Herbie Hancock Celebrates Seventieth Birthday At Carnegie Hall In New York

Among a number of high-ranking pianists in New York this week — McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, Junior Mance, Cyrus Chestnut, Eric Reed, Gerald Clayton, Hiromi — Herbie Hancock commanded the biggest ticket prices. But then, he's so much more than a pianist. To say the least, this was a game of two halves, with an almost unbridgeable gulf between the first set and the largely vocal follow-up based on his new album, The Imagine Project.

A token comedy bit by Bill Cosby with Herbie as straight-man led to an hour honouring the Miles era. The rotating personnel including Jack DeJohnette, both Terence Blanchard and Wallace Roney, both Wayne Shorter and Joe Lovano, both Ron Carter and Dave Holland played in different line-ups — unusually, remaining on stage when not performing — and nailed Shorter's 'Footprints' and Carter's ‘81’. But it wasn’t until a short ‘Funny Valentine’ featuring Roney (of course) and a free-ish collective ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’ that things really took off.

Lionel Loueke looked distinctly out of place here, but was the only one to stay on for the second set, anchored by keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, bassist Tal Wilkenfeld (she also sang ‘Times They Are A-Changing’) and Vinnie Colaiuta — notably more sensitive than with the McLaughlin/Corea band. One of the strengths was all-purpose vocalist Kristina Train, who did a Joni on ‘Court And Spark’ and, if I'm not mistaken, sang in Irish as well as playing fiddle in a brief reference to the Chieftains. The even briefer contribution of India.Arie on ‘Imagine’ and a longer dose of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks with ‘Learning To Live Together’ took us into feel-good territory, while an a cappella ‘Happy Birthday’ (for Herbie’s 70th two months before) underlined the slightly self-congratulatory air of the exercise.