Corea Treads Two Stages With Expandable Band : Jazz: For the classics, he leads a trio, called Akoustic, which grows by two and becomes Elektric for the latest in keyboard technology. Akoustic is at the Coach House tonight.

It seems a nice blend of styles, a considered balance for a contemporary jazz pianist: an electric band that plays driving, rhythmic original material and takes advantage of the latest in keyboard technology, and an acoustic trio that mainly performs jazz classics.

That’s the best-of-both-worlds situation that Chick Corea has carved for himself. The former Miles Davis sideman and leader of the groundbreaking fusion band Return to Forever now leads two bands, dubbed “Elektric” and “Akoustic,” and they share more than quirky name spellings. Along with Corea, both groups include bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl, two of the most promising musicians to emerge from the last decade. The acoustic trio plays tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Thursday at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

“The Elektric Band requires an intense amount of preparation and arranging and writing,” Corea explained over the weekend from Reno, Nev., where he and his Akoustic band were appearing. But because of its focus on familiar tunes, “this (Akoustic) band has tended to operate with no attention on rehearsal or preparation. So it was a nice relief and compliment to put a group together where we don’t have to think much about the material.”

The acoustic group was a natural outgrowth of the Elektric Band, which has been working together since 1986. “It was a little bit of a fluke in the beginning, the way it happened,” the keyboardist said. “I started to get more and more requests to bring a trio and play trio-type music, especially in Europe.”

Corea, who recorded a well-received program of Thelonious Monk tunes with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes in the early ‘80s, was no stranger to the trio format. “My manager asked what I thought of putting the old trio together with Roy and Miroslav and taking some of these gigs. And I thought, gee, we just got the Elektric Band rolling now and it’s turned into a nice little team. I’d hate to unlock it by putting something else there. So then I thought, why not play the trio music with John and Dave and see how that works out? We had one afternoon rehearsal and went over some of these standard tunes and it clicked so nicely that it immediately started to become fun.”

Evidence of that fun can be heard on a pair of GRP recordings, 1989’s “Akoustic Band” and the recently released “Alive,” which includes “How Deep Is the Ocean?” and “On Green Dolphin Street,” as well as tunes by Monk and Duke Ellington and a pair of older Corea numbers.

The keyboardist says the band’s reliance on standards provides plenty of room for spontaneity. “I’ll say to John, what shall we play tonight? Do you know ‘Green Dolphin Street’? Miles made that tune a classic--I learned it from his earlier records. Then when I played with him in the late ‘60s we actually played it a couple of times. And ‘Autumn Leaves’ is like singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ ”

Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” appears on both Akoustic Band recordings. “I actually discovered the richness of Duke Ellington’s work years and years after I was into playing music,” Corea admitted. “It was when I was learning Duke’s music in the ‘70s and ‘80s that I got attracted to “Sophisticated Lady.”

Unlike his contemporary Keith Jarrett, who chose drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock--established musicians with world-class reputations--for his standards trio, Corea has relied on the more youthful Patitucci and Weckl, musicians who have come to attention only since joining the pianist’s groups.

“When I work with more established musicians, they, of course, have their own bands and their own projects and are rolling solidly along. My meeting with them turns out to be a project that would last for no more than a recording and a tour or something like that. I’d been doing that since the end of Return to Forever, from ’76 to ‘83, and I got tired of it.

“When I was putting the Elektric Band together, I wasn’t looking for musicians in terms of their age or how established they were. I was looking for musicians who could do the music and who themselves would be enough interested in maintaining the project and creating a group over a period of time. I was looking for the possibility of longevity. I’ve been fortunate that the gig has been productive for all of us and we continue to work together.”

Corea’s wife, singer-keyboardist Gayle Moran, came upon Southern California-based Patitucci while the bassist was playing a party thrown by Chuck Mangione. New Yorker Weckl was hired after the drummer was recommended to Corea by saxophonist Michael Brecker. The Elektric Band, a quintet, adds electric guitarist Frank Gambale and saxophonist Eric Marienthal on its last recording, “Inside Out.”

Corea says most of his compositional efforts in the last couple years have been directed towards the Elektric Band, which is scheduled to record again in April. “I haven’t been writing chamber music or any other things. I do intend to do an experimental songwriting project, the kind of musical arrangements that include a singer, something I haven’t been involved in for a number of years. And I’m also writing an orchestral piece, a bass concerto, with Patitucci.”

The keyboardist, who’s written jazz tunes, fusion numbers, and compositions for solo piano as well as 13-piece ensembles, says he doesn’t like to think of himself as someone who is blurring the lines between musical styles. “You get into a game of breaking barriers down, you get into a fight. When I’m sitting in the composing room, the area of creation that I’m dealing with is my own mind, my own universe, my own imagination. This keeps me from having to delineate between styles, leaving me creatively free to use whatever techniques and orchestrations and musical ideas that I want to. I’m not trying to market my music when I’m composing it.”