6/18/2007

Indy Jazz Fest

The duo of Chick Corea and Bela Fleck proved to be a perfect closer: Instead of blasting festival goers out of the park with something garish and loud, the sponsoring American Pianists Association placed the stellar pianist and banjoist as a twilight finale. Their collaboration generated plenty of power, but on terms that relied on the character of two instruments handled with interlocking virtuosity. The music was filigreed but solidly put together, like wrought-iron balcony railings in the French Quarter -- intended for long-term admiration, or perhaps taken in at a strolling visitor's pace. Corea and Fleck designed these half-dozen originals to be worked over in the delight of concert performance, and it showed. A well-rehearsed joke at the start of "Banjo and Piano" simply confirmed the unforced manner in which this much-lauded pair enjoys each other's musical company.

"Senorita" displayed how sure-footedly the two could get a tempo to coalesce out of a grab bag of introductory material. And often throughout the hourlong program, the pace would shift, textures would take on thickness or lose it, harmonies and rhythms would turn plain or elaborate -- all without forced manipulation or fussy throat-clearing. The character of each piece stayed intact no matter what transformations Corea and Fleck put it through. Corea's "Children's Song No. 6" retained its folklike appeal, guided by a melody that sounded like something another Bela (Bartok) might have collected in Eastern Europe almost a century ago. A Fleck original -- "It sounds like a circus tune to me," said his duo partner when introducing it -- was lofty and buoyant, its tumbling and soaring figures in both instruments suggesting aerial artists at their workaday derring-do under the big top.

Two other jazz-centered acts Sunday showed the generational movement forward of this music. Mark Buselli opened the APA Jazz Stage's afternoon directing the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra High School All Stars in three pieces, culminating in his own composition, "The Trouble With Triplets." A wealth of solos distributed throughout the piece displayed much youthful tentativeness, naturally. But in Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," there was self-assurance that matched the ensemble's in the piano and alto-sax solos. A lively piece in extended blues form, "Point Taken," displayed the balance and drive Buselli had forged with this group of Indiana teens after very little rehearsal.

The young professional contingent of jazz musicians got a good exposition on the Jazz Central Stage later in the afternoon. Dan Tepfer, the 2007 APA Cole Porter Fellow, sounded freer and more robust than he did in April when he won the competition for the award. Tepfer's last number, "Oxygen," had to undergo competition from Yerba Buena's rigorously on-time start on another stage. Otherwise, his set proceeded without untoward incident. "Equivalence," the challenging original that opened the set, seemed an autobiography in miniature and showed the adeptness of Tepfer's bassist, Jorge Roeder, and drummer, Richie Barshay, in helping to shape his performance. Tepfer also drew on two standards from different eras -- "All the Things You Are" and "Billie Jean" -- to show how freshly he could spin some pretty high-quality straw into gold all his own.

Call Star reporter Jay Harvey at (317) 444-6402.