Master work

Jackson Hole News&Guide | Master work: "Herbie Hancock could have taken it easy Thursday night when he performed at the Center for the Arts.

He could have kicked back, hit a few keys on his fancy Fazioli grand piano once in a while, and let his younger bandmates do the heavy lifting.

Herbie Hancock could have taken it easy Thursday night when he performed at the Center for the Arts.

He could have kicked back, hit a few keys on his fancy Fazioli grand piano once in a while, and let his younger bandmates do the heavy lifting.

He is, after all, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, an icon of American music, as close as you get to a household name in jazz.

But instead, for his first appearance in Wyoming, the 70-year-old keyboardist delivered a muscular, intermission-less, 140-minute performance that demanded as much from the headliner as it did from his fellow musicians.

Skeptics who might have been wondering if the fusion and funk pioneer had gone too far around the pop bend with recent releases should have been appeased by the performance. Hancock’s effort felt spontaneous, dynamic and energetic, and while the performers relied heavily on electronics and effects — using pre-recorded MIDI files to fill in for African choirs or to create other exotic sounds — Hancock’s prodigious chops, developed over more than 50 years, were on display throughout the evening.

Far from detracting from the performance, the electronic effects served the band well as it pulled extensively from Hancock’s latest album, “The Imagine Project.” The sextet played six out of the 10 tracks on the spring release, calling for Malian chanting and Uilleann pipes among other specialized sounds. The effects also made possible live performances of three-quarters of Hancock’s platinum-selling album “Headhunters,” originally released in 1973, when electronic instruments were still monophonic.

When Hancock picked up his Roland AX-Synth — an electronic keyboard built into a guitarlike body that allows the performer to move about while playing — witnesses may have recalled his performance at the 1984 Grammy awards. Back then, he performed his hit “Rockit” on the then-unusual instrument. Some critics derided the electrical-engineering-major-turned-jazz-musician’s instrument choice as a gimmick, but 26 years later, the crowd at the Center Theater hooted as Hancock strutted the stage, trading licks with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist Pino Palladino, as much to his own delight as to that of the audience.

Other highlights from the evening included a far-ranging version of his 1964 favorite “Cantaloupe Island”; Kristina Train’s heart-melting performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark,” from Hancock’s 2007 Best Album Grammy-winning disc “The River”; and a warm and romantic solo that stripped away all the effects and showed what Hancock could do with just 88 keys and 10 fingers. Hiss from the sound system was an unfortunate distraction during the solo, but the pianist’s stage presence prevailed.

Hancock addressed the crowd directly a number of times, cracking up himself, his band and his audience with his patter. A standing ovation elicited a lengthy encore that started with “Chameleon,” possibly his most-recognized piece of music. At the end of the concert, the band — which also featured guitarist Lionel Loueke and second keyboardist/vocalist Greg Phillinganes — prostrated themselves before the jazz hero while the wildly appreciative audience cheered long and loud.

Palladino expressed his own awe for the bandleader after the concert, saying Thursday’s performance was not out of the ordinary for this tour.

“He pushes us every night,” he said, his smile telegraphing his delight with the results.