Jazz legend Chick Corea and his Elektric Band rocked Spaulding Auditorium Thursday night with a loud combination of jazz, rock, blues and Latin music that added up to an amalgam that was distinctly their own.
From the first note of the concert, the audience was exposed to a hurricane of sound. It was fast-paced, highly energetic and unique in its complexity. It was clear from the first 30 seconds of that first piece, "Rumble/City Gate," that these five musicians were all individual virtuosos drawing from several different styles in their playing, and yet they played as one well-oiled machine.
At the center of this sonic typhoon was Corea himself. When he would solo, his playing was quick and at the same time graceful. Playing a grand piano, a Rhodes electric piano, a synthesizer and a strap-on keyboard, it was like watching Michael Jordan in his heyday with the Bulls, in that he made his intricate task look so easy.
Corea's playing often proved to be an elegant counterpoint to the sharp, hard-driving rhythms he played over, but even when he was in the background he knew just the right notes to play to accent his fellow musicians' solos.
To his right was saxophonist Eric Marienthal, whose fiery, passionate playing was the yin to Corea's cool yang. His solos were reminiscent of the fury with which Cannonball Adderley had played on Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." He made his alto sax scream, hitting notes that pushed the upper range of the instrument, like driving a sports car and finding a secret gear to make it go even faster. Every one of his solos packed a wallop and got big responses from the crowd.
Equaling Marienthal's ferocity was guitarist Frank Gambale. Over the course of the show, much of the rock component of the Elektric Band's set came from him. At different times during the show, he sounded like Carlos Santana, Trey Anastasio, Steve Howe, Eric Clapton or even Eddie Van Halen. Yet the Aussie had a style all his own.
Gambale is without question the fastest and cleanest guitarist I've ever heard play live in any genre. He played so fast that it was hard to tell where one note ended and the next began, but the audience heard them all and let him know it with thunderous applause at the end of several of his solos.
Just as impressive was bassist John Patitucci. Throughout the concert, he achieved the seemingly impossible goal of playing a lot of notes and holding the band together at the same time. Alternately plucking and slapping his six strings, he had both the precision of a classical player and the soul of funk musician, going all over the neck to create his unique brand of riffs. His solos were equally amazing -- he played with such astonishing speed that it sounded more like flamenco guitar than it did electric bass.
At the same time, he played his solos with feeling. Whereas most bass solos are just a flurry of notes, Patitucci put emotion into his shows of technical prowess.
The foundation of this complex structure was drummer Dave Weckl. With a vast array of toms, cymbals and bongos, his drumming provided the floor upon which the other four danced.
That said, he never played just a straight beat. Instead, his sticks were more like paintbrushes, creating emotive percussive portraits to match the mood of each piece. He played with just as much feeling as the rest of the band, making his drum set a means of real expression rather than just a metronome. He played with vigor, but also accuracy, knowing exactly when to hit what. Imagine if John Bonham had gone to Julliard.
Over the course of the two-hour show, the quintet combined to create music that proved paradoxical: frenetic yet precise. It was frenetic because it was loud, fast and pulled from several very different styles. It was precise because the band could play flawlessly whatever complex rhythms Corea could compose.
Whether it was Gambale and Marienthal playing in harmony, or Corea, Gambale and Marienthal firing off a riff, or Patitucci and Weckl matching each other note for note, the band was like a school of fish, darting in every direction but always doing so in unison.
Moreover, it was evident that all five were enjoying each other's company thoroughly, looking like old friends as well as bandmates. This tour is the first time the Elektric Band has played together in almost ten years, but it sounded more like ten minutes.
When asked in a post-concert interview about how it feels to be playing with the Elektric Band after the long hiatus, Corea said, "It took about three seconds to put the band back together. It's an amazing camaraderie that never waned. It's very rich to have friends that you make music and make people happy with."
"The Dartmouth audience was great," he added. "We really enjoyed ourselves."
That came through not only in the band's demeanor on stage, but also the length of the show: the two-hour, two-set performance was considerably longer than what the Elektric Band customarily plays.
The enjoyment was mutual for the Spaulding crowd. Though not everyone in the audience stayed for both the first and second sets, those who did take in the full concert gave the band a total of three standing ovations over the course of the show.
Perhaps those who did left early were expecting more traditional jazz, like the kind Wynton Marsalis brought to campus a few weeks ago with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Corea's was not purely a jazz concert, and he didn't want it to be one.
"It's a matter of interest," Corea said in reference to his eclectic brand of music. "I allow myself to be interested in music, and I follow my interests. I give no credence to lines that divide styles of music."
