Notes on a Mad Hatter

Chick Corea is going to be an easy man to find this month. He’s in residence at the Blue Note through Nov. 27, with a cavalcade of collaborators. (On Mondays he’ll rest, ceding the stage to some good jazz singers.) The booking seemed like a good excuse to reflect on Corea’s many-sided musical personality, which I did over here.

My personal history with Chick Corea’s music goes back almost as far as my active engagement with live jazz: as I’ve noted in JazzTimes and elsewhere, I had my head turned around by an Akoustic Band concert in 1990, in Honolulu. (An aside: pianist Robert Glasper once told me that the first jazz album he really paid attention to was Alive, the document taped during this tour. He had it on cassette.)

I’ve had occasion to see Corea many times since: in several different trios, and with Origin, Béla Fleck, Remembering Bud Powell and the Five Peace Band. (There are others I must be forgetting.) A few years ago I went to Austin to cover the Return to Forever reunion, observing rehearsals for a couple of days, taking in the big debut and then airing my thoughts, including some mild reservations.  

Others have their own reservations about Corea -- I know of at least one prominent musician-blogger who decidely isn’t a fan -- and others still are hyper-specific about which iteration of the artist’s music they prefer.

Everybody digs Now He Sings. But there are those who get especially fired up by Crystal Silence or No Mystery or Three Quartets, and those who prefer the laser-etched contours of the Elektric Band.

I’m interested in this partisanship, which certainly exists with other jazz artists, but usually not in an accessible present tense. So lemme ask you, dear reader: which version of Chick works best for you, and why? What’s the album to beat? If you’re hitting the Blue Note this month, which night, or nights, will you be going? And if Chick is just not your guy, I want to hear from you, too. Have at it, below.

Comments

[Red Sullivan]

THE GETZ YEARS, THE GETZ YEARS!!!!!!!! (2 tours of duty).
Certainly the Burton albums and the solo improvised ECM LPs.
I'd also second the work with Joe Hen. But I must make very special mention of a great personal favourite: Bobby Hitcherson's Blue Note masterpiece "Total Eclipse", with Harold Land and the best Joe Chambers I know. Astonishing perfection and beauty from Chick (probably, along with "Oblique", Hutcherson's best).
But, by far and away, the work with Getz - I mean it!!

[Michael Jenner]

Everything he and Joe Henderson did together are must haves. Especially Joe's "Relaxin at Camarillo." and the "Live At Montreaux" session is worth it for the version of "Trinkle Tinkle."

[Tracy]

Wish I could see him at the Blue Note. And Nate, I too think the idea of a Circle reunion would be great.

[Mike Prigodich]

BTW, here's a rough piano demo of my new tune "Armando's Birthday (in honor of Chick Corea's 70th birthday)". Apologies for all the clams. I finally had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with my hero Chick Corea after a recent RTF IV concert and handed him a copy of my debut album. I thought I'd write him a tune as a birthday gift to him to thank him for his endless inspiration. This tune sounds like a cross between My Spanish Heart and The New Trio, with a bit of Elektric Band thrown in at the Coda. Chick's full name is Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea. He's by far the biggest influence in my playing and writing.

audio:
http://mikeprigodich.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/armandos-birthday-rough-piano-demo.mp3

chord chart:
http://www.mikeprigodich.com/chord-charts/Armando%27sBirthday.pdf

[Mike Prigodich]

Older stuff: Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Children's Songs, My Spanish Heart, RTF, Friends, Three Quartets, Touchstone, Akoustic Band, Elektric Band, Gary Burton stuff, sextet, septet Bobby McFerrin, etc.

I like his newer stuff even better: Chick Corea Quartet with Bob Berg is probably my favorite, plus the New Trio, Origin, Ultimate Adventure, Five Trios (box set), Super Trio, solo stuff, duet with Bela Fleck, Forever, Rendezvous in New York, etc.

Future: really looking forward to his second piano concerto (the continents). And anything else he releases. It's all good. I have every album except for a few out-of-print hard to find albums. He's an absolute creative genius.

[Scott Mortensen]

My favorite Chick albums are "Now He Sings..." (like everyone else) and "Return to Forever" on ECM. I'm surprised more folks haven't mentioned this latter one. I love the lightness and innocence of it (very Chick) -- and Airto's traps-kit drumming!

[Alex W. Rodriguez]

We just covered Corea in James Newton's course on jazz post-1960 at UCLA. "Sanctuary" with Miles is a real gem, as are his first electric piano forays into Brazilian music. Of course I have always been blown away by Now He Sings also, but the deep connection to the jazz tradition (early gigs with Cab Calloway, Mongo Santamaria, not to mention Miles) I think are what enable him to engage so powerfully in such a breadth of sub-styles.
I also heard him speak and play with a high school big band this summer, and was really impressed by how laid-back he was with the students. And that Boston accent is a trip!

[Nate Chinen]

@Bill: I'm glad to hear from you. I suspect there are many more fans with stories similar to yours, but they aren't so active in the jazz blogosphere. I'm interested, too, in the fact that RTF was one of your early jazz experiences. Do you think that's a big reason for your preference, still? Or does the music contain qualities that really speak to you, independent of the sentimental attachment?

@Greg: the Is sessions! Yes.

@Greg, @Jess: Bonus points for sneaking Pete la Roca into this thread. I haven't heard Turkish Women at the Bath in a really, really long time. I'll fix that this weekend. As for Basra, I once saw la Roca leading a band at Birdland -- this would have been 1999 or so -- and I found myself standing next to him near the bar after the set. I told him Basra was one of my favorite Blue Note albums. He seemed completely taken aback, and then he gave me a bear hug.

[Jess Row]

I'd forgotten that Corea played on that Pete la Roca album. It is truly extraordinary. As is "Basra," which was recorded (I think) the same year with Steve Kuhn and Steve Swallow. Those are two of the greatest of the later Blue Note albums.

[Joel Reber]

"But i think my favorite Chick is on Pete la Roca's "Turkish Women at the Bath" with John Gilmore & Walter Booker. That's an incredible record."

Yes!! Way ahead of its time. Pete la Roca is completely unsung.

[Greg]

Any time Chick plays with Roy Haynes, it's going to be special--the trio stuff as well as the Bud Powell project. I also love his early records as a leader: "Tones for Joan's Bones" and "Inner Space," as well as the Miles-era stuff "Is" and "Sundance." Chick really has a talent for picking his collaborators.

But i think my favorite Chick is on Pete la Roca's "Turkish Women at the Bath" with John Gilmore & Walter Booker. That's an incredible record.

[Garrett]

I saw him perform with Bobby McFerrin at Jazzfest a couple years ago and was pretty much floored.

[Joel Reber]

Afternoons of a Georgia Faun!!!

[Bill Ford]

I began listening to jazz around the time of the first Return to Forever albums -- the first ones on ECM and Polydor. These are still the ones I come back to and my favorite Corea pieces.

[PlayJazzNow]

Circle's Paris Concert, the Monk album with Miroslav and Roy Haynes, Akoustic Band with Patitucci, Origin, Lyric Suite for Sextet. RTF, not so much.

[Jess Row]

Definitely Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, and also the reunion album of that trio that ECM put out in the Eighties. Circle is wonderful too; as are a lot of his late Sixties recordings like Sundance (with Woody Shaw, Hubert Laws, DeJohnette, and Dave Holland). But I also like the recent recordings he's made with the Akoustic band, and the solo standards album that came out about ten years ago. Wish I could see him at the Blue Note. And Nate, I too think the idea of a Circle reunion would be great.

[Hank Shteamer]

Enjoyed your piece, Nate. I'm far from an expert, but "Now He Sings…" is a treasured document and this live Circle video is speaking to me at the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPPN_qjd7Is

[Nate Chinen]

Ah, the Woodstock gig is a great tip. Not sure that I've heard that. Certainly the Corea-DeJohnette hookup is worth celebrating --maybe the best incentive behind the "From Miles" portion of this engagement.

[MichaelFishman]

oh . . . and favorite albums: Three Quartets; Live at the Blue Note Tokyo; and Chick's portion of the Woodstock Jazz Festival from September, 1981 - those tracks with Miroslav Vitous and Jack DeJohnette are some of my favorite piano trio performances ever.

[Nate Chinen]

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, guys (and so fast!) -- great choices. David, I thought you might pipe up with "Three Quartets." It's interesting that your choice has less to do with ensemble interplay-- it's more about Chick as an autonomous force.

Jeff: one of the little, impossible what-ifs that I sometimes entertain is the prospect of a Circle reunion, underwritten by some avant-gardish festival with a budget (your Victoriavilles, your Moldes). I mean, all of these guys are still playing great, and I loved hearing Holland's freer playing behind Sam Rivers a few years ago. I'd guess that Braxton and Chick are just too far apart for reconciliation, musically if not personally. But man, I'd travel for that.

[MichaelFishman]

Hey Nate, I'm doing a night of the Five Peace Band and the evening with Herbie. Would love many more but keeping it to two gigs. Best to you.

[Jeffalbert]

Circle and Origin are my favorite settings for Mr. Corea.

[David Adler]

The two "Piano Improvisations" albums on ECM, 1970 I believe. Uniqlo is selling a t-shirt with the Volume 1 album cover! How I resisted buying that, I have no idea.