CONCERT REVIEW
Chick Corea and Gary Burton at Tanglewood
by Seth Rogovoy(LENOX, Mass., Aug. 30, 1997) -- Pianist Chick Corea and vibraphonist Gary Burton kicked off this year's jazz festival at Tanglewood on Friday night with a serenely decorous program of their duets.
With a musical partnership dating back nearly a quarter-century, Corea and Burton have a wealth of experience to draw upon, and their musical and temperamental affinity shone through in their deceptively casual renditions of old and new material.
As soon as each piece took off, it was easy to forget that two vital, individual creative talents were performing, so enmeshed in each other's playing were the duo. And given the similarities between their instruments, at times it seemed that Burton was merely the right-hand extension of Corea's piano, or vice versa.
Their program offered a diverse repertoire, ranging from Latinesque tangos and rumbas to variations on Mozart and Bartok to highly- stylized, abstract chamber-bop.
They also premiered a few compositions from their upcoming duet album, "Native Sense," their first in 13 years.
The concert began with "Love Castle," which Corea wrote and originally recorded with a big band on his 1976 album, "My Spanish Heart." Reconfigured as a duet, the piece was a showcase for Burton's pristine melodicism, his trademark four-mallet approach laying down playful waves of notes and chords over Corea's percussive comping.
"Native Sense" boasted an urban, almost Ellingtonian feel, with Corea providing the rhythmic pulse and Burton a rainbow of city- inflected colors.
The high points of the show included a tribute to bop pianist Bud Powell, a lively romp which featured Corea in disguise as the master improviser, and a version of Thelonious Monk's "Four In One," all sharp angles and jagged edges.
Much of the program had a rigorously arranged feel to it, more chamber music than cutting session. A selection of Bartok's piano bagatelles and rumbas mixed with Mozart were demonstratively assertive, but only on the Powell tribute did the two throw out the script and trade fours, which made for an exciting showcase of virtuoso improvisation by two masters.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Aug. 31, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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