Hot chick

I’ll admit up front that I haven’t purchased a new Chick Corea album in something like 30 years. But it would be remiss not to also admit that a few of the Corea-led albums I purchased back in the heyday of fusion music are still among my favorites, and are still stationed near the turntable.

Among my favorites of the era is a sprawling, unabashedly romantic double album titled My Spanish Heart, on which Corea used his amazing skills at composition to fuse the sometimes delicately light, sometimes melodramatically emotional aspects of Spanish music to create a grand, thematic jazz album.

So when I received a copy of Corea’s current release, the live Rhumba Flamenco, which he attests to making because of a desire to return to his “Flamenco Heart,” I immediately requested the privilege of reviewing his Laxson Auditorium concert.

Corea, who first came to prominence as a member of Miles Davis’ legendary late-'60s electric bands, has always harbored a predilection for composing music in the mode of his musical and cultural heritages, and the current band, whose members also perform with flamenco guitar legend Paco de Lucia, provide the ideal accompaniment to Corea’s romantic flights of fantasy.

And flights of fantasy they literally were, as Corea used the Chico performance to introduce some freshly composed music inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi novel, The Ultimate Adventure.

With a stocky figure reminiscent of Frank Costanza, and a goofy, rubber-faced mug that can seamlessly—and sincerely—metamorphose from thoughtful gloom to clownish glee in the course of a 20-minute composition, Corea led his band through a concert that allowed each musician to highlight their own instrumental strengths.

Chief soloist Jorge Pardo used his saxophones and flutes to provide a woodwind complement to Corea’s keyboard-based excursions into musical fantasia, which often included Corea’s trademark syncopation and unison melodic segments. But beautiful as the lead instruments’ interaction was, it was the rhythm section that really held the audience’s center of attention.

And the focal point of the rhythm section was the incredibly intuitive and tight drumming of Tom Brechtlein, who first played with Corea back in 1978. Brechtlein is a master of subtle dynamics, and working closely with bassist Carles Benavent with the support of percussionist Ruben Dantas, he provided a wonderful foundation for Corea’s often successful quests for keyboard Nirvana.

Several times during the course of the concert Corea left his keyboards behind to wander around the stage with a tiny hand-held drum or cowbell that he used to spur on or accent the percussive excursions of Brechtlein and Dantas, each of whom were allowed more than one extensive solo section. And bassist Benavent also was given free rein to construct elaborate, flamenco-infused solo sections during several of the elongated compositions.

And speaking of flamenco influences, during the second half of the concert the band was joined onstage by dancer Auxi Fernandez, a vision in whirling black fringes dramatically accented by a long, scarlet scarf. Fernandez performed a fusion of traditional flamenco and jazz tap-dancing moves at center stage, and the staccato rhythms of her heel-and-toe clicks, combined with graceful arm and body movements provided a fine complement to the band’s music. Fernandez also served as a source of inspiration to the musicians, as she left her center stage position to perform interpretive dances in close proximity to the soloists. Her obvious enjoyment of her role as muse boosted the exuberance of the band to an even higher level, and drew a well-deserved standing ovation, as did an encore which featured a lyrical duet between Corea on grand piano and Dantas on kalimba, a hand-held African thumb piano with a chiming, shimmering sound.

All in all the concert was a musically and visually exciting show that proved Corea is still making vital, exciting music.