Chick Corea

Jeez, I don't post for a few days and it starts to feel like an eternity. Had a good weekend and went down to CT to visit some friends and saw the Chick Corea Trio at WestConn. Chick, as you probably know, is the legendary pianist who first honed his chops with Stan Getz and later in Miles Davis' electric 'Bitches Brew' band. He then went on to form Return to Forever with sax/flautist Joe Farrell, uber-bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Airto Moriera, and vocalist Flora Purim. This particular lineup is one of Jenni's all time favorites, an airy Latin-tinged outfit that gave us classics such as '500 Miles High' and the now-standard-yet-really-hard-to-play 'Spain'. RTF eventually went through some lineup changes and morphed in to a somewhat over-the-top fusion band. Chick went on to do many other diverse projects, such as his Elektrik and Akoustic Bands, duets with Gary Burton, and many other noteworthy things.

This particular concert featured the legendary bassist Eddie Gomez (of Bill Evans fame) and Airto on drums. I wasn't sitting there taking notes, but just a few highlights-
They all really looked like they were enjoying the hell out of themselves, whether it be in a ballad, a free improv, whatever. Airto is quite the character on stage, in between all the incredible playing, he's quite the jokester...and when he really gets into his playing, you can really sense it is quite the transcendant experience for him. Gomez was unbelievable, as were his many solos. And, although I've been listening to Chick for quite some time, seeing him and hearing him live really brought his unique style into focus for me. The other great thing about the show was the diversity. There were three classic RTF tunes played, slightly reworked and fresh sounding. There were also a few Bill Evans tunes, Jobim's 'Desifinado', a few other Chick tunes, and some free-form stuff that managed to stay interesting. He also encored with his impression of Thelonius Monk's interpretation of a tune that I can't remember the name of. The highlight was the RTF classic, 'You're Everything'. Airto was incredible. All in all, a good show, something I don't seem to see too often anymore. No cheese or wank factor, either.

I also want to recommend Chick's new album, 'The Ultimate Adventure'. Inspired by a sci-fi novel from the immortal cult-leader and hack-sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard (sigh-Chick is a long-time Scientologist, but thankfully you can't tell from the music), it reminds me of the kind of classic fusion records you would've heard around 1973. It's quite diverse, there's some stuff that sounds a lot like early RTF, some hard jamming fusion, and some heavy middle-eastern percussion grooves. Plus it has Airto, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Hubert Laws, Jorge Pardo and a host of other incredible musicians. And an almost non-existent cheese factor, and little, if any, wankery. Worth picking up.

Tomorrow - "Whose Oil? Part 2".