Review: 6/25/4 Herbie Hancock: Carnegie Hall; New York, NY
Lineup: Herbie Hancock, piano
Wayne Shorter, saxophones
Dave Holland, bass
Brian Blade, drums
Very good things happen when jazz meets jam.
Out of the blue came Bill Cosby to introduce the band, and we were off. They opened with a mesmerizing 15 minute J-A-M. It started with a Hancock solo for about 3 minutes, then Holland, Blade, and finally Shorter coming in one at a time in 3 minute intervals. Very minor and heavy jam with incredible dynamics. The staggered entrances were extremely exciting, because you wondered when each member was going to actually start playing. Each member\'s entrance was so subtle it was like he had been playing all along. They each just eased right into it. They explored several areas of tension and dynamic individually and as a team. Superb listening throughout. The ending was incredible, a decrescendo that lasted so long that it is impossible to say when it actually started. The volume decreased and decreased, then let out so smoothly that when it was finally over, the whole room was dead silent for a good 20 seconds before people finally accepted that it was over and began applauding. As professional a jam as I\'ve ever seen!
The rest of the set consisted of almost exclusively deep and minor tunes, all opening with jams before the head. They never returned to a head after solos, instead using the tunes as jam vehicles and ending with their mesmerizing and perfect decrescendos. Holland and Blade really led the way through these jams. Shorter actually offered very little in the jams, but he made his contributions count and the jams flowed beautifully with and without his playing. It is very, very rare to see a musician, particularly one of Shorter\'s prominence, to be willing to sit back for the better part of a performance. It is even rarer to see a musician play so little and yet the show still lives up to its maximum potential.
After a 1 hour 19 minute set, they left the stage, came back and encored with Cantaloupe Island. Talk about a tune I never thought I would see performed live in a million years. Hancock played a fantastic, pulsating beat throughout the tune on just the lowest 12 keys. It was an incredible piano line. After one of Shorter\'s only true solos of the evening, they mopped up with another short group jam and the only hard ending of the night. The place went nuts. My only criticism of the performance is its brevity. 1:19 is too short for any concert, sporting event, theatre production, basically any entertainment, especially when tickets are $30-$75. They had so much more to say out there that they left on the stage. Do they have somewhere else to be? If you are a professional jazz musician, what could you possibly have to do that is better than playing a gig at Carnegie Hall? Aside from that, what they did play out there was about 85% straight jamming, and a style of jamming that no jamband can get near. They listened and complimented incredibly, worked as individuals and as a cohesive unit magnificently, and the opening jam was one for the ages.
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