Let’s get one thing straight. Each of these guys are bloody legends. Any album of either of them would be worth listening to. Both are iconic members of the jazz elite who expanded the boundaries of jazz through their experimentation with synthesizers, and both played with Miles Davis (often at the same time–most notably on In A Silent Way, my favorite Davis album). On this album (slash concert), rather than their electric pianos and synths that they were famous for, they meet with a pair of Steinway pianos between them.

The songs aren’t as much duets as they are duels–if a duel was won by making your opponent look as badass as possible. These two frequent collaborators–and great friends–perform a number of tracks that are as aggressive as they are humorous (the crowd bursts into laughter on several occasions, betraying some visual aspect missing here). And true to their legacy, neither musician is content with the confines of the instrument. At one point, the frame of the piano is played as a drum. Often, one will rapidly arpeggiate a single note while the other bangs out seemingly unrelated chords. Very little about this performance is gentle or expected, but Corea and Hancock seem to read eachother’s minds, playing in perfect counterpoint, like a sort of angry ballet.