Chick Corea Trio at Tanglewood

July 31, 2016 Tanglewood concert review by Dave Read

Lenox, MA – The Chick Corea Trio, with Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums, performed a thrilling set of hyphen-free jazz before a capacity audience in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, bringing to a close one segment of a year-long 75th birthday celebration by the NEA Jazz Master, who was born June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, MA. Mr. Corea will conclude the celebration with an unprecedented eight week stint at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club between October 19 and December 12, when he’ll perform with more than a dozen bands, including versions of Return to Forever: an acoustic combo with Hubert Laws on flute and Ravi Coltrane on tenor saxophone, and a fusion powerhouse with John McLaughlin on guitar, Victor Wooten on bass and Lenny White on drums.

Tonight’s setlist was drawn from Trilogy, the widely acclaimed 2014 album of popular Chick Corea compositions, previously unreleased material, plus an array of jazz standards. Besides Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, Corea also paid tribute to Miles Davis, in whose employ he burst upon the scene in the late ’60s, a musician whose stagecraft was diametrically opposed to Corea’s, a most relaxed and affable artist who opened and closed tonight’s show engaged in dialogue with an impromptu Tanglewood chorus that he drew into the performance.

Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk

Davis’ On Green Dolphin Street and All Blues, were highlights of the concert, along with Alice in Wonderland, which he dedicated to pianist Bill Evans, because “when he played it he owned it, even though he didn’t write it.”

About Tanglewood: box office, tickets, getting there, nearby hotels

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Getting around the Tanglewood campus

The Tanglewood campus, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center comprises several hundred acres in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge. It is the location of the Koussevitsky Music Shed and Ozawa Hall, where hundreds of thousands attend concerts and a variety of events, including picnics. We always advise new visitors to arrive early and take their daily walking exercise wandering the beautiful Tanglewood grounds.

Here is a dynamic map of the Tanglewood grounds, with photos and information for such points of interest as Aaron Copland Library, Highwood Manor House, The Glass House, and The Lion’s Gate.