New flamenco sketches 2

I saw Chick Corea and the group of largely Spanish musicians he's been playing with, and is calling Touchstone, at the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago last summer. It was one of the best sets I saw in 2005. The improvising was strong, the musicianship outstanding and the musicians clearly sympathetic. While founded on Spanish themes and the flamenco, rhumba and tango forms in particular, the music was less overtly influenced by them and wider ranging than, say, Jerry Gonzalez's "Los Piratas del Flamenco," which I liked anyway. When Corea said they had a recording in the process, I knew I would be buying it.

I've given the two-CD "Rhumba Flamenco" two listens and there are two things I like about it. It reminds me of the Ravinia concert musically. ("Touchstone," the song not the band, lasts 22 minutes and includes some great interplay between Corea, Jorge Pardo on flute and Carles Benavent on electric bass.) And I bought the disks directly from Chick Corea's Web site, which is the only way to get them at present. No scummy Sony or other big record companies involved, which is fine by me.

Corea really sounds inspired and the instrumentation, with both drums and percussion, is interesting. Makes for a heck of a beat. Eight of the 10 tunes in the collection of European concert recordings are over 10 minutes, lots of room to make cool music, and these guys do. Benavent is the Spanish Jaco Pastorius on "Zyriab (de Lucia)." I'm not a big flute fan, but Pardo could change my mind, with his inventive solo and comping on what's a speedy run through "You're Everything," for instance, and his front-and-center role on "Mallorca." His playing is just so jazzy and it fits so well in this context. I'm not even sorry he doesn't get the saxophone out more and he's excellent on that instrument, too. "Kalimba" features a nifty duet between percussionist Rubem Dantas on thumb piano and Corea on the big version. Well worth it and you get the added pleasure of knowing the musicians receive most of the money.