Hancock’s instrument of choice a 255-grand piano
Have piano, will travel.
Herbie Hancock is bringing his own piano with him to Edmonton’s International Jazz Festival, a rare Fazioli concert grand piano worth $255,000.
Hancock will be towing the piano in a trailer behind his tour bus, according to Jazz Fest spokesman Kent Sangster.
“That’s kind of standard fare with Herbie, that he plays Faziolis exclusively,” says Sangster. “He won’t play Yamaha or Bosendorfer or Steinway. Faziolis are very, very high-end Italian pianos and he’s very fond of them, obviously.”
Apparently, Hancock won’t go anywhere unless he’s sure he can get one.
“There’s no exclusivity agreement; he just likes them better,” says Manuel Bernaschek of Vancouver’s Showcase Pianos, which is supplying the piano.
Bernaschek says Fazioli pianos are made by hand in Italy and each one takes about 3,000 man-hours to produce. They are regarded as the finest in the world, and almost double the price of a typical concert grand Steinway. The Fazioli company was founded 30 years ago by Paolo Fazioli, a pianist and an engineer who set out to make the finest pianos in the world. Bernaschek says in the classical world, three top Canadian pianists — Angela Hewitt, Louis Lortie and Marc-Andre Hamelin — play exclusively on Fazioli pianos.
Sangster says it’s rare for a performer to go to such lengths to procure an instrument.
“I’ve been doing the festival for seven years, and I’ve never seen that before,” he says. “There are some classical piano players in the world that will do this, but not that many. It’s an exciting aspect of the concert.”
Hancock plays at the Winspear Centre on Thursday.