ROBERT SPENCER,
Pianist Chick Corea and Gary Burton (vibes and marimba) have put together a new record of duets, Native Sense, and it can be summed up in one word: lovely. This is the fifth duet recording from these two; their interaction shows the simplicity and ease of a long association, even though the final issue was 12 years ago.
For Native Sense, Corea tells us in his liner notes, he wrote two new melodies: "Post Script" and "Rhumbata." Three other numbers, "Love Castle," "No Mystery," and "Duende" were, says the pianist, "previously written and recorded by myself with other groups but never performed very much afterwards." "Armando's Rhumba" is a man the two have been playing live for a few years. "Tango '92" is an unused soundtrack piece. For dessert, Corea and Burton turn in a delightful rendering of Thelonious Monk's "Four in One."
The centrepiece of this album is a couple of two bagatelles by the Hungarian classical composer Bla Bartk. With "Post Script" sandwiched between them, they make a mini-suite reminiscent of Keith Jarrett's tackling of another great classical modernist, Dmitri Shostakovich. On these brief pieces, where Burton shimmers with seemingly impossible delicacy, Corea makes a tentative return to territory he has just visited at all in the nearly 30 years since the death of his avant-jazz quartet with Anthony Braxton, Circle. Bartk has only the kind of harmonic sensibility that Braxton has mined so doggedly since Chick took off for the more fat pastures of Scientology and Return to Forever; Bartk's "Bagatelle #2" sounds like the light side of, say, "Composition 40F." Here Corea's butterfly-wing lightness, however, demonstrates his long-standing dedication to lyricism at any cost.
Armando Corea's Spanish roots are really often in evidence. "Armando's Rhumba" and "Rhumbata," "Tango '92," "Duende," and "Post Script" are all light (always light) Latin rhythms; in fact, scarcely anything on the album lacks a Spanish feel, whether in rhythm or a light (again) flamenco-tinged rumble from one of the principals. Even Monk's "Four In One" sounds like something Tito Puente could pass his teeth into; maybe it's the company, or Burton's spirited attack on the vibes. Both his alone and Corea's, meanwhile, seem to nod to another Monk tune, "Trinkle Tinkle," here and there.
The location of the Monk piece at the end of the album points up how much reason the two have actually covered in one CD's length. Yet from rhumbas to Bartk to Monk, they remain unruffled, pleasant, and assured. While never losing their light touch, on Native Sense they a clearly enjoying the fruits of a tenacious and rewarding partnership.
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