Barry O’Sullivan
When: Friday 11 October 2024
Where: Sydney Opera House

The legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock brought his final Australian tour of a stellar band to the stage of the Sydney Opera House, walking casually onto the stage with his three-year-old grandson Dru in hand to commence the proceedings. Dru showed off his flashing light-up sneakers to warm up the house for the excitement that was to come. Hancock stood in front of a similar-sized crowd at eleven when he performed the first movement of a Mozart, Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. By the time he graduated from Grinnell College in 1960, he was already performing in Chicago jazz clubs with Coleman Hawkins and Donald Byrd, who invited him to join his quintet and move to New York. During Hancock’s first recording session with the group, Blue Note label executives were so impressed that they offered him his first date as a leader in 1962. The resulting album, Takin Off, drew considerable public attention through an original tune with strong gospel influence, Watermelon Man, the popular closer for this farewell gig. Hancock joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1963. His piano style had, by that time, evolved into a highly personal blend of blues and pop with colourful harmony and exquisite tone, a rich combination of elements heard in Davis’ previous pianists, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Victor Feldman. Working with Ron Carter and the young Tony Williams, Hancock helped revolutionise traditional jazz concepts of the rhythm section and its relation to the soloists. He built on the earlier developments of diverse groups, such as the Bill Evans trio and Ornette Coleman’s Quartet. He established a musical rapport with an extraordinary degree of freedom and interaction, which was still evident to the capacity audience who warmly welcomed his latest ensemble, the electro-funk band.
The grandfather took his place at the Korg keyboard. He amused us with banter about whether he knew how to play this thing, then ignited the crowd with a collection of his hits from the past, lasting a good twenty minutes. Having played all of these songs countless times over his incredible career, Hancock still seemed to immensely enjoy reinventing and reinterpreting these works with Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Genus on bass, Lionel Loueke on guitar, and Jaylen Petinaud, the junior member of the band (26) on drums.
Hancock has always been at the forefront of technological advances in music, whether it be his use of the Korg, the Roland Vocoder, the Keytar or various synthesizers, all of which he had at his disposal this evening. Still, I glowed each time he turned and devoted his entire attention to the piano.
The quartet delivered a beautiful rendition of the late Wayne Shorter’s, Footprints with the new Terence Blanchard arrangement, followed by Actual Proof from the 1974 album Thrust with Hancock on piano. With the three-song arrangement of Hang Up Your Hang Ups, Spider and the commercially successful no.1 hit tune on the pop chart in 1983, Rockit demonstrated his ability to use the most complex innovations in electronic technology to produce outstandingly fascinating music.

Magical moments were realised, with Loueke’s West African guitar playing and his scat-styled, Xhosa-inspired tongue-clicking, James Genus’s extended bass solos, Terence Blanchard’s effortless achievement of some of the high and hardest notes possible to play on a trumpet without showcasing, and the smiling 84-year-old grandfather seemingly having the time of his life to the very last note on his keytar.
It was a privilege and a joy to be a part of a jazz legend’s farewell.