Thursday night will be a big one for fans of hard-core jazz fusion, as one of the genre's "supergroups" is appearing in Chai Wan.
Tribal Tech, who went their separate ways in 2000 after releasing nine albums, reconvened in 2010 to record a new disc, which was finally released last year under the title X. They are now going back on the road to promote it, and Thursday's performance at the Youth Square Y-Theatre is the first of a world tour; the Asian leg also takes in Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta and Mumbai. It will be the band's first live performance together for 12 years.
Tribal Tech were formed in 1984 by guitarist Scott Henderson, the best known member of the quartet, and bassist Gary Willis. They are the only original members in the band, but had settled on a stable line-up with keyboardist Scott Kinsey and drummer Kirk Covington by the time the quartet made the 1992 album Illicit, and went on to record another four CDs before going their separate ways.
This is the last configuration of the band which recorded and is touring X. All four musicians have busy independent careers and are much in demand as sidemen in jazz, rock and blues contexts.
Henderson, a blues-based player with strong rock influences, is one of jazz fusion's most acclaimed guitar heroes, with a resumé which includes stints with Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea's Elektric Band and Jean Luc Ponty, as well as his solo albums and recordings with the trio Tech Tones.
Henderson was with the Elektric Band when they played the AC Hall at the Baptist College in Kowloon Tong in 1986.