Hancock Makes Austin City Limits Debut

  I  
Image

Herbie Hancock’s appearance on Austin City Limits is set to air nationally on PBS on Jan. 20.

(Photo: Courtesy Austin City Limits)

Herbie Hancock’s responsible for a few firsts in jazz and popular music. And now he’s recorded his debut appearance on Austin City Limits.

The long-running performance show—which began in 1976, the same year Hancock released Secrets—has included visits from country singer Jason Isbell and enduring psych act The Black Angels this season. Hancock’s episode is set to air Saturday on PBS affiliates.

For the keyboardist and bandleader’s installment of the show, he’s joined by multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and bassist James Genus as the quartet reinvigorates some classics, including “Cantaloupe Island” and “Chameleon.”

But there’s also a rendition of a relatively new song, “Secret Sauce,” that Hancock’s been playing for the last several months. It jibes with Hanock’s history and deomonstrates that the bandleader’s well of compositional creativity hasn’t nearly been exhausted.

Hancock will play the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Jan. 27. For information on this and other tour dates, visit Hancock’s website. DB



  • Sonny_Rollins_by_Michael_Jackson_copy.jpg

    Onstage, Rollins would move about restlessly, thrusting his tenor sax in the air as he blew.

    Sonny Rollins Passes Away at 95

    Sonny Rollins, the iconic saxophonist, composer and improviser whose career stretched from the origins of bebop to 21st…

  • Courtesy_of_the_Ulmer_family.jpg

    To the world, James Blood Ulmer was a legend, a visionary and a musical force whose sound was distinctive and unique. To his family, he was their teacher, their storyteller and a source of strength.

  • Davis_Miles_by_Jack_Vartoogian_lo_res_copy.jpg

    How best to mark Miles Davis’ centennial? By allowing the stories to flow, and cross-discussions to happen.

  • Abdhullah_Ibrahim_Detroit_Jazz_Festival_2022_by_Michael_Jackson.jpg

    Ibrahim was an early jazz acolyte, studying the music via 78s he would buy from soldiers stationed in South Africa — who also gave him the nickname “Dollar.”

  • DB26_Critics_Poll_Montage.jpg

    Clockwise from top left, Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan, Adam O’Farrill, Keith Jarrett’s At the Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings, Sheila Jordan and Jaki Byard.