BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Herbie Hancock
Jazz
Daddies
Veterans Hancock, Latarski highlight
Father’s Day weekend
H
erbie Hancock exemplifies the
title of one of his biggest hits:
chameleon. During his four-plus
decade career at the forefront of jazz,
Hancock has created compelling music in
the post-bop idiom that he and other artists
pioneered on Blue Note in the 1960s, includ-
ing such classics as “Watermelon Man” and
Debussy-influenced works like “Maiden
Voyage”; in ’70s jazz funk like the classic
Headhunters album (derided by the jazz
police but an important connection between
jazz and pop music); in ’80s proto-techno
like “Rockit” (part of an ongoing fascination
with music technology, including his
beloved Macs); in world music experiments
such as his Mwandishi recordings and duets
with Foday Musa Suso; and in various jazz
and pop fusions throughout the past two
decades. From the beginning of his career in
the 1960s on those Blue Note masterpieces
and his critical role in Miles Davis’s second
great quintet, Hancock has collaborated with
some of jazz’s greatest masters: Chick
Corea, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker …
it’s a long, star-studded list.
The 67-year-old yet ever-youthful
Hancock returns to the Hult Center on June
17 with a new electric quartet featuring
another generation of diverse virtuosi whose
wide range of skills and experience allow
him to play highlights from throughout his
variegated career. Bassist (and occasional
vocalist) Nathan East has played with pop
and rock stars such as Bob Dylan, Michael
Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Barbara Streisand
and a long stint with Eric Clapton. He also
anchors the smooth jazz combo Fourplay
but is certainly capable of transcending that
formula. Drummers have regarded Vinnie
Colaiuta as a demigod since his extended
partnerships with Frank Zappa and Sting,
not to mention work with Joni Mitchell and
many others. Benin-born guitarist Lionel
Loueke adds a distinct African influence and
digital loops. Drawing on his original com-
positions from the last four decades,
Hancock will likely deploy laptops, synthe-
sizers large and small and acoustic piano on
occasionally extended jazz-funk fusion
extravaganzas. Still funky after all these
years, he’s still a great keyboard player and
innovator, and he puts on a show that any fan
of improvised music should see.
One of Eugene’s own jazz masters, Don
Latarski , throws a CD release party at
32 JUNE 7, 2007
Luna on June 16 to celebrate his eleventh
disk, Don Latarski & Rue D’ Acoustic.
Latarski formed his first combo while in
music school at the UO three decades ago;
he’s headed the school’s guitar studies pro-
gram for years and has literally written the
book — actually, 19 of them — on how to
play guitar. His colleagues include bassist
Mark Schneider, who, like Latarski, has
been playing his instrument since the mid-
’60s, and veteran drummer Jason Palmer.
The trio has been holding court at Oregon
Electric Station for years, and Latarski has
developed a distinctive and appealing style
that somehow sounds natural and cohesive
despite incorporating blues, rock, funk,
American folk, classical and even world
music influences. Their breezy new disk is
an ideal summer album, bounding from
straight rock backbeats to jazzy
polyrhythms, brawny blues to folky finger-
style finesse. It’s one of the best jazz albums
I’ve heard this year, but of course there’s
nothing like the live experience of hearing
such spontaneously inventive musicians.
Eugene’s Reeble Jar is a beneficiary of
the efforts of Herbie Hancock and other
fusion pioneers to incorporate rock and
funk elements into jazz. Maybe some
purists wouldn’t even call the septet’s
music jazz at all, but who cares about such
artificial categories? Certainly not the great
musicians, from Ellington to Hancock to
Frisell and beyond, who’ve focused more
on expanding possibilities than fitting
pigeonholes. The group (didgeridoo, har-
monica, guitar, sax, keyboard, bass, drums)
plays upbeat, danceable instrumental music
with grooves that will be familiar to anyone
who’s heard the jam band/jazz fusions cre-
ated over the past decade or so by groups
like Medeski Martin & Wood and many
others. Jam and jazz fans alike can check
them out at the WOW Hall on June 16.
The UO closes another fine musical sea-
son with the usual pair of especially attrac-
tive concerts on June 10. At 2 pm in room
198 of the UO music school, the University
and Oregon Percussion Ensembles join
mallets to play music by Darius Milhaud,
Bang on a Can’s David Lang and more. And
at 5 pm, the ever-popular University
Gospel Ensemble , Gospel Choir and
Gospel Singers combine with guest stars
(including some alumni) to bid farewell to
director Cedric Weary.
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