(Morristown, NJ) -- Whenever Chick Corea and Béla Fleck take to the stage, genres always fly fast and furious. Performing together, these two master musicians weave duets out of staggering virtuosity creating mind-blowing magic performances. Chick Corea and Bela Fleck come to Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday, September 25, 2015 at 8 pm. Tickets are $39-79.
“Every time Chick and I have played together it has been an extraordinary experience. I have to go beyond my best to hang with Chick!” says Bela Fleck. Adds Chick Corea, “Bela’s got a unique style and is an adventurous improviser. He’s fun to play with.”
In an unlikely pairing of piano and banjo in 2006, Chick Corea and Béla Fleck joined together to explore the unexplored. Their proposed project, pairing one of jazz’s most prominent instruments with one relegated to “miscellaneous” in critics’ polls, was uncharted territory. But Corea (an admirer of the banjoist’s bluegrass-meets-bebop band the Flecktones) and Fleck (long inspired by Corea’s Return to Forever ensemble) went into the studio with new material they had written for the recording date. The result: The Enchantment, which was not only deemed one of the best recordings of 2007 but also sparked multiyear international live tours where sold-out crowds were treated to Corea’s and Fleck’s genre-shattering, jaw-dropping display of technical mastery—all delivered with deep emotion and an unexpected spirit of play.
The most compelling performances culled from those years of touring comprise Two, the simply titled, live double-album, scheduled for release on September 11, 2015 on Concord Jazz. The track list includes compositions from The Enchantment, which are re-worked with boundary-stretching improvisation, Corea and Fleck classics, as well as choice new music added to the repertoire along the way.
On Two, the mutual respect and appreciation of each other’s music come to the fore. “We love to be spontaneous,” says Fleck on his collaboration with Corea. “Playing with Chick is one of the high-water marks in my musical life, and I’m amazed and proud that it came to be.” Corea returns the compliments: “Béla is a continuous fountain of creativity. He always maintains a spirit of inquiry and high-level musical judgment. His work ethic is impeccable. That’s always inspiring to me.”
The duo ventures into the bluegrass zone with the tune “Bugle Call Rag.” Fleck recalls that he played Corea some Flatt & Scruggs music on a long night drive in a car between shows. “Chick really dug this song, so I suggested we fool around with it for fun,” he says. “‘Bugle Call Rag’ was widely played as a jazz tune going all the way back to Benny Goodman, before becoming a bluegrass standard. I love our version because it is clearly such an off-the-cuff meeting of two worlds.” Corea says, “This is one of my favorite takes of the whole project—for how spontaneous it was and how different playing this tune made me play. I kept thinking what Art Tatum would have done with a fast bluegrass groove like this. He would have eaten it up.”
Piano and banjo? It might be brought to question how enduring the matchup could be, but with the release of Two, the pair of instruments sound like they were made for each other. “With Béla, our duet is simpatico and comfortable,” says Corea. “And it’s also spiritual. Whatever we do is guaranteed to be music at the highest level.”
About Bela Fleck:
Béla Fleck, considered the premiere banjo player in the world, lives to improvise and loves to work with unexpected musical fusions. In high school, Béla began his experimentation by playing bebop on the banjo. His “blu-bop” mix of jazz and bluegrass with his Flecktones was an unexpected commercial success, as well as critically-acclaimed and award-winning. Fleck has won 8 Grammys and is the only musician to be nominated for Grammys in jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, gospel, composition and world music categories.
About Chick Corea:
Chick Coreaʼs restless creativity knows no bounds. His groundbreaking band Return To Forever launched the fusion era of the ʻ70s. His work with flamenco great Paco de Lucia led to the formation of Touchstone, a band whose fiery Latinismo music has bridged the world of flamenco and jazz. His Piano Concerto No. 2 headlined the Viennaʼs Mozart Celebrations this year. Chickʼs whole career is the stuff of jazz lore, an amalgamation of influential, limit-stretching, genre-bending musical experiences that have garnered him 12 Grammy Awards and legions of fans worldwide.
Mayo Performing Arts Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2015-2016 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, F.M. Kirby Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. The Mayo Performing Arts Center has been designated a Major Presenting Organization by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
