NEW YORK — Capping a year of solo work with a week at the Blue Note club — his only U.S. solo dates — Chick Corea supplied a convincing answer to the eternal question, "What is jazz?"
To Corea, it's anything he wants it to be.
Mixing Latin rhythms, 16th-century French dances and modern harmonic formulations — among other components — the mercurial pianist took a quietly attentive Wednesday night audience on a freewheeling excursion through his highly individual songbook of originals and American standards. The widely varied program ranged from muscular rhythmic improvisations on a suite of Thelonious Monk tunes to the whimsy and finesse of Corea's own "Children's Songs."
The opening "Armando's Rhumba" (RealAudio excerpt) set the tone for the upbeat program, with powerful left-hand rhythmic figures balanced with dazzling right-hand breakouts up and down the keyboard, all in a majestic concert-hall tone that washed waves of sound over the audience.
With "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," Corea turned the theme-improv-theme structure inside out. Opening with a long, dense improvisatory passage, he allowed the theme to appear only intermittently, like a distant destination glimpsed repeatedly from successive hilltops. Once he had it where he wanted it, Corea put the theme through its paces, dancing it through a series of rhythmic and stylistic inflections.
"Lush Life" received a spirited yet reverent reading over a funky left hand that underscored the kinship of Duke Ellington and Monk, whose insistent rhythms always are a call to the dance floor.
Corea came to terms with the dance music in Monk on a "Monk's Dream" (RealAudio excerpt)/"Pannonica"/" 'Round Midnight" medley that returned to the improv-theme-improv format. Particularly noteworthy was the dance suite inserted in "Pannonica," which explored everything from the minuet to Harlem stride.
" 'Round Midnight" (RealAudio excerpt) showcased Corea's lyrical side and offered long, sinuous runs on the right hand that continually set up the listener's expectations, only to playfully undermine them. The medley closed in a luminous series of stacked chords that announced the end of the evening's fully improvised material.
Corea closed the set with two selections from his composition "Children's Songs," a series of 20 sound portraits with a decidedly classical feel ranged against modern harmonics. The two pieces completely captivated the audience with their tenderness, whimsy and wry appreciation of the subjects.
Corea continues his solo stint through Sunday, trading sets with the Cedar Walton Trio, whose first set Corea studied closely.
In early September Corea turns to the trio format with former Origin bandmates Avishai Cohen (bass) and Jeff Ballard (drums), with dates in California and Oregon. The trio will make their debut recording Sept. 21 at the new Blue Note club in Las Vegas.
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