A modern jazz vacation inside Centennial Hall

Dan Hoffman Arizona Daily Wildcat Jazz legends Herbie Hancock (left) and Wayne Shorter perform at Centennial Hall Friday night. The concert was the first of the season sponsored by UA Presents.

Even from the back of the theater, where they make everyone loiter as punishment for being late, the soprano sax and piano duo made damn sure you knew that they used to play with Miles Davis back in the '60s - key members of one of the most innovative jazz quintets ever.

Jazz is the standard for cutting loose. The music had the power to put even the most stressed-out concert-goer at ease, working its way into your head and staying there for a turn just to remind you what it's all about in the first place.

Miles Davis once said, "A lot of times I would let Herbie play no chords at all, just solo in the middle register, and let the bass anchor that, and the shit sounded good as a motherfucker, because Herbie knew he could do that."

See, live jazz is usually performed with some kind of rhythm section, bass or drums or piano, forming a foundation for the other, soloing instruments. But this show was just Hancock and Shorter; just piano and saxophone.

Davis knew what he was talking about. The piano and the saxophone traded lead positions in a dazzling balance of solo and duet.

"Footprints" began with Shorter strolling on a melody, and Hancock tapping on the piano strings, producing a deep, muted sound, different from his usually smooth tones. Then, the two instruments took off together, each one doing its own thing; the sax occasionally coming back to the melody and the piano reinventing it, so it sounded like two instruments soloing at the same time.

Paradoxical, yes, but Hancock knows he can get away with it.

Before that was "Memory of Enchantment." Red lights flooded the stage to match the warm piano part, and you almost could feel a city in the room, almost believe that the echo was created from buildings and subway walls and streets and avenues.

Hancock paused in between songs to chat with the audience, giving backgrounds of songs and other such introductions, like meeting Shorter in Manhattan years ago and the New York jazz scene back then.

These two infamous jazz masters were on stage, creating a relaxed, home atmosphere in a huge concert hall. But, Hancock reminded the audience in a friendly sort of way, there's always that lower line, that thing that can suck the creativity out if you don't watch it. Always beware, always be careful of that lower line.

Everything was well above that line on Friday night. Creativity in effect helped Hancock and Shorter to coast through the two-hour set without an intermission, the only breather taking form in moments of thought; of low, soft notes crawling meekly out of the instruments.

Great jazz reminds you that the notes themselves, jumping around every-which-way in and out of keys, can have a life of their own. Hancock's piano mastery does just that; few can take those piano keys and make them melt into each other so easily.

It's a wonderful thing that musicians like Hancock and Shorter are still touring around, so that brief modern jazz vacations can be taken by people like those who packed into Centennial Hall on Friday night.