simply beyond my ability to describe except by focusing on specific moments--several of them featuring his work on the vocoder.

 

In the '70s, he released a pop album using a vocoder which no one else had done yet. I thought it was fun and gimmicky. Now everyone uses it but...he played a ballad and used it from start to finish, lovely cryptically romantic lyrics and then the band dropped out and we were treated to a 10 minute improvised section where he sang/played out of tempo the most glorious chord voicings to match his poignant and sometimes funny lyrics.

 

I swear, some of his chord voicings would have made Bill Evans swoon. Just GORGEOUS music, improvised, searching and delivering at a very un-rushed pace.

Ain't no one doing what he is doing on that instrument that I have heard. But since his other accomplishments are so well known, it seems petty to ask why he isn't more famous for that aspect.

I also want to add that when he comped, he would go back and forth from piano to the synth, and when on the synth he would change sounds really often, like maybe 10 times per song. I really questioned why I'm so conservative about this kind of thing, at least so far.

[Doug Robinson]

 

[Ivan May]

Awesome! Huge Herbie Hancock fan, and I’m so glad you got to see him perform!!

[NewImprov]

So cool! I've seen Herbie 3 times, first time was with the reunited HeadHunters in '96, then with his Future2Future band in the early 00's, and in a duo with Wayne Shorter a few years later. Every time, he was transcendent. Plus, I have watched hundreds of hours of video of his concerts. Regardless of the setting, he is just such a musical and endlessly inventive player, and he just seems to exude a joy of playing. He is truly a master, and we are lucky that we still get to hear him play.

[KuruPrionz]

I saw Herbie Hancock on the original Headhunters tour, fantastic. 

I'm a fan, he is both a stellar musician in his own right and an amazing bandleader.