Herbie Hancock and Esperanza Spalding Push Musical Boundaries at The Hollywood Bowl

Community News, Entertainment — By Buddy Sampson on September 27, 2021 at 2:15 pm

By Buddy Sampson

Sunday September 27, 2021 was a special evening at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Bowl patrons were treated to an amazing night of entertainment, with innovative artists that dared to stretch the boundaries of their music- exploring new musical heights.

Opening the show was Esperanza Spalding with Leo Genovese. Leo Genovese, an Argentine pianist, was the perfect complement to Spalding, and their interplay throughout the night was seamless and innovative. Throughout many performances, people have known Esperanza as a bassist/vocalist. However the spotlight, this night, was on her vocal prowess. Esperanza’s voice was flawless and she demonstrated the range and versatility that only a trained singer and musician could demonstrate. Yes- her ability to have monster chops on the upright bass is impressive, but to be able to sing with a vocal range that not only shows her soulful background, but musical knowledge and training as well, was incredible to watch. She was flawless in her use of all kinds of musical modes and the facility and quality to her vocals few can match today. Her vocal ability, on this lovely but cool night under the stars, was ethereal, enchanting and magical. One of her songs was in Portuguese and she exercised a cool mastery of the stage, joking about her socks (she played without shoes) and about cell phones. She had a song about cell phone consciousness that was funny, but simply marvelous. No stage slouch was Leo Genovese either. He is a terrific musician, and throughout their set, alternated between piano, accordion and soprano saxophone. But what made their set special was their daring to push outside traditional music boundaries. They were nothing short of amazing.

One of our living architects of jazz, Herbie Hancock took the stage. After Herbie acknowledged the amazing performance that Spalding and Genovese executed with perfection, he explained to the audience that he planned on taking the music that night “way over there and come back to over here.”

His set was just that. This journalist has had the opportunity of seeing Herbie Hancock many times and he was perhaps EVEN MORE innovative than we’ve ever seen him. While he used conventions that he’s used in his sets before- the vocoder, synthesizers and more, the 81-year-old pianist and innovator seemed to push his musical boundaries even further- using his electronics to take the audience on an exciting musical journey, with a landscape of fantasy under the stars. He seemed to thrive in the spirit of the other terrific musicians on stage, which included Lionel Loueke on guitar, James Genus on bass, Justin Tyson on drums and an amazing flautist named Elena Pinderhughes, who also sang. Herbie delights in young innovative musicians and Elena’s playing was simply marvelous. Her fluid playing on the flute had the tonality of Hubert Laws, but the innovation of some of the masters of jazz. She is a true talent.

Perhaps to the chagrin of some of Herbie’s fans, he abandoned much of the acoustic piano in favor of the synthesizers, but when he did take the piano, he was simply amazing. However those that realized that Herbie made a decision to push musical boundaries were happy with this show. He focused on the Headhunters album, playing a song “Actual Proof” among others. In a musical interlude before the song, Loueke mesmerized the audience by doing a Herbie Hancock song “Rockit,” solo with him using guitar and vocal effect. It was amazing. Herbie performed a song “Come Running” and complained that his “vocoder wasn’t working well,” and then played it flawlessly, completely captivating the audience. Solos by drummer Tyson and bassist Genus rounded out the set. Hancock closed by performing a fantastic arrangement of his hit song “Chameleon” in which he invited two young musicians on the stage to join him (at press time we don’t have their names). He did a synth duet with a young pianist that is very very good. If we find out her name, we’ll add it.

Herbie Hancock, at 81 years young, still is managing to push the boundaries of music. The show at the Hollywood Bowl, on Sunday, September 26^th, for all of the artists that performed, and for the audience that attended simply pushed the boundaries of music and was entertaining for all that happened to be present to watch.