The sweat rolled down my back like a rainstorm on a window pane. Hot town, summer in the city alright and this heat wave was only getting hotter with a two hour jazz funk fusion trip lead by the legendary Herbie Hancock. This is how you want to close out your TD Ottawa Jazz Fest, am I right?
How hot? Afterwards people shoulda’ been checking their backsides for grill marks. “I like to discover new rules so I can break them,” Hancock, now pumping on passed the other side of his 70s, said last year. Laws? Right, toss ‘em to the curb, Herbie! This wallow in groove grove didn’t need ‘em! I just wanted to close my eyes and ride the beat buzz into the music. Who knew what we were going to find on this spacy vacation but two solid hours of Hancock’s pioneering sound dove us deeply into wherever it was. In those moments before dusk turned to darkness, this show’s backdrop was like living in a mellow yellow Starry Night star explosion with new song “Overture” easing us in by applying the musical brushstrokes tease of themes that would establish that night’s journey.
Buckle up buckaroos!
Herbie Hancock performs during the Ottawa Jazzfest. Photo: Renée Doiron
Though second cut “Actual Proof” Thrust us back in time to Hancock’s Head Hunters era, the tune sounds fresh from the master who jumped from electronic keyboard to grand piano with an ease that made you wonder if he somehow sprouted a couple extra sets of hands. Mercy! It was the new music like “Secret Sauce” that showed Herbie isn’t done exploring the universe of places his music can take him. The forthcoming album these new cuts were pulled from will see collaborations with Pharrel Williams, Kamasi Washington, Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg. Yeah, he ain’t done yet.
“Come Running to Me” was next up in the intergalactic spaced-out shakedown. Hancock’s singing into a vocoder made me hope for yet another collaboration, this time with Daft Punk. Herbie shred those keys with guitar-like riffs but actual guitarist Lionel Loueke had no trouble keeping pace. Tornado warnings were in effect in Ontario last night but a hurricane of a band was on that stage with James Genus on bass and Trevor Lawrence Jr. on drums joining Loueke to fill in the universe of funky supernovas popping off Hancock’s keys.
Though I’ve dropped a signature cut like “Cantaloupe Island” many times, hearing it live is like hearing it new. This extended meandering version, all tethered to the source by Hancock’s dip back into the track’s main melody, featured a tacked on extra called “Flying”. Annnnnnnd that’s just how it felt. Yeah, alright, maybe it was the Top Shelf talkin’ but find that right place to slide into the sound slipstream and you’re soaring up with the heat lighting providing early fireworks above the festivals most packed crowd of 2018.
Onward into the encore where “Chameleon” showed its multi-musical shades generously supplied by some Hancock keytar peppered with Martin and Loueke knocking out a few solo battles around the riffs. The 15-min plus Head Hunters cut was just one more trance before touchdown but this writer could have stayed up inside Herbie’s atmosphere a little while longer. Oh take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind…through the foggy ruins of time…
Herbie Hancock performs during the Ottawa Jazzfest. Photo: Renée Doiron
SETLIST:
Overture
Actual Proof
Come Running To Me
Secret Sauce
Cantaloupe Island / Flying
Chameleon
