Review | Herbie Hancock as incredible as ever at Hong Kong’s Freespace Jazz Fest 2024
Jazz legend Herbie Hancock showed he’s still got it at the Freespace Jazz Fest 2024, with other stand-out acts including Ted Lo and Heidi Li
If there was one instrument that stood out at the sixth Freespace Jazz Fest it was the piano, with four of six ticketed headline shows at the West Kowloon event spotlighting pianists. Of course, none cast a shadow a tenth as long as Herbie Hancock, one of the world’s most famous improvisers.
“Someone is saying jazz is dead? I think the person who said that is dead already!” he quipped on stage at Wonderland on October 28, as much a reference to his own longevity as the genre’s dogged endurance.
Aged 84, Hancock has, remarkably and defiantly, still got it.
Perhaps those boyish jumps while blazing up a keytar during the closing strut of “Chameleon” were not quite as high as they used to be, but his technical faculties remain alarmingly primed, as evidenced in the execution of “Actual Proof”, a knotty, rhythmic workout.
And while he has released no new music for over a decade, the devout Buddhist is finding new ways to reincarnate the old, like the opening “Overture”, a trippy, 25-minute medley hinting at Hancock themes over the years. It served as a scene-setting showcase of his staggeringly skilled five-piece band, who in truth today handle a lot of the heavy lifting.
