Herbie Hancock

While I’m still on a high after Stevie I thought I would write about some other cool concerts I’ve seen recently before I forget the details.
Herbie Hancock played in 2007 at the state theatre in Sydney. I wish all concerts could be held there. It’s small, you get a good view and sounds good. It was the first time I’d ever been to hear a world famous jazz artist, and the first time I’d sat in a concert with my mouth open in awe for the whole show, or grinning away, just loving it. Oh except for the first 20 minutes. That was bizarre. He did this long piece of synth stuff which had no melody, no rhythm, and I was getting worried. I just wanted to hear watermelon man.
But once he got the weirdness out of his system, it was all good. He got into the Head Hunters stuff, and I’d never heard such amazing playing live before. The drummer was Vinnie C, bass player Nathan East and an African guitarist whose name I can’t think of. He did some tunes with paper stuck in the strings of his guitar playing in weird African time signatures, and I loved it. Really clever.
And Herbie did the daggy thing of playing the keytar – you know that 80s thing of wearing a keyboard round your neck like a guitar. All totally for show. And he loves choosing the cheesiest synth sounds, but you just forgive him because you love the music and his playing. How could you not be on the cloud 9 when the guy who helped write Chameleon is sitting 30m in front of you playing it himself? Yep. Good times. One of the best nights of my life. Pretty shallow I know, but meaningful life events keep eluding me so live music is as good as it gets.