Vibraphonist Gary Burton told the Barbican crowd that when the idea for his partnership with pianist Chick Corea was mooted, his first thought had been, "Nobody wants to listen to just piano and vibes for an hour." That was 1972. Thirty-five years and six recordings later, they still command standing ovations for doing nothing more than that. Sometimes it is like listening to a couple of immaculately constructed old clocks whirring away side by side in some hypnotic harmony of ticks and chimes. It ought not to be a popular jazz hit, but it is.

Burton revealed the graceful improvisational fluency he was to display all evening on the opener, Love Castle, the harmony of which made the pair sound as if they were joined as a single piano, before they separated to foreground Corea's percussive and Latin-inflected piano style, and Burton's glowing, seamless flow. Native Sense (from their last record: "We made it 12 years ago") was a hooky eight-note melody; Corea's flamenco-inspired Allegria began with both of them banging polyrhythms on the woodwork of the piano; and the theme Bud Powell was a dazzling display of jazz credentials, with Corea and Burton relishing the zigzagging bebop lines.

The second half's exploration of an unfinished Scriabin theme was a highlight of the night - perhaps because anticipation and excitement hung in evocative spaces rather than in clusters of notes, and Burton's exploration of the chords was a little masterpiece of tonal variation. They then played Sweet and Lovely with a Monkish mischievousness, and I Loves You Porgy was among the encores.

As they've been proving for 35 years, a potentially soporific combination becomes utterly captivating if the right hands and minds are crafting it.

· Broadcast by Radio 3's Jazz on 3 on September 7.