CHICK COREA, Sheraton City Center Hotel, Monday.
For the record, Monday night's Jazz in Salt Lake City concert featuring Chick Corea was one of the most memorable jazz concerts to ever come through town.
First of all, this guy has one of the most creative minds on the planet. That the music's good, too, is an added bonus; it's both intelligent and accessible.
Plus, his ability to reach the audience, build a rapport — well, let's just say they could have packaged themselves as a party-in-a-box.
Corea is currently touring to promote his latest album, "The Ultimate Adventure," based on the book of the same title by L. Ron Hubbard.
It's a sort of a tone poem, so all chart titles (and, presumably, concepts) are references to the book. The material played Monday was new, and all of it — except the encore — was from this album.
Corea started out with "North Africa" and "Queen Tedmur," both good, but not his best charts. Then he set loose his percussionist, Rubem Dantas, and drummer, Tom Brechtlein, on the beginning of "Mosef the Exocutioner." It was an all-out jam. Even when the rest of the band joined in later, it was only slightly toned down.
Once they got to the middle, Dantas pulled out some pretty exotic percussion instruments for some very far-out effects. It was fantastic. Everybody got in on the percussion act — even Corea. And once they started throwing in some vocal cries, and even howls, it took on a very exotic rain forest/jungle flavor.
It would seem logical to come down and get a little mellow after something as intense and exciting as that, but instead, their next piece topped it. They started with nothing but hand-clapping and body percussion, and once the flamencoesque music got underway, they brought out their piece de la resistance: flamenco dancer Auxi Fernandez. She added a wonderful dimension to the music.
Although much of what Fernandez did was visual, it blended perfectly with the rest of the band. At one point, in a later piece, she and Corea even did some back-and-forth counterpoint — Fernandez with a rhythmic foot-stomping dance and Corea on the keyboard. It was as natural as Corea going back and forth with the flutist.
They kept up the excitement and energy all the way through to the end, when the audience demanded an encore. So Corea and Dantas came back onstage — this time, Dantas playing an African kalimba instrument in a duet with Corea. It later expanded to include the rest of the band — bassist Charles Benavent, flutist Jorge Pardo and Brechtlein — and even Fernandez.
By the time they finished the 30-minute encore, they had topped themselves yet again.
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com