Review – Herbie Hancock at Edinburgh Playhouse

The Edinburgh Playhouse was packed for one of the highlights of this year’s festival.

At 82 we find Hancock at yet another fascinating point in his career having recently played Glastonbury he shows no signs of slowing down. The Chicago born luminary is joined by Lionel Loueke, the pair have played together for 17 years and the guitarist works his magic during the opening Overture taking us far into outer space.

The band is one of the most incredible to have walked onto the Edinburgh Playhouse stage, it’s almost in the name of bassist James Genus, his virtuoso playing moving around the top end of the bass left most sitting around me slack-jawed. It’s the same for drummer Justin Tyson who is a joy to watch, the chemistry between Hancock and the band is red hot on funk classic Actual Proof. He plays Wayne Shorter’s Footprints and pays tribute to the 89-year-old musician whom he recorded the track with on the 1967 Miles Davis classic Miles Smiles.

Hancock from a gospel background and later drawn to Buddhism delivers easy-going charm and positive energy throughout. For me, the only low point was Come Running To Me, as someone who can’t stand the sound of the Vocoder I would have happily replaced this with the cultural milestone and hip-hop classic Rockit. Yes, this was a glaring omission from the set but we were treated to the standard Cantaloupe Island, a cut that sounds as fresh as the day it was released in 1964.

Still a showman, Hancock strutted his stuff on the edge of the stage and got down during Chameleon while sporting a David Clavitar keytar. Herbie Hancock remains a living legend and godfather of jazz who began his career with the likes of Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis before going on to pioneer, experiment with jazz and other genres.

He remains at the top of his game in 2022.