Chick Corea, the still-effervescent jazz piano star, continues to tour the UK with his wide-ranging group the Vigil, but though his long-running duo with banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck is a more intimate affair, the pair generate plenty of playful, spontaneous heat. The music on this double album represents their favourite moments from eight years of live recordings, with originals from both (including Corea’s Senorita, Children’s Song No 6 and bouncing Armando’s Rhumba; Fleck’s dreamy, dancing Waltse for Abby and the hypnotic Mountain), joined by a bluegrass treatment of Benny Goodman vehicle, Bugle Call Rag, and contemporary composer Henri Dutilleux’s Prelude en Berceuse. There’s a bit too much between-tunes backchat, which won’t surprise Corea followers, but the empathy, relay-racing exchanges, imagination and exuberance of these two (particularly on the second disc’s warmly entwined Brazil, and the virtuosic Bugle Call Rag) will stir grateful memories for Corea/Fleck regulars, and enthuse plenty of newcomers too.
