HERBIE HANCOCK AND LSO
Barbican

YOU might think that by reviewing Herbie Hancock (pictured) playing George Gershwin that Classical is moving dangerously into Grooves territory.
Yes, Hancock may be best known for his pioneering work in the field of synthesised funk and for his collaborations with Miles Davis, but he first came to public attention when he played Mozart’s D Major Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony, aged 11.
And Gershwin is as loved for his symphonic works as for his showtunes.
Given this classical pedigree, it makes sense Hancock’s quartet should join forces with the London Symphony Orchestra.
It’s difficult to overstate how highly-trained the LSO musicians are. They gel flawlessly with the quartet in unfamiliar repertoire having met them for the first time just hours before curtain-up.
And they can sit through long stretches of the quartet’s outrageously groovy extemporisations, and not one member of the orchestra will tap so much as a toe. My only niggle was that the sound quality was slightly hampered by some redundant amplification. If it were possible to reflect a melody in a smashed mirror, that might come close to encapsulating Hancock’s unmistakable jagged keyboard style.
It’s a wonder he can marry this with Gershwin’s songcraft.
Only once, in Someone to Watch Over Me, does he play something resembling a tune, although even that eventually ends up getting filtered through his trademark percolating funk as he shifts his hands from the Steinway to the synthesisers cluttered around him.
Working with orchestrator Robert Sadin, the pair have focussed on the harmonic and rhythmic elements of Gershwin’s music above all else. At its best, we got such colossal soundscapes as Blue Lullaby (originally a prelude for solo piano), a swampy number that lumbers into view with Ritchie Barshay’s voodoo drumming.
Occasionally, as in a kaleidoscopic Fascinating Rhythm, the results can be a little overwhelming, but enjoyably so, like Broadway at rush hour.
In the end it was perfect vindication of Duke Ellington, who said: “It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide…where the borderline lies between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no borderline.”