Herbie Hancock hits home run at Chicago Symphony Center

For his 14th gig at his hometown’s most illustrious venue, Herbie Hancock - who debuted at Orchestra Hall in knee pants aged 11 (playing Mozart’s Coronation concerto shortly before QEII ascended in 1952) - brought a crack sextet: Terence Blanchard, James Genus, session drummer/hiphop producer Trevor Lawrence, the remarkable Lionel Loueke and saxophonist Devin Daniels, a masters student at the pianist’s eponymous Institute at UCLA.

At 83 (you’d scarcely notice) Hancock seemed supremely at ease, yet rebuked himself for talking too much, lest wife Jessica, in attendance, rolled eyes. Cunningly he bypassed that issue by transmitting playful philosophical badinage via the vocoder he pioneered on 1978’s ‘Sunlight,’ after revisiting ‘Come Running To Me’.

Hancock learnt the hard way, losing money touring his uncompromising ‘Mwandishi’ sextet in the early 70s, thence pivoted to Headhunters paydirt, so he minced few bones about exhuming the populist (and equivocally lewd) remit of that funky concept here, deploying ‘Chameleon’ as the evening’s leitmotif. Earlier he grazed ‘Butterfly’ and, momentarily, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (once performed opposite Lang Lang in this hall), and Loueke extrapolated ‘Rock It’ replete with Xhosa clicks.

Central was an epic interrogation of the metrically techy ‘Actual Proof,’ inspired by Hancock’s trust in the outcome of Buddhist chant. At the outset, the leader laid back, establishing groove and counterpoint, showcasing sidemen, (Daniels’ ideas notably knotty and audacious), but during ‘Actual Proof’ and in funky keytar face-off with Loueke – they pogo-ed in front of each other, mock competitively – there were no prisoners.

A wonderfully energized concert, crowd-pleasing, sure to trample curmudgeons, yet ‘do you think he’ll ever play solo or trio again?’ echoed from an elderly patron. As with young-at-heart compadré, the late Wayne Shorter (Blanchard’s take on ‘Footprints’ featured, by the by), there is little ‘elderly’ about Hancock. When his grandson invaded from the wings at the end of a tremendous two hour set, he skipped across the stage alongside the toddler, like an evergreen teenager.