Hancock Live, Party Like Adults, Walking the Dog, Road To Nowhere

How often can you say you’ve seen a legend perform live? I mean, someone who’s changed the face of their chosen art? Someone who helped to define an era and influence and inspire countless generations after them? I would say for me it was once, and it was Friday night. I was lucky enough to see the maestro himself, Mr. Herbie Hancock, live in Indianapolis at the Murat Theater.

To say it was a revelatory moment for me is putting it mildly. Of Herbie Hancock’s generation of jazz performers, those that still walk among us – let alone are still performing – is dwindling. At 83 years old he’s no longer a spring chicken as they say, yet that night he was so full of life and willing to tell stories to the audience. He was playful and engaging, and most of all still very much the prodigious performer even at an age when most folks are definitely NOT jamming on a theater stage for 2 hours.

And when I say jamming, they jammed. His band was tight, with guitarist Lionel Loueke, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, bassist James Genus, saxophonist Devin Daniels, and drummer Trevor Lawrence, Jr. I didn’t know what to expect, given that Herbie is 83. I thought maybe it’d be a medley of classics, rounded out with some softball jazz light on headiness and heavy on easy listening. Thank God I was wrong, as this was some seriously groovy and out there performances.

Standout moments were the band absolutely blazing through classics like “Actual Proof” from Thrust, Herbie stopping to talk about his best friend Wayne Shorter who passed away almost a year to the day and then going into a riveting version of Shorter’s trademark composition “Footprints”(arranged by trumpeter Blanchard who has scored nearly every Spike Lee film since 1991’s Jungle Fever), and closing out the night with the scorching funk of Headhunters opener “Chameleon”. For this amazing finale Hancock broke out the keytar and as soon as he played those iconic opening notes the onlookers lost their minds(including me.)

In-between all of that were some amazing standout performances from each of Hancock’s band members. Loueke had some mind-blowing moments on his guitar including a standalone cover of Hancock’s “Rockit”, as well as some far out guitar sounds that were somewhere between Adrian Belew, Tom Morello, and John Abercrombie. Terence Blanchard resurrected the spirit of Miles with some truly powerful solos, while saxophonist Devin Daniels did some exploratory work that would have made maestros like Wayne Shorter, Hank Mobley, and John Coltrane proud. And the rhythm section of Genus and Lawrence was the foundation that the rest of the band needed to explore while still being grounded.

Making the night even more special was the fact that my wife and I went with one of my best friends and his wife. He’s also been my work pal for the past 25 years. It was an evening for adults to do adult things, like eat at the famous Shapiro’s Deli before the show, and go to a concert where we can actually sit the entire 2 hours without drunks getting in our way or having to stand the whole time. It was lovely. And we were in a crowd among like-minded folks that knew they were in the presence of greatness.

Herbie Hancock was the first jazz musician I truly obsessed over. Even before Miles, Coltrane, and all the rest I’m now a huge fan of, it was Herbie Hancock that was my gateway to the world of jazz. I bought Empyrean Isles at Borders Books in 2000s after hearing “Cantaloupe Island” on some internet jazz station and it definitely perked my ears up. From there I was hooked and down the rabbit hole I went, exploring his earliest stuff, then his 70s funk fusion game changers like Headhunters and Thrust, and finally his Warner Brothers years that gave us masterpieces like Fat Albert Rotunda, Mwandishi, and Crossings. Though Sextant isn’t included in that trilogy as it was Hancock’s first record with Columbia Records, it is most definitely connected sonically and spiritually. Mwandishi, Crossings, and Sextant locked into the spirit of Miles’ Bitches Brew vibe, but with a more cosmic lean. I hold those records in high regard.

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After that amazing night of music and hanging out with friends it seemed the weekend could only go downhill from there, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. The rest of the weekend was mostly just a low key affair, working on some painting and music, as well as spinning records. The wife and I even watched that new Roadhouse flick with that Jake Gyllenhaal kid. You know what, it was a pretty damn good movie. Entertaining, funny at times, and some great fight scenes. If you’ve got Amazon Prime then you can watch it for free, so you’ve got nothing to lose but a couple hours of your time(this is not a paid promotion for Roadhouse, I just genuinely enjoyed it.)

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Monday I went with my wife over to pick up our daughter’s dog Celeste from the doggy daycare place and we took her back to the apartment. I didn’t really want to stay very late, but by the time we got there Miss Celeste was so happy to have us there hanging out that I said the hell with it and we just hung out a bit. We walked down to the Japanese restaurant and picked up some dinner. While we waited for it to be ready we explored a bit of downtown Columbia City.

It’s a town that I’ve known since I was a kid, as it’s a town you drive through on US 30 on your way to Fort Wayne. I never really gave it a second thought till one of my kids started living there. It’s a pretty decent city, with a thriving downtown and businesses that you actually want to visit(unlike my own hometown.) There’s some great places to eat and get coffee, as well as a pretty decent comic book shop to boot. Celeste has plenty of places to explore, with some trails on the outskirts of town. And it seems relatively safe, though there’s plenty of houses in town with sketchy looks and even sketchier dogs(did I tell you about the time one of those dogs ran out and attacked Celeste? Let’s just say it didn’t go well for that German Shepherd.)

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On the work front, apparently we are going to be open and working at least until April of 2025 now. That’s news from the top brass, apparently. But we’re all pretty sure that it’ll be longer than that due to the plant that’s taking our manufacturing over is still at least 15 months out on getting up and running to the point that they don’t need our assistance.

It’s a dumpster fire in progress.

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So besides that continually lingering over my head like a guillotine, my only issues as of late is some back pain. Pulled a muscle last Thursday, of all things, stretching my back because of, yep, back pain. It’s much better now, but those first couple days were fun. My wife did the same thing the next day, right before we were to be in the car for like 6 hours. Good thing we were with a couple that is a little older than us and have their own body aches and pains. We were a real dream team. 83-year old Herbie Hancock was probably in better shape than we were.

But hey man, we’re happy, reasonably healthy, and engaged with the world around us. Or at the very least, engaged with each other and continually finding things to light our brains up. Be it art, books, film, or music; the world is a much more interesting and satisfying place with art to keep our heads and hearts lit up. And with people(and dogs) we love and enjoy being with, it’s all the more a generous dollop of life and living.

Right? Right.