SFJAZZ presents The Enchantment featuring Chick Corea & Béla Fleck
2015-09-13
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
Late Show, 7:30 PM, Sunday, September 13, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:31 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:38 PM] Bugle Call Rag
2. [7:44 PM] Overjoyed
3. [7:51 PM] Juno
4. [8:00 PM] Henri Dutilleux: Prelude en Berceuse
5. [8:04 PM] Children's Song №6
6. [8:20 PM] Spectacle
   [set ends 8:28 PM]
    
   Encore
7. [8:29 PM] ? (Spanish-flavored, but not quite Spain – maybe Armando's Rhumba or Señorita?)
8. [8:42 PM] ? (hard for me to say whether this was a reprise or a different tune)
   [show ends 8:48 PM, bows and applause, then off for good and house lights up by 8:53 PM]

• Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea: piano, keyboards;
• Béla Fleck: banjo.

What an amazing show! Bugle Call Rag (I'm assuming that was the opener, based on the indirect commentary and the fact that nothing else seems likely when I look at the tune list for the new Corea/Fleck release, Two) was a great way to get started. Highly reminiscent of Béla's work with the Marcus Roberts Trio, a few years ago, I was astonished to hear Chick playing in this old-fashioned, stride-like style. Let's start with a knockout, eh? next up was a “new standard”: Stevie Wonder's Overjoyed. While I love Stevie's tunes, this one didn't work quite so well for me. I dunno. Maybe a different Stevie tune would have tickled my fancy better? It was interesting to imagine Béla's banjo as a fit-in for a real or synthesized harpsichord, but overall, it just didn't quite manage to gel. According to Béla, Juno was composed in the Houston airport on his way home from a gig at SFJAZZ to meet Abigail and his new baby, Juno, after missing his birth on account of (a) the gig, and (b) Juno deciding to pop out three weeks ahead of schedule. Dutilleux's Prelude en Berceuse was sweet – and it's always interesting to hear pieces from the classical repertoire remapped to the banjo! The highlight of the night was the nearly telepathic interplay of the duo during Children's Song №6: fifteen minutes, four hands, two instruments, one mind blown! And Spectacle was also darn good – maybe even spectacular? – but I was still reeling from the previous run through Childen's Song №6, and couldn't really take in the new tune properly. Might have worked better for me to insert the Dutilleux lullaby or Stevie Wonder piece there … just to have a few minutes to chill out before engaging in more active listening.

All too soon, the set was over. No, strike that. The set ended MUCH too soon. And while the encore was a generous twenty minutes, the main event was still stingy, at less than an hour. Don't the adoring fans deserve a little more musical love?