It was May 15th and live@Blue Note jazz club, NYC, what a “lucky” catch!
This was my first time at any Blue Note club and I have to say that I had a great time, with Chick Corea and the band paying tribute to another hero with “Further Explorations of Bill Evans”.
Well well well! It all flowed and simmered with such a freedom that those musicians seem to have reached through their mastering techniques; wow, very impressive…Chick Corea gave also all the way a lot of room for others which was definitely a nice game to watch on stage too. Yes, rapid-fire phrasing were there, culminating into sophisticated breakthrough, tough I would have like to see more of that along that evening. The few plucking-the-strings of the piano happened too which was great)).
I was not “too uptight” about the Bill Evans theme and it felt good that way; including a special guest (whom I sadly cannot remember the name of, please help if you know!) for a great acoustic guitar performance with the trio. He came in at Mr. Corea’s invitation at mid-point of the show, and left after his performance with them, letting them to go on again as a trio.
So, at nearly 70, Corea is the virtuoso in jazz piano I was dreaming to see performing live some day, done! And in such a casual and insouciant way I would have never expected! Gomez, Motian are nearly as old and as great magicians. It’s a magical trio. How encouraging is that)).
On the other side, it really like the club would need to serious revamp; very, very packed venue, even if the music was incredible also as for being just few meters away and in front of the scene in an intimate venue like this; having said that it also looked like there are a lot of bad seats at this venue (beware; advance booking, queuing early enough, helps for sure).
But-so-what: plain great evening for me, period. One of the best jazz performance I’ve seen. Blue Note felt to be the “institution” it is meant to be, and you should visit for the music, which, I can say, was worth every cent, cramped moment!
