Herbie Hancock Review – Perth Concert Hall (23.10.24)
For a man who played with Miles Davis and composed for Antonioni, Herbie Hancock appears surprisingly young. Not only that, but last night he brought that youth to the Perth Concert Hall and had the crowd hooting and hollering like it was a music festival. People were calling out “We love you Herbie!”, “We named our son after you!”, and even “Your music saved my life!”. It was surreal to see just how many people– young and old– were completely ecstatic to see the man himself walk on stage in his iconic black trench coat, with its closed neck giving him the air of a doctor or grand minister.
The deep rumble of his voice had people mesmerised throughout the night– even when he was just testing a mic, people lent in attentively– but the low of his voice echoing through the hall set the stage perfectly for his psychedelic, prog introduction. Playing along with alien synths and quoting freely from his songs like ‘Butterfly’– not to mention the neon lights the band was bathed in– made for a transportative scene setter.
When that little journey was over, Herbie introduced the band. He had nothing but the highest praise for all of them– the cream of the crop, the best of today’s jazz– and it’s easy to see why. Lionel Loueke, James Genus, Terrence Blachard, and Jaylen K. Petinaud are all jazz stars in their own right– with Terrence Blachard boasting a long list of film scores for Spike Lee too. And throughout the night, each player had solos to show off their unique sensibilities, which gave exciting insight into how the five play together– watching closely, you could see five separate worlds overlapping onstage during any song.
Hancock would crackle and storm on his grand piano like great fire and lightning, while Loueke and Genus sing silently along to the their guitar tunes– there were times when Genus was so lost in the music that he would actually voice the song he was hearing– bum ba da da dum, dum. In the back Jalen would break out into big bright grins while thrashing his drum set, as if he couldn’t believe his luck– and playing with Hancock et al. at 26 is a good reason for that. And the great trumpet maestro Blachard would writhe and bend over while playing like all the greats, as if his very soul was being pushed out his lips and into that shining brass.
There were endless unique moments and peaks during their mercurial set. After half an hour of instrumentals, Loueke’s guitar solo broke out into Xhosa-style singing and clicking and not knowing what he was singing, you imagined words too beautiful for meaning– and the truth is, Loueke’s singing wasn’t lyrics but another freeform music akin to scatting. Another stellar moment was after Hancock had switched from grand piano, to synthesiser, to keytar. He stood and screeched and played a back and forth with Loueke that had them grinning and jumping on the stage.
It was an electric ending, and the finale was a composition by Loueke that fused ‘Spider’, ‘Rockit’, and ‘Hang Up Your Hang Ups’. It was a packed ninety minutes that felt far longer, and yet not long enough. When they finally did play that last note– and they stretched it out as far as they could– the crowd was clapping, then standing to clap, then extending their standing ovation as far as they could. Hancock bent over the front of the stage to shake hands and the whole theatre kept on clapping until she finally ran off the stage. What a night.
About the Author
Branden Zavaleta Based in Perth, Branden writes on the arts for a handful of Australian outlets. He's also a street & creative portrait photographer, who's work can be found @brandenzp on Instagram.
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