Concert Review: Herbie Hancock in Bucharest aa‚¬a€œ and thenaa‚¬A¦ there was jazz!

October 29 was a memorable day for the Romanian audience, and not solely for jazz lovers. The last twenty years have seen the Romanian concert scene grow, little by little, with more and more artists including the country in their tours and this day came as proof to the public’s musical evolution.

This means that quite quickly the local audience grew and responded positively to even more sophisticated beats, for more advanced listeners. In a country where pop and dance music continue to take the first positions in the local charts, there is still room for old-school and by-the-book jazz music, appreciated and cheered by thousands, who stood in awe all throughout the musical feast supplied during Herbie Hancock’s first concert in Romania.

If other artists were more reluctant to bring their new projects to Romania and focused on consecrated hits, perhaps underestimating its openness towards the new, this was not the case of the jazz artist and his amazing band, who brought the freshly released “The Imagine Jazz Project” to an eager audience. The titling song of the project, John Lennon’s “Imagine”, set the atmosphere for the jazz reinterpretation of other well known hits that have made history in the twentieth century.

Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A’Changin’”, in an intricate interpretation with Irish influences, or Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Comin’” came next in the playlist, both written for the support of the sixties’ Civil Rights Movement, as Hancock explained to the audience, like a music teacher would to his thirsty-for-knowledge pupils. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s “Don’t Give Up” followed in a just as surprising approach, accompanied by some of Hancock’s best known hits, “Watermelon Man”, “Cantalope Island”, “Chameleon” or “Rock it”.

Although Herbie Hancock’s most recent project features artists from all over the world, “as any global project should”, as Hancock put it, the artists that joined him successfully took the place of all the performers that were not able to attend. Kristina Train’s jazzy voice lived up to the challenge of the most various accords, the second pianist Greg Phillinganes, who had previously performed in Romania as part of Michael Jackson’s touring band, proved, as Hancock put it, that there was nothing “second” about him, as Phillinganes also demonstrated his noteworthy vocal abilities during the duos held with Train. Bass player James Genus was the living evidence for why his instrument is regarded as one of the most important in jazz, Lionel Loueke took guitar playing to a whole new “out of this world” level (in Hancock’s words), creating sounds that few others could, while drummer Trevor Lawrence Jr. brought the necessary energy that the conventionally unconventional jazz would not exist without.

All in all, the Herbie Hancock concert held at Sala Palatului was a memorable experience, attended by some perhaps out of snobbishness (positive, in this case), while by the majority, out of love for good music. And good music was what the pianist who once performed with Miles Davis offered to the over 3,000 spectators, left with the hope of an imminent and soon-to-come return.

Photo credits: Alex Barbulescu.