Power of three concert review

It seems that nowadays I always get to concerts which may be the last chance for me. Chick Corea will come perhaps a few more times, but McCoy Tyner... I don't think so. Or Kraftwerk... so who knows, in a bad case, this was the last - but my newest unforgettable memory.

After the revival of Return to forever in 2008, their world tour was so succesful and great event for them, they established a trio, at the piano: Chick Corea, at the bass: Stanley Clarke, and at the drums: Lenny White. It's a quite interesting idea, because the trio plays the older jazzrock/fusion songs more softly, but this ability is highly recommended for other songs, for example standards.

The concert was excellent. We could see a real trio. Trio is always an interesting thing and can be fascinating, too, because sometimes they can create everything. Every mood, every sound, every point on the hard-soft line, and none of the trios is the same. They are all different. So Corea, Clarke and White are very accustomed to each other, it was felt very well. They played Rtf songs, Chick Corea songs, and standards as well, so the palette was exciting. I hope that our concert will be soon uploaded to the setlists/photos menu on http://www.ccwtrio.chickcorea.com/ which is the band's website. Here you can find more photos which are very expressive for me and almost talk about the atmosphere of the concerts. The last song is always Spain, one of Corea's most known pieces. There was a part in it when the audience were humming to the melody he played.

Reinventing the trio 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR1VUvDGLZY

Stanley Clarke solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDzjUQihHGg

Spain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLi9RfhbhrM

Al Di Meola - Elegant gypsy

The first meeting with Al Di Meola was very pleasant, because I've heard his name a lot of times before (Return to forever...) but I haven't known anything about the music. So if you see some unknown cds at home, let's take a try, you wouldn't know, perhaps that will be your favourite music.

Maybe his most famous album, Elegant gypsy from 1977 is a cool place where Di Meola can prove his virtuose talent. His instrument, the electric guitar has a very easy abilitiy to create harder, wilder things. Fortunately, he don't exaggerate this, only does when it's needed, at emphasized parts - and if we reached this topic, the whole arrangement is very good and logic. So Meola can be soft and also wild with his guitar. Starting with Flight over Rio in a mood which matches to the title, the album gets a harder intro, but in the second track, which is my favourite, Midnight tango, he gets more silent and the guitar and electric piano make a special beautiful atmosphere. But it seems to be that he's the kind of musician who likes progressivity in music, a good example for this is in Midnight tango at 2:31. I like those wild virtouse circles with the guitar very much. Later at a point he shifts to acoustic guitar and play a beautiful song, Mediterranean Sundance, which has got very famous. With its mediterranean mood and energic guitar sounding can take a real effect on us.

Watch its live performance by him, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cadbYIzhqQ

(there are many more versions of it)

Midnight tango:

And an interesting thing: when I first heard the bass melody in Flight over Rio from ... I immediately remembered one of my old favourites, a Hungarian electronic band, called The Carbonfools, and the song Ushanka. You can listen to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lgcthUTWX4

The three best Weather Report albums

There are different grades in musical talents. Somebody - after learning it - can play a song well. Somebody can write new melodies, and make a complete song of it. And somebody can create a quite new, exciting thing, almost a new genre, music which we hear and say: Yes, it must be that. Maybe this is the description of the word "unique".

Weather Report belongs to this last category. It's hard to find any band or musician who is similar to it, usually we read that it's for example Chick Corea's band, Return to forever. Both are jazz, jazz fusion, usually called jazzrock, but these genres are always disputed. Be that as it may, Weather Report was a world-wide known "supergroup" (making their greatest albums in the seventies). I mean that the band members are also big names in their personal carreers. The pianist/keyboardist Joe Zawinul, the saxophonist Wayne Shorter and for example, the bassist Miroslav Vitous or Jaco Pastorius. By the way, this is one of the coolest band names I've ever heard.

Now I've picked three albums which I suppose to be the best albums: Sweetnighter, Black market, and Tale spinnin'. I had a dilemma about Mysterious traveler, but that will be another post.

Sweetnighter from 1973 (as many albums of their's) starts with a longer, faster, evolving song, then calms down in the second song, which is usually a slower, more silent thing. Here the first is the 13 minutes long Boogie woogie waltz, with the sometimes-appearing cool bass melody of Vitous, and the undefineable saxophone parts of Shorter. This music always changes, evolves then the instruments find each other again to express melodies in a very unique way. After it, Manolete immediately leads us to somewhere else in a spanish mood. Listen carefully at 2:24, when a new rhythmic part starts, I like it very much. Later we get to the track next to last, it's Will, my favourite song on this album. Starting with a light drum pattern and the fine electric piano by Zawinul, it gets a little bit louder but stays intimate until the very end of it. Shorter's longly lingering sounds create an unforgettable mood.

Black market from 1976 is perfectly like its cover: vivid, varicoloured, and there's also a little bit of mistery behind that lake - and the songs - as on the other albums, like a constant flavor of Weather report. The first song, Black market is very friendly, especially because the carefree melody by Zawinul. And, as I told you earlier, the second song is usually a calmer thing. Cannon ball is beautiful at first, but sometimes it becomes serious and louder - with typical Weather report melodies. It's typical because when you hear it, you say: it must be Weather report. A cool part: at the start of the third track, Gibraltar, the noise of the big ship - it creates a strict atmosphere. Then everything gets silent for a while and after it immediately comes the louder part. After it we get to my favourite track on this album, Elegant people, a beautiful song, starting with one of the coolest melodies in "my musical life". For me, Hernandnu, the last track is the most connected with mistery. That melody has an uncertain feeling, but not in a negative way.

Tale spinnin' from 1975 maybe concentrate less on the melodies. Fast starting, then something else: Lusitanos, with the always coming back shift in emphasis, melodies, moods. It can be beautiful, contemplative, strict and uncertain at the same time, this is also a typical Weather report attribute. My favourite song on this album is Badia, a silent, slower expression. I've always liked in music when a song starts almost silently, then the little parts connect and we gradually get in that mood. The beautiful melody sometimes has an additional, slightly hoarse vocal, too, which is ice on the cake. And at 2:42 we meet the unexpected new fast part - to keep it exciting. In the end, Five short stories is an interesting improvisative dialogue between Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, closing the album.

There could be many more interesting things about these albums, but I think it's enough to be curious about the band.

Black market: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7fOetV0ha4

Badia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xDPJwIYz_E

Cannon ball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkKw7mDmIIg