Chick Coreagary Burton Hill Auditorium

CHICK CORREA / GARY BURTON

Hill Auditorium

The 1976-77 Eclipse Jazz sea-

son got off to a royal start Sept. 25

as pianist Chick Corea and vibist

Gary Burton presented Solos and

Duets, a program of acoustic

music, to a warm and receptive audience

in Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium.

Chick mentioned that he had not per-

formed solo or with Gary since 1973

and then proceeded to delight the near-sellout

crowd with his dream-like melodies and virtuos-

tic musicianship. The highlight of the solo set-

was an improvisation which painted a musical por-

trait of the audience. He also included some recog-

nizable tunes from the Piano Improvisations album

like "Noon Song" and "Some Time Ago."

Gary Burton performed two

Steve Swallow compositions,

"Green Mountains" and "Arise

Her Eyes," and closed with the

fast-paced "Mallet Man". He was

dazzling to watch and soothing

to listen to - truly a tempered mu-

sician.

Gary and Chick returned to-

gether after the intermission to

rework a bunch of material from

the Crystal Silence Lp. The very

satisfying duet included "Desert

Air," "Señor Mouse," "l'm Your

Pal," and "Children's Song."

Eclipse has a great season

planned,  with Keith Jarrett up

next on Oct. 23 in a rare solo

appearance. See you then.

--Joel Siegel