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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The venerable Herbie Hancock was warm and affable on stage, speaking comfortably to the audience between each piece with insight and humor. In his introduction, he compared the pros and cons of performing with a band versus solo, professing his love of interacting with other musicians but admitting to enjoying the freedom of playing alone… despite having a “virtual band” on stage with him courtesy of pre-recorded, manipulated, and looped backing tracks. Unfortunately, Hancock’s arsenal of electronics increasingly distracted from his virtuosic playing throughout the evening, proving to be more of a hindrance than an enhancement.

Hancock displayed his unfailing improvisational skill with his opening piece, the Wayne Shorter tune “Footprints,” performed entirely on acoustic grand piano. A free-form interpretation, Hancock’s inspired exploration of the melody featured syncopated rhythms contrasted with understated, airy harmonies. His spry technicality and lyrical creativity—shifting seamlessly from one idea to the next—left the audience in rapt attention. Numerous false endings and occasional snippets of the original melody and bass line kept the audience engaged.

“Dolphin Dance,” a Hancock composition, followed. Beginning this tune on acoustic grand, Hancock again meandered around the main theme, transforming the smooth and lovely original into something else entirely. He made full use of dynamics and all octaves of the keyboard, injected colorful dissonances in harmonized phrases, and went off on imaginative yet somewhat tense tangents.

Hancock began introducing electronic elements here, morphing without pause from “Dolphin Dance” into an untitled spontaneous experimentation. Shifting his body from the acoustic grand to a synthesizer, Hancock recorded short riffs of different timbres on the spot and played them back over speakers on a loop. Before long he had a bass line, pointillistic high pitches, a clicky percussion sound, and so on, looped ad infinitum over which he soloed on electronic keyboard and acoustic grand. This voice layering resulted in a soothing, atmospheric groove, and created a highly intimate moment between artist and audience.

Next, Hancock teased the orchestral piano concerto version of his “Sonrisa,” which opened with a trembling, mysterious introduction on acoustic grand. Several genre influences were apparent, from funk, modern jazz, post-bop, and even a little rock. The recorded, looped orchestral ostinatos were tedious—dramatic hits and vamped sequences—and made me wish I were either hearing the full actual orchestral version, or an arrangement for solo acoustic piano. Electronics overwhelmed this piece; I strained to hear what Hancock was playing on the acoustic grand often, an issue that persisted through the next piece, “Canteloupe Island.”

The classic “Canteloupe Island,” however, was more well received by the audience, as was his final song, “Rockit,” which he gleefully performed on keytar. “Rockit” was fun, electrifying, and pure old school hip-hop. His use of the “ghettoblaster” vocal sample sound bank was a clear highlight of the night, simply for its sheer entertainment value. For the encore, Hancock brought the keytar back onstage and performed his funky-as-hell Head Hunters hit, “Cameleon.”

REVIEW:
Lied Center of Kansas
Herbie Hancock
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Lied Center of Kansas, University of Kansas
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For more information, visit http://lied.ku.edu

By Kristin Shafel Omiccioli

Editorial Assignments Executive Editor; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Kristin Shafel Omiccioli, a native of Madison, WI, holds composition degrees (M.M., B.M.) from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Kristin's compositions have been performed at national and regional new music festivals and conferences throughout the United States. During her time at UMKC, Kristin also focused on double bass performance and arts administration. She was a student leader and performer in many of the Conservatory's student organizations and ensembles, including Musica Nova, Composers' Guild, the Conservatory Student Association, the orchestras, and Wind Symphony. Her composition instructors were James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, and Chen Yi, and her bass instructor was Sue Stubbs. Formerly a guitarist, Kristin performed with big bands and her own jazz combo in Madison, WI, having studied jazz guitar and theory with Roger Brotherhood in Madison and jazz voice and theory with Hal Melia in Kansas City at UMKC.

Kristin enjoys being active in the performing arts community. She has volunteered with the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City and Charlotte Street Foundation, and has played in the bass section of the Northland Symphony Orchestra, among other bass gigs around the metro. Kristin currently serves as principal bass for the Kansas City Civic Orchestra and Heritage Philharmonic, and is a section bassist for Kinnor Philharmonic. She joined the writing staff of KCMetropolis.org in February 2010 and has been KCM’s executive editor since July 2011. Read her blog at mylittleheartmelodies.com.