Beyond the stars
Chick Corea
performed at L’Auditori in the 47th Voll-Damm International Jazz Festival of
Barcelona. The room, however, was not filled but we can say that the excitement
among attendees was magnificent. One could breathe a great night atmosphere, the
previous moments just before of an enormous talent released . You can not say
that it is understandable because Corea is a key figure in contemporary jazz.
Once he appeared
on stage, the audience showed his enthusiasm. Corea started then to take
pictures of the photographers and the laughter was general. Then a little
ironic he said "You’ll be here just for five minutes, right?". A
photographer replied, "Ten" and Corea, giving a half-smile, said "Seven!".
He then reminded his Hispanic origins recalling that his real name is Armando
Antonio Corea and leading to a litany of Latin and Spanish sounds. He
introduced the excellent musicians who accompanied him, The Vigil, with whom he
recorded the self-titled album The Vigil
(2013). They are: Carlitos Del Puerto (bass), Marcus Gilmore (drums), Luisito
Quintero (percussion), Tim Garland (sax, flute and clarinet) and Charles Height
(guitar).
The concert began with
the memory of Bud Powell, his great influence as indicated by the great album Remembering Bud Powell released in 1997.
The theme however date from 1974 although in the auditorium was dressed longer,
more than twenty minutes, with juicy dialogues between drums and percussion. Big
Luisito Quintero, very big. The second round went to the album The Vigil, specifically to the theme Royalty whose performance was delicious
intimate, intense, palpable heat. Before playing Anna's
tango, Corea explained how he commissioned music for a film with tango as a
reference. He tried to enter as he could in tango music, Gardel and company, but once he
presented the new compositions to the director, he played a very old record, from
the thirties probably, with a gradient sound, and said: "Do not it might
sound like this? ". Finally, the director used those old recordings for
the film although Corea had already composed several pieces. Just after that
story was explained, he dedicated to his mother Anna's tango with an ending in which Carlitos del Puerto and Tim Garland really
flashed.Then Corea wanted to remind the Spanish music, flamenco specifically.
He explained how a friend from Barcelona introduced him to this music getting to know
and establish friendship with Paco de Lucia, to who Corea wanted to remember calling
to join the band on stage that good friend from Barcelona: Carles Benavent. The
ovation from the audience was magnificent, as large as the figure of maestro
Benavent deserves. They played a version of the theme Zyriab and its result was really a gift, and looks of Carlitos del
Puerto to maestro Benavent while they were playing thumb to thumb were of authentic
happiness and admiration. The said goodbye but returned to play a plus encore,
the theme Spain in which Tim Garland played
a solo that will never leave me. Magnificent!
An article by Juan Carlos Romero
Chick Corea website chickcorea.com
Photo courtesy of The Project and Festival Internacional de Jazz de Barcelona
All rights reserved