Chick Corea’s Elektric Band put the fuse back into fusion as they lit a match that exploded at the packed house at Catalina’s Wednesday night. The team of Corea and Eric Marienthal/as-ss, Frank Gambale/g, Dave Weckl/dr and John Patitucci/b have been together since 1987, and the music for the 1 ½ hour set was as fresh as this morning’s baked bread, and just as steaming hot, as the team mixed together fiendishly intricate melodies, jaw dropping solos and V8 engine grooves with the precision of a diamond cutter on 6th Street Downtown.
The steamrolling “Charged Particles” mixed frenetic and in sync themes driving by the Wagon Train whip of Weckl’s sticks, while the funky groove of “Trance Dance” mixed Marienthal’s searing alto sax weaving in and out of Patitucci’s frenetic 6 string bass as Corea’s keyboards created long and mysterious dark shadows lurking on the horizon.
Corea then leaned back to his Miles Davis days and twisted and pulled like taffy the classic “CTA” which featured the rhythm section digging a rivulet of a groove as Corea fed the ricocheting Weckl chords to chew on like red meat to a ravenous lion. Marienthal and Gambale jumped in and rocked the bop as the two careened around the kinetic sharp turns. WHEW!
Things got a bit more delicate as Corea switched to piano and delivered a delicately gorgeous intro as Gambale brought out his to acoustic guitar and Marienthal pulled out the soprano for a flowing and Iberian mooded “Alan Corday.” The gracious Gambale took the audience to a Latin Quarter as the notes flowed like morning dew, with Patitucci’s 5 string bass teaming with the band to lead the song into a dramatic and labyrinthine climax.
The closing “Beneath the Mask” had Weckl rumble the band along like an avalanche as Patitucci’s thumb had the 6 strings bend and snap like Reese Witherspoon, while on the encore Corea pulled out his famous portable Yamaha KX5 keyboard and went mano a mano with each member as “Got A Match” resulted in a bluesy tsunami of hard bopping bedlam. For music this complex to be able to swing as hard as it did, it takes a man like Corea to lead, playing as if he invented the genre. Hey, wait a minute, he DID!
Upcoming shows at Catalina’s include George Kahn 06/07. Doug Webb 06/14, Tuck & Patti 06/15-16 and Monty Alexander 06/22-23