The late Miles Davis once said about pianist Herbie Hancock: “[He] was a step after Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and I haven’t heard anybody yet who has come after him.”
Hancock has been on a career path that has earned him 14 Grammy Awards, including two in 2011.
The Washington Performing Arts Society will present Hancock in concert at the Kennedy Center on Sunday. He and his quartet (James Genus on bass, Trevor Lawrence on drums and Lionel Loueke on guitar) are on the first leg of their American tour, having just returned from performances in Indonesia.
| Onstage |
| Herbie Hancock |
| Where: Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW |
| When: 7 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: $35 to $65; 800-444-1324, 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org |
“The audiences are very enthusiastic there,” Hancock said. “They call it ‘Java Jazz’ and a lot of people come to hear it — it’s very, very popular.”
As is just about everything he composes. Hard-pressed to name a favorite album or piece of work, Hancock notes that every one of his releases over the past 12 years has been completely different from the one before.
“They all satisfied a particular purpose that I had in mind at the time I was composing,” he continued. “It’s hard for me not to be happy about the response I got from ‘River: The Joni Letters.’ I got an Album of the Year Grammy for that one.”
Sunday evening’s performance will showcase song from several of his albums, along with a set where he plays acoustic piano without accompaniment.
Also, at some point, the quartet will play works from his latest release, “The Imagine Project.”
“This recording is very, very special to me,” Hancock noted. “The [theme] of the record is about globalization as a pathway toward peace. That has memory for me that I want to continue exploring in a lot of different ways.”
