Glasgow Royal Concert HallFrom boogie-woogie to avant-garde classical, this virtuosic tour of Hornsby’s talent was richly rewarding
‘You won’t hear a song like that on the radio,” declares Bruce Hornsby. The veteran songwriter from
Virginia has certainly got a point, having just finished an extended piano piece that began as a doom-laden murder ballad before morphing into a deft and possibly improvised jazz excursion. Yet, making supremely radio-friendly
music is how Hornsby came to prominence in 1986, after Radio 1 first playlisted his chiming piano lament The Way It Is, paving the way for it to become a global hit.
Since then, the restless Hornsby – who will turn 65 this month – has made 21 albums, sold 11m records, become a de facto member of the Grateful Dead, been sampled by Tupac Shakur and collaborated with everyone from bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs to Spike Lee. Most recently, he has enjoyed a fruitful creative love-in with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. (In one of many gratifying asides, Hornsby reveals he and Vernon recently played a wedding together.) This brief European tour is nominally to mark the release of Hornsby’s latest solo album, Absolute Zero, a rich and gorgeously rendered collection of atmospheric songs, but the reality is more like a questing recital. Arched intently over the keys of his grand piano, Hornsby embarks on a virtuosic two-hour safari that takes in everything from swaggering boogie-woogie to the atonal assault of avant-garde classical. It is a dense mixture of fan service – he refers to a series of requests on cue cards – and unpredictable, impish detours.