Photographs by Dawn Hamilton.
Toronto’s Massey Hall has been the host to number of legends in it’s long shinning life, including the greats such as Buddy Guy, John McLaughlin, Neil Young, Mark Knopfler, Glenn Gould, Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Dylan, George Gershwin, and Oscar Peterson. The best of the best has always picked this spectacular venue to express their musical dialog with the elite audience on the seats of the legendary hall, who have expected nothing but perfection. On Tuesday night, two of the greatest Jazz legends provided nothing less than that expected perfection. The 73 year old Chick Corea with 50+ years of experience and sixty-three Grammy Awards nomination, out of which he has won twenty-two, joined the 75 year old Herbie Hancock, also with 50+ years of experience with an Academy Award and fourteen Grammy Awards, to share their collective wealth of musical ideas, taste, and knowledge with the music lovers presented in a unique sold out show. Indeed the musical wealth and treasure which has been expressed throughout the decades through countless numbers of recordings, performances, and collaborations with the giants such as Stanley Clarke, Gary Burton, Pat Metheney, Dave Holland, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Howard Jones, Al Di Meola, Dave Weckl, Frank Gambale, and of course Miles Davies.
Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock were welcomed on the stage by the warm applause of the keen, excited audience. To kick off the night, the gentlemen began by paying the tribute to two Torontonian Jazz legends, Glenn Gould, and Oscar Peterson. “A lot of people don’t know, but he was into synths” Herbie Hancock said of Oscar Peterson with whom he had the opportunity to perform. “He was a geek!”, Herbie Hancock continued. And then to the musical conversation.
“You probably thought we had a setlist planned … wrong!”, said Herbie Hancock, dressed in the blazer and checkered shirt. “We’re going to start out with nothing”, Chick Corea continued, in his casual denim. Being in the absolute moment was what the greats were aiming for, and so that was what the audience received for the absolute majority of the unplanned setlist. Total improvisation, done on the two grand pianos facing each other, as well as the accompanying synthesizers which both musicians used the most during their second improvisational piece in which Herbie Hancock implemented some Hip-Hop beats as a part of his improvisational dialog, while Chick Corea coloring the sonic canvas by reaching into the top of his piano to mute and pluck the strings, the musical approach he continued to tastefully demonstrate through some of the other pieces.
Beside music, I also found the conversations between Mr .Corea and Mr. Hancock incredibly satisfying, entertaining, and even educational. Speaking of education, Chick Corea remembered his one-month experience at Columbia university in ’59, which was followed by his two-months of Juilliard School of Music in ’60. “Practicing to get into Juilliard was the best part, because I had to learn to play all these beautiful classical songs, but … it was just not what I was looking for at the time”, remembered the humble Chick Corea. Herbie Hancock, on the other hand, mentioned how he benefited from the full-length education in the university, where he studied the range of subjects including Physics and Engineering. “You are the first Jazz musician Physicist then”, said Chick Corea, to which Herbie Hancock responded that he was just interested to be the first to get the latest pieces of technology, and continued “No, I did not buy the expensive Apple watch … but i pre-ordered one” to which the crowed burst out in laughter, the one of many during the night.
Locking eyes while improvising, with Chick Corea quietly phrasing out the music with his mouth and Herbie Hancock with a satisfying grin on his face, the dynamic duo also performed some of each others best-known songs, including Corea’s “Lineage” and Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and “Cantaloupe Island”. Each piece uniquely performed, each member of the audience a fortunate receiver of those unique musical gems. For the final piece, after coming back to the stage through the wave of applause, Chick Corea asked the audience if they would like to sit-in with the duo. The response was obvious, and so Mr. Corea began the instruction. By dividing the men into two groups and the ladies into three groups, Chick Corea created a choir to accompany the duo with five chords, one for each group, to perform the magnificent piece from the days of Return to Forever, one of the most performed and well- known Jazz classics, “Spain”. And with that, a journey through an hour and half of musical heaven created by two of the Gods had come to an end, though the memory of the experience will surely carry on with any of the lucky attendees of that magical night.
