Concert Review

Concert Review
Wayne Tympanick

Live at the Birchmere, September 28, 2009: The “Super Trio” starring Chick Corea on piano, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums.

This concert was a real treat for this jazz musician. This acoustic trio was one of the groups that established Chick Corea as a driving force in jazz music in America. In my estimation, all of the electronics and computer generated music will never take the place of the sound of an acoustic band. This grouping of acoustic piano, bass and drums will always be the standard instrumentation for a traditional jazz trio, but it is a combination seldom heard anymore because of the ubiquity of electronics. But this is where jazz all started, and thank goodness there are jazz greats like Chick Corea who are keeping it alive.

The concert began with Chick Corea playing piano by himself. By listening intently, it was possible to figure out that he was playing the introduction to “Green Dolphin Street.” After his introduction, the bass and drums entered and continued the song in its original form. All of the music was memorized by the artists. They have been the best of friends for the past thirty years, so their musical communication is evident in performance.

The third song was a crowd pleaser, up tempo with lots of intensity and energy. This song brought us up to the intermission.

Corea opened the second set with his signature technique of playing directly on the strings inside the piano, both by plucking and with drumsticks, along with using the keyboard. This set up one of his original compositions, “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs,” another crowd pleaser. This segued into another up tempo composition from one of his best known albums, Return to Forever. Stanley Clarke played a remarkable bass solo and the song ended with an incredible and energetic drum solo by Lenny White (who is no spring chicken). Then the mood was changed with a ballad.

For an encore, they played my all time favorite Chick Corea song, “Spain.” This brought down the house. Corea started a call and response with the audience, his playing the rhythms and notes of the bridge section of Spain, their singing it back. Corea, Clarke and White seemed surprised by the accuracy of the audience and kept increasing the difficulty of the challenge. This was a very musically intelligent audience.

This was a very special night for my wife and me to share this wonderful musical experience. We may never get this opportunity again.