Quite possibly this is the most esoteric live review you will ever read.
And it’s possible that no string of words, no matter how masterfully written, could describe what happened to me during Chick Corea and Gary Burton’s concert at the Hamer Hall in the Melbourne Arts Centre on Sunday night.
There I was, at the front-side of the stage of this gloriously-modern concert hall, photographing Chick and Gary doing what they have been doing together for the past forty-three years, when I found myself immersed in a cocoon of white light. Now, I’m no tree-hugging spiritualist, high on drugs in search of eternal wisdom, but I swear to you that the physical universe just went "poof" and disappeared. The floor, the walls, the chairs — all were gone. It was as if Chick’s piano fused with Gary’s vibe (an instrument like a xylophone or glockenspiel) in a way similiar to instruments used in alchemistic rituals which transform all matter into a realm of only light and smooth transcendent sounds. Such were not created by any mere mortal musicians but that of actual Gods. God’s of Jazz!
Click here to see the Chick Corea and Gary Burton gallery
I have never perceived such stillness and tranquility that persisted for such a long period of time. I tried to pull out of it and snap back to reality but the spell was just too great for me. Rather, I succumbed to the overpowering wonderment and relaxed in to it as if a feather caught in a gentle breeze.
Now, that may all sound quite absurd, but there is a reason why both of these musical geniuses (in the truest sense of the phrase) are indisputably two of the biggest names in modern jazz. Chick and Gary are giants and as a duo, they are simply legendary.
Keyboard virtuoso Chick is a 20-time Grammy award winner and has over five decades of unparalleled invention and creativity. Gary played a founding role in the birth of jazz fusion as the most accomplished vibraphonist. When their supernatural abilities combine, it creates a complex weave of mercurial interplay and playful spontaneity while maintaining a technical integrity, which almost doesn’t make sense or rather shouldn’t even be possible; but yet sounds so majestic. Could it be that the wavelengths produced promote miracles and this was why I had the profound experience?
Well, in any case, something big was omnipresent in the hall that night and it was clearly obvious that I was not the only one experiencing such pleasure. A perfect way to end the Melbourne International Jazz Festival for 2014.
Chick Corea and Gary Burton Duets @ Hammer Hall, Melbourne Arts Centre - 8 June 2014
