On a brisk Saturday night, people from near and far packed into St. Petersburg College’s Music Hall. Chick Corea featuring bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl at the St. Petersburg performed two shows on Saturday. It was the first time the three played together in many, many years. Tampa’s iconic voice of jazz, former WUSF jazz director Bob Seymour, introduced the musicians.
“Chick is someone who’s spent 50 years on the forefront of music,” Seymour said. “Tonight is a rare treat.” Right he was, the group leaves next for Europe and the Australia. It is a Grammy award-winning trio, with only two studio albums in 35 years. What began with the Chick Corea Elektric Band in the 1970s became the Chick Corea Akoustic Band in 1986. I attended the early show, the first of two that evening. The trio recorded both shows for a new record and documentary.
CHICKING IN
Before St. Pete shows, Chick Corea shares jokes, insight and more
Greeted by a standing ovation as the trio entered the stage, Corea grabbed the mic for commentary and was both hilarious and self-effacing.”It’s homegrown show tonight.”
“We are playing some hard stuff,” Corea cautioned. “We might stop and do things again.”
The trio started off with “Morning Sprite,” a Latin number written for this trio by Corea. Chick’s hands immediately danced over the keys. You couldn't even tell if or how the hell each digit could make contact with so many notes in such a small amount of space and time.
“Geez! Woo…I don’t think we need to do that one again,” Corea said, panting into the mic afterwards.
This music is, technically speaking, the peak in terms of musicianship and approach.
This is the kind of jazz my parents told me I should appreciate but never entirely did. It’s complex and rich and usually too smart for my lowbrow ears. But live, something clicked like a formula and I not only got “it,” but also really loved what I heard. These guys are the best of the best of the best. Corea is probably one of the top five pianists in the last 50 years, if not just forever in the history of the world. Weckl has played with everyone from Madonna to Robert Plant. I probably shouldn't try and list the people they’ve all played with. But I will say that Patitucci only happened to be available because his regular gig with Wayne Shorter is on hiatus.
Chick wrote the trio’s next song, “Japanese Waltse,” on vacation with wife Gayle Moran (Mahavishnu Orchestra), and his kids.
“I love Japan so we stayed for six weeks, I thought I’d write a lot of of music. I did not.”
It was haunting and had big, swift movements. Patitucci’s solo was particularly spectacular and forced his face into a skydiving expression as he moved down the bass neck. They finished, but Corea immediately hopped on the mic, “I screwed up the ending, from the last chorus.” And just like that the three launch backed in and tore up the final chorus properly, a heavily syncopated build-up, all looking at each other as they push out the final notes.
Corea said the next song was “an old standard.” Written by Lew Brown and Sammy Fain in 1937, “That Old Feeling,” is an old standard indeed. The bass line carries the melody in this arrangement, with a massive solo from Weckl that hits like a summer thunderstorm.
My favorite song of the evening came next, Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood.”
“It’s a real old chestnut,” Corea said. “But I just couldn't keep my hands off this song.”
Corea’s version started slowly with an extended solo piano introduction that pulls huge expanses out from between the notes of the familiar lyrical standard. It's beautiful and bittersweet and took its damn time. The melody came in softly, with big fat notes from Patitcucci and raspy, low drums from Weckl. Each chorus getting brassier and bolder, until the tune just seems to dissipate into the night air.
“Thank you Duke for letting me do that to your song,” Corea said after the applause quieted. “I met Duke once, I was playing accompaniment for a vocalist auditioning for him. He was in his bathrobe, I shook his hand. It was a great moment…for me.”
They proceeded next into a song that Miles Davis recorded in Los Angeles after the band with Bill Evans and Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly (a Tampa jazz player).
“Miles played it with Victor Feldman too,” Corea said. “John you played with Victor, didn't you?”
“I played with Victor in your living room.”
“In my living room?”
They proceed into “Summer Night,” from the Seven Steps to Heaven, album. The arrangement called for Patitucci to intro the song on bass, but when they began, Corea hopped on the keys and stopped the band immediately. “I screwed up again!” he said, and stepped away from the piano for Patitucci to begin again. It was a juicy bass solo and there are few as masterful as Patitucci in terms of bass as a solo instrument, the guy plays electric and stand up with equal measure and his skills show when he can make an acoustic sound like an electric with ease. It’s a messy, hot summer overture.
The last song was a frenzy called “Rhumba Flamenco,” written by Corea.
“Rumba is a specific Cuban rhythm, and Flamenco has a different rhythm and I put them together,” Corea said. “We may have to do a couple takes.” He then unfolded an almost comically long spreadsheet of music, and the brave trio launched in. It was distinctly Latin and grooved deeply, there were so many places to tap one's foot that it was physically impossible to stand still. A hypnotic melody reigned over the piece like a warning of hot jazz on the measure’s horizon. Weckl was practically a hurricane on the drum kit, coming in big swaths across the room. Corea clapped the iconic flamenco beat over top in response. And then the trio slammed the thing down like with a bang, erupting the audience into 10 minutes of standing ovation.
The trio encored with “Humpty Dumpty,” and no one leaves wanting. Seven songs somehow span over an hour, like short films that pack a punch.
Standing in line to meet famed jazz composer and musician Chick Corea backstage, I met a father and son who’d traveled quite a ways for the show.
“I came 1,000 miles from Istanbul for this night,” the man said. A rare night indeed. It was an honor to see these musicians, and even more notable that they saw fit to create such magic in our city.
See setlists and more photos from the show below. Listen to songs Corea, Patitucci and Weckl played here.
Early Show Setlist
Morning Sprite
A Japanese Waltse
That Old Feeling (Sammy Fain, Lew Brown)
In A Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington)
Summer Night (John Coltrane)
Rhumba Flamenco
—
Humpty Dumpty
Late Show Setlist
On Green Dolphin Street (Bronisław Kaper)
Continuance (New Song)
Monk's Mood (Thelonious Monk)
You and the Night and the Music (Arthur Schwartz)
Eternal Child
Humpty Dumpty
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Happy Birthday (to Lena w/Gayle Moran)
You're Everything (w/Gayle Moran)
