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Chick Corea's Legacy


JSngry

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I got to thinking yesterday - everybody, myself included, views Chick Corea as an "important jazz musician", but based on what body of work?

For me, it'd have to be the period from TONES FOR JOANS BONES (and, ok, the sideman years w/Blue, Mongo, etc. as a prelude) up to and including the firstedition (w/Airto & Flora) of Return To forever. That's a pretty epic arc of development, I think - from a really distinct "advanced inside" style of playing and composing, going DEEPLY into free improvisation, and ending up with a set of delightfully meaty, lyrical compositions (see Stan Getz' CAPTAIN MARVEL for just how meaty they could be, see the first two RTF albums for just how lyrical they could be). To me, that's Chick's most significant legacy, the stuff I keep coming back to for further exploration and deeper satisfaction, the material of that arc.

But that was a long time ago, and the whole fusion RTF, the RTF-era solo albums on Polydor, and all the later projects have their devotees as well. None of that stuff really sunk in with me, for the most part (there are exceptions, though), but the following for it is large indeed, and it's a following that might not be all THAT interested in the stuff that I hold as "definitive" Corea.

No real answer or point here, just a topic for a possibly interesting discussion: when you hear the name "Chick Corea", what's the first image/sound that flashes into your mind?

Edited by JSngry
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Interesting discussion, Jim!

The first ECM Return to Forever would jump to my mind, also the Blue Note (Solid State) trio discs (I got two of them, the famous one with Vitous & Haynes whose title escapes me and "Song of Singing").

Toans is a very nice one, too.

After a minute or two of thinking, "Circle" (the 2CD ECM release) comes to mind. A great one!

ubu

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My first Chick album was NOW HE SINGS...NOW HE SOBS and that's usually the first thing I associate with him and (for me) it's still one of the best....and also a great showcase for Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes. The LIGHT AS A FEATHER looms large also and I first saw that group live in that configuration. With Joe Farrell, Airto, Flora, Lenny White and Stanley playing mostly acoustic but with a red Gibson hollowbody electric for some tunes. As RTF evolved I tended to be less interested and I was somewhat turned off by Chick's "communicating" with the audience by playing too obvious call and response things with the other band members. I've since moderated that attitude somewhat, but I have a strong tendency to prefer the non electric things...but I still make an occasional effort to get into the things that I passed over....I mean when all is said and done - he IS a phenomenal player.

Edited by Harold_Z
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I would agree that it's earlier Chick that established his legacy. I like RTF, but I truly and deeply love TONES (I have the INNER SPACE comp that also includes a couple other rarities from the same time period from a Hubert Laws Atlantic album), and his Solid State recordings (particularly SONG OF SINGING and NOW HE SINGS...utterly amazing trio work). He was also one HELL of an accompaniest around then - those tracks with Blue Mitchell ("Straight Up and Down" and "Tones for Joan's Bones") are some of my favorite little big group arrangements of the 60's, and Corea just steals the show on both.

I'm not a fan of most compilations, but I have to say that Blue Note did a remarkable job picking the selections for the BEST OF CHICK COREA collection. If you're bit by that, you'll ultimately want to get all the original albums, but I can't think of a finer introduction to his vintage work as a leader, pre-RTF.

I NEED to explore Circle...huge gap in my listening experience. Having been delving into Braxton more recently, it can't be much longer before I do.

While more recent Chick isn't quite as earthshaking or adventurous, I have to say that I was pretty knocked out by CHANGE, with Origin. His playing certainly has not lost one bit of its luster, and the level of group musicianship and interplay is pretty remarkable.

Guilty pleasure: INSIDE OUT, which is one of those Elektrik Band CDs. Realizing objectively that it's pretty dorky stuff in many ways and that it's nowhere near in the same league as his best work, I still think Chick gets in some nice playing and the tunes have their interesting twists and turns. The problem lies in the horrendous 80's-rock type production and with some of his partners in crime (Dave Weckl and Frank Gambale in particular).

Edited by DrJ
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I think of the painist who plays so marvelously on Joe Henderson's RELAXIN' AT CAMARILLO. Chick's solo on "Y Todavia la Quiero" was what made me really take notice of him.

I still think he'll wind up being known more for his compositions than anything else, though.

Edited by Joe
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I still think he'll wind up being known more for his compositions than anything else, though.

I'm leaning that way myself, Joe. Great player, but some of those tunes you just can't get away from, no matter what. That was driven home listening to the new reissue of CAPTAIN MARVEL. STRONG material, the kind that melts in your mind, not in your hands, and that's not the only batch of such material he's written.

Hell, Paul Gonsalves recorded "Windows"!

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While more recent Chick isn't quite as earthshaking or adventurous, I have to say that I was pretty knocked out by CHANGE, with Origin. His playing certainly has not lost one bit of its luster, and the level of group musicianship and interplay is pretty remarkable.

Yes, excellent recording, excellent group.

Don't forget Trio Music. I saw a Corea/Haynes/Pattitucci trio last year that was at the same high level of inventiveness and interplay. And a Corea/Burton duo concert in '97 was one of the most spellbinding encounters I've ever witnessed. Don't write the guy off.

Edited by Pete C
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It took me a while for my ears to get used to the first work of Chicks I heard - the live Miles electric period , but I did grow to enjoy his work with Miles but not enough to buy any of his solo title until this came out

chickiscorea.jpg

which i only really bought because i had all the other titles in the batch of Conns that were released at the same time , but I'm really glad i did - disc one is excellent.

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for me its one song: "Crystal Silence" which is on both of my favourite Corea's the RTF one and on the Zurich Concert with Burton... ..

they are the two highlights for me that I enjoyed at that time and they both find their way on my turntable... the rest is "good" but there's not much that I would jump on...although I have some of the GRP Electric Band

cheers, Tjobbe

EDIT: what might describe my feelings a liitle bitter is the impression i alway had with lot hios later stuff he did as leader that he could do better ...it was never bad, but based on what you expect him to achieve... :huh:

Edited by tjobbe
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Good question for a thread.

I think that Chick Corea is a good example of an extremely talented artist who got sidetracked into dabbling in too many different things, as opposed to developing a single musical direction in a determined and concentrated manner. He has produced a lot of good music. I can't help but feel that he could have done much more.

I am also partial to the earlier pre-electric albums. He is sounding pretty good right now.

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I hear Chick Corea and I think "Spain", then I think Elektrik Band, then I think pre-Columbia post Airto RTF. I've seen him live a whole bunch of times, each with a different band, and they were some of the most amazing shows - Akoustic Band, Elektrik Band, Elektrik Band II, and the New Trio - all phenom!

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I think his best album, as someone already said, is "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" followed closely by the "Crystal Silence" album duets with Gary Burton (the studio one, not the live one) and "Tones for Joan's Bones" and then the first Return to Forever album (that's the untitled one I guess) with airto, flora, clarke, and farrell. I think these 3 hold up well today, but god he made a lot of awful ones.

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The first Chick I heard was on Silent Way and I laboured away on that one in relative jazz naivety in order to decipher what he and Hancock were playing and how it differed.

Not a good album to try that on really. Given that their relative contributions were largely 'riff' based. I did hear very well though what he plays on his long solo on track one of that album.

On the last ECM under Vitous' name I wish he weren't there. I mean the album would have worked perfectly well with bass, drums, sax and guitar. Not a slant on Corea.

The live excerpts, with Burton, that I've seen on TV and video did appear to be noodling musicianship. I'm probably totally out of order there in some eyes (ears).

I know I'm missing some great stuff and Sweet Rain is absolutely amazing. An album that Blue Note should have made, at that very time, with RVG creating a sonic gem rather than the muddy artifact we're left with from Verve. The album sounds totally contemporaneous with what was going on over at late 60's BN. However, I'm not enough a fan of Corea's to say that the album has a pianist's identity stamped on it. Now if it weren't Getz playing on it...

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Another Chick Corea performance outside of the epic arc opening this thread is a duet with Herbie Hancock called An Evening With Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea that I always thought was fantastic.

And I'm sure you guys have already talked about his performance with the Foo Fighters from the Grammys, right?! :)

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Chick Corea has long been a favorite of mine in just about all of his various explorations. The absolute low point was the Elektric/Akoustic Band - but even there one can find a *little* bit of worthwhile music. I have not fully explored the Origin records - only have a couple, but I was greatly impressed, particularly after the Remembering Bud Powell band, which I found disappointing. I thought maybe he had lost it, but Origin proved me wrong.

I think the late 1970s-early 1980s period was particularly productive. The records with Herbie Hancock, the further adventures with Gary Burton, Three Quartets, the magnificent reunions of Trio Music, the Again and Again record on Elektra/Musician, the duo with Steve Kujala, etc. Then came the Elektric Band, which started out OK when it was a trio - would be nice if Stretch would issue some of the live material they have in the vault - but quickly degenerated into something FAR worse than even the most gratuitous Return To Forever w/Al DiMeola showboating. Only with Origin did he really pull himself out of this. I don't have a problem with electric music, and I think that Corea made a lot of wonderful things in that vein (not all of it, no) - constantly experimenting because there wasn't an established way to play that stuff. I could see that if you have a problem with electric music or with anything less that "100% pure jazz" that you probably won't want to know about much of Corea's later work. I do also love his acoustic playing and his writing. His distinctive percussive style combined with the colorful harmonic aproach makes it, for me.

Of course, I don't mean to neglect the earlier periods cited by some here, but I strongly disagree with the idea that if Corea had died in 1973 (or heaven forbid, in 1970 after leaving Miles) that we would have anything near a complete picture of his artistry. Like Miles Davis, Corea worked in a lot of areas and in my view, was one of the best in each area, definitely not just a dabbler - solo piano, trio, free improvisation, hard bop, adventurous jazz composition, fusion (not fuzak), duos, third stream, Brazilian-influenced, etc. I could easily find masterpieces in any one of those areas.

I do consider Corea to be one of the greatest pianists alive, almost on a par with Keith Jarrett. Obviously the two sometimes have very different musical philosophies, but they also have a lot in common. Wish I could have been in Japan to hear them play Mozart concerto for two pianos together. I did get to hear Corea play Mozart and then the US premier of his own concerto. It was a wonderful evening. But Corea is much more than just a pianist, in my view. Jarrett has written some nice pieces, but nothing like the body of repertoire that Corea has. The other member of the triumvirate is Herbie Hancock, who has a far greater ratio of crap to music than Corea. Don't get me started on the night I saw Hancock and Corea together - not during the duo tour, but with both their electric bands. Worst show I've ever seen.

Mike

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I agree Corea is a remarkably gifted pianist. He has perhaps the most distinctive "touch" of any living jazz pianist, except maybe for McCoy Tyner. I generally have problems identifying piano players "blindfolded" but can pick out Corea in a heartbeat.

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