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| Two BelaFleck & Chick Corea Concord Music |
On Saturday night, in the magnificent crimson and cream
surroundings of Emory’s Emerson Hall, two magicians of music came to
play- Chick Corea and Bela Fleck
.
Pianist Armando
Antonio Zacone “Chick” Corea, now a spry seventy-four years old, has been
stunning the world of jazz and fusion music since the release of his seminal recording
Now He Sings Now He Sobs in 1968 with
bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes.
Corea has long been a restless innovator. He has explored avant garde
jazz with collaborators like saxophonist Anthony Braxton, bassist Dave Holland
and drummer Barry Altschul in the group Circles and joined
in on iconic trumpeter Miles Davis’ seminal jazz fusion recordings Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way. His
collaborations with vibraphonist Gary Burton on such albums as Crystal Silence, could be considered a
foray into jazz influenced chamber music.
In the early
seventies, swayed in part by his admiration for fellow Miles Davis alumnus John
McLaughlin’s fusion group Mahavishnu
Orchestra, Mr. Corea started Return
to Forever, a rock/jazz fusion band that featured electronic music played
at incredible speed , with stunning virtuosity and uncanny synchronicity. Mr. Corea’s music has always had a Latin
flavor, influenced by his ethnicity and his early association with Latin
players like Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo. His musical compositions are a complex
amalgam of Latin rhythms, European classically influenced lyricism and complex
improvisations taken from the jazz canon. During his long and illustrious
career Mr. Corea has been nominated for over sixty Grammy awards and has won the
prestigious award twenty-two times.
Bela Anton Leos Fleck is perhaps the world’s most preeminent
banjo player. He has mastered his instrument to previously unseen levels of
proficiency and has been able to expand
the possibilities of the sound he can create far beyond the traditional confines
of Bluegrass music. His full name is an honorific to three classical composers-
Hungarian Bela Bartok, Austrian composer Anton Weber and Czech
composer Leos Janacek. With this legacy it is not hard to imagine his
fascination with classical music and his
goal to somehow want to expand the boundaries of his instrument into this musical
realm.
Mr. Fleck’s first
exposure to the banjo was listening as a child to the great Earl Scruggs play
the theme to the television show The Beverly Hillbillies. He was smitten by
Scruggs and he remains one of Mr. Fleck’s acknowledged influences along with
bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker and his current collaborator Mr. Corea. Mr. Fleck’s contributions to the Bluegrass canon include his
participation in such groups as Spectrum
and New Grass Revival.
Always looking to push artificial boundaries, Mr. Fleck formed the successful crossover
group The Flecktones with bassist Victor Wooten and drummer Roy Wooten and the
multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy. The
Flecktones emerged as a super group in the late 1980’s bridging the gap between
progressive bluegrass, jazz and fusion and garnered several Grammy awards in
the process. When not working with the
Flecktones Mr. Fleck has continued his pursuit of expanding his musical pallet.
Following his muse into classical music,
Mr. Fleck won a Grammy in 2002 for best Classical Crossover Album for his work Perpetual Motion, a collaboration with
the double bassist Edgar Meyer.
Eventually Mr. Corea
and Mr. Fleck’s paths crossed in 2006 and
they recorded an album titled The
Enchantment from that collaboration which
led to an international tour. Fast forward to 2015 and Mr. Corea and Mr. Fleck
have recently released a “live” album capturing some memorable moments culled from those concerts.
The album is simply titled Two.
The casually dressed duo made their way onto the stage in front of a capacity crowd. The mood was exhilarating
as the set started off with “Senorita”, a Corea composition and the first cut on the new album. The two men
had sheet music on their respective stands but it was obvious it was more about
unspoken communication right from the start. This was especially evident on the
lead in to the songs. Mr. Fleck would
throw out a phrase and Mr. Corea would answer it, neither quite knowing where
the other would take them until they settled into the prepared music. The duo cruised
through complex passages, building on a flurry of notes, navigating the shoals
of their musical jet-stream, but somehow always ending precisely in unison and to
the admiring astonishment of the audience who responded with appreciative applause.
Mr. Fleck’s “Menagerie” came next . The complexity of the music
and its polished execution could not entirely mask the distinctive sounds coming
from their respective instruments, sounds that have identifiable roots. Mr. Fleck’s banjo with its
bluegrass inflections and Mr. Corea’s piano with his classical flourishes and Latin inspired rhythmic approach come from two vastly different musical worlds, but these
two wizards made these variants work for the most part to a surprising
degree.
Mr. Fleck’s “Waltse for Abbey” was written for
Mr. Fleck’s wife Abigail , her self an accomplished banjo player. Mr. Corea starts out with an
elegant introduction to the piece, itself was a beautiful pianistic miniature
that commanded attention. The two are
most lyrical here, playfully dancing around each other’s musical ideas on this Americana
inspired melody.
Some of the most daring musical excursions of the evening
came when the two delved into the classical repertoire. Mr. Corea went to exaggerated lengths to
erect a cardboard and ductape music stand
above on his piano as Mr. Fleck entertained the audience describing the
timeline of the next piece of music- a Sonata by Domenico Scarlatti. It was here where Mr.
Fleck most impressed, as he showed his amazing ability to make his banjo conform
and actually flourish within the rigors of this complex classical piece. Mr.
Corea is an accomplished classical player, but to see a banjo being utilized in
such an unorthodox way was a delicious treat. Mr. Fleck’s technique magically transformed
his sound into that of a harpsichord, lending to the baroque sound of the piece that could
hardly be imagined if not seen for oneself.
The set ended with a rendition of Mr. Fleck’s bluegrass
staple “Mountain.” Here the
tables were turned. Mr. Fleck was clearly in his wheelhouse performing with fluidity and appropriately emphasizing the rough and
tumble, unpolished twang of this roots
music.. Mr. Corea, venturing into somewhat unfamiliar territory, seemed less at
ease, doing his best to achieve the rootsy feel of this music. Mr. Corea’s approach seemed
more formulaic and for the most part lacked
that genuine, honky-tonk feeling one comes to expect out of Bluegrass music.
The duo called for an intermission before returning for a
second set. In between Mr. Corea changed into a more relaxed red-plaid shirt,
perhaps feeling the need to help get himself into mood of the bluegrass part of the program.
The two played an engaging Fleck composition before
surprising the audience with a more familiar tune Stevie Wonder’s
“Overjoyed.” Played with sensitivity and
without too much embellishment, Mr. Corea commented after the piece “I don’t know anyone
who doesn’t love Stevie Wonder’s music?”It is good to see that more and more prominent
artists are incorporating some of Mr. Wonder’s vast treasure trove of material
into their repertoire, recognizing his music as a natural progression from the
Great American Songbook.
Returning to the Classical realm Mr. Corea demonstrated why
he is one of the most captivating pianists on the planet as he introduced a
beautiful composition by the relatively unknown French composer Henri
Dutilleux, whom he likened to Ravel and Debussy. The work titled Prelude en Berceuse (Lullaby) is also on
the album Two. The audience was enthralled by the beauty of this short but powerfully melodic piece of
music. Mr. Fleck started off with an
ostinato line on his banjo that Mr. Corea played counter to in a delicate dance
of notes. It was a tour de force in genre bending neo-classical music for banjo
and piano.
The set continued with a Fleck Composition titled “Juno.”
Mr. Fleck related how about two years ago he was traveling and stranded in a
Dallas airport when his son was born and so unable to attend the birth chose to
compose this song, named for his son, to
mark the event.
Mr. Corea created a gorgeous introduction to his composition
“The Enchantment” which captivated the audience with its cascading harmonies. Throughout
the evening you could see the mutual respect
the artists shared, Mr. Corea
often standing up and clapping in acknowledgment of Mr. Fleck’s performance and
Mr. Fleck seated, equally acknowledging his admiration of Mr. Corea’s playing.
There was no doubt the audience came to hear some of Mr.
Fleck’s bluegrass influence and he brought it all to bear on the finale, a rendition of “Bugle Call Rag” Starting off the familiar three finger picked
banjo part slowly, Mr. Corea’s piano surprisingly took on the sound of a calliope.
Mr. Corea encouraged the audience to
clap to the easy beat, but when the two started to accelerate the tempo to a more rapid pace the two
speedsters left the audience in the dust. While bluegrass is not Mr. Corea’s
forte, he was clearly more at ease on this piece adding notes and chords that gave the tune authenticity. After a thunderous applause
the duo returned with an encore of two more songs.
After playing with a few musical ideas from the stage, the
duo settled in on a sauntering, bluesy
rendition of Mr. Fleck’s “Sunset Road” where their jazz inclinations were most
on display.
Mr. Corea’s “Armando’s
Rhumba.” was the parting finale with its swinging vibe and Latin inspired
rhythms leaving the audience in a satisfied state of delight having witnessed a
truly unique concert going experience. For
those who missed this once in a lifetime event , the one consoling grace is
that you can experience some of this magic on the duo’s “live” performance on
their latest two disc CD Two.