Gig review: Chick Corea

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 19:02

CHICK COREA **** 02 ACADEMY, GLASGOW

THIS venue has undergone many transformations over the years, but the former cinema and bingo hall is now firmly a rock venue. As such, a solo concert from pianist Chick Corea (his only UK date) to conclude the Jazz Festival was already out of their usual run, but I am prepared to guess that it was the first time the building has hosted a recital of classical piano music as well.

That arrived in the second half, when Corea set aside jazz and turned to notated music. Following his own Spanish-inflected The Yellow Nimbus, he joked (I think it was a joke) that we were joining him in his practice studio as he played one of Scarlatti's sonatas, an early and unexpectedly lyrical piece by Henri Dutilleux and two short sonatas by Scriabin.

He closed the sequence with a selection from his own engaging set of through-composed miniatures, Children's Songs. It was very nicely played, but I got no feeling that it was music in which he had anything special to communicate.

Not so the first set, when he tested the piano (a lovely Steinway rather than his usual Yamaha) with one of his own tunes, then performed compositions by Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. His tribute to these artists was refracted though his own musical sensibility and the distinctive touch, and melodic and rhythmic techniques that have made him such a key figure in contemporary jazz.