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Every performance deserves to be taken on its own terms, and that's a useful precept to remember as pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White fill Yoshi's Oakland this week for one of the year's most anticipated jazz gigs.
Yes, these guys (along with guitarist Al DiMeola) helped established fusion as a legitimate artistic pursuit as Return to Forever. But it's foolish to an expect an RTF reunion every time they get together.
Judging by Wednesday show, in fact, this was something better. Playing acoustically, the musicians used the format as a springboard for creatively re-imagining a few RTF classics and newer material.
Corea and Clarke are both remarkable in the ability to slip effortlessly from electric to acoustic versions of their instruments. One could even argue -- and I think I will -- that mixing it up helps them. Corea approached the keyboard in a bracingly physical way, getting the full measure of springy, tactile pleasure that comes from felt on string. Clarke was equally appreciative of his axe, plucking and bowing with a kind of subtly that doesn't happen on an electric Fender.
Everything came to a head with a heroic rendition of RTF's "No Mystery," as Corea's alternately cascading and percussive keyboard runs found a perfect foil in Clarke's rhythmic power, expanded with a jaw-droppingly beautiful bowed solo and another run of amazingly deft finger-popping.
White's work was more subtle but no less vital, allowing the trio to achieve a rare level of communication and synchronicity.
The trio continues at Yoshi's with shows at 8 and 10 p.m. tonight and Friday (tickets $60 and $65), followed by th closing performance Sunday at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
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