HERBIE Hancock's concert last night started almost an hour late. No explanation was given, but unconfirmed reports alleged that the delay was caused by differences backstage over the sound setup. Hancock apologised and said the musicians were not at fault. Whatever the truth about sound set up differences, what was heard was actually too heavily miked for my taste. Not only was the quartet sound too loud - unnaturally so - there was also a constant, audible hum from the equipment ranged behind me.

It made for uncomfortable listening, not helped by the work of the quartet. The group - Hancock (piano), Dave Holland (bass), Gene Jackson (drums) and Craig Handy (tenor/soprano) - is replete with technically accomplished musicians and, in the case of Hancock and, especially, Dave Holland, considerably more than that. But the abiding impression they left was of a pursuit of levels of intensity at the expense of form, with Jackson mostly drumming so busily and so loudly that he dominated everything even Holland was drowned out at times.

Handy, frankly, was a disappointment; except for a splendid solo on Just One Of Those Things, which married excitement and purpose to a greater degree than elsewhere, his work seemed as self indulgent as Jackson's. It was, to these ears, directionless and cliched - he even played the theme of I Love You in a different key to the rest of the quartet. As for Hancock, his playing came across as technically assured to the point of being mechanical; except for a particularly fine solo based on a six note motif on Dream Of The Elders, it remained curiously uninvolving.

Most of what musical interest the concert offered came from the great Dave Holland, but he was essentially upstaged by the busy, amplified noises around him. This was, personally, ugly music, with even less to commend it than his almost equally disappointing concert at the Olympia on his last visit. A pity, but there it is.