THE GIG

The Age of Worry

New Music, May 22

John Mayer, "Born and Raised"

Hellhound on My Trail

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Robert Johnson at 100

Apollo Theater, March 6

The Trouble with Never

Chad Batka for The New York Times

Van Halen

Madison Square Garden, Feb. 28

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.

Playing with Stones

Playlist, Oct. 2

“This May Be My Last Time Singing,” Rudresh Mahanthappa, 

Bonnie “Prince” Billy, the Four Bags, Oscar Peterson

Miles from the Vault

Miles Davis, Live at the Apogee

Arts & Leisure, Sept. 11

Chasin' the Trane

The Gig, Sept. 2011

Lady Cab Driver

Chad Batka for The New York Times

Gett Off: Meshell Ndegeocello Covers Prince

Highline Ballroom, June 15

No Mystery

Critics' Choice: New CDs

Corea, Clarke & White, "Forever"

Jack of Clubs

The new JazzTimes column is up, with a personal riff on the value of jazz clubs, even in a pop-up age. I won’t parrot myself here, except to note that the Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus I knew had passed into lore well before the club itself expired. I haven’t come across a really good account of what went down over the last five years or so, but the comment thread beneath this item in the Philly City Paper will give you some idea. 

Also, a word about Sid Simmons, who partly defined the Ortlieb’s I remember. A gentleman in every respect, Simmons handled his post with a kind of superhuman patience and dignity. A battered piano, a noisy crowd, a parade of would-be hard-boppers clamoring to sit in. I learned a lot by watching Simmons deal with guys who couldn’t cut it. (I also learned a lot by sitting in with him and Mike Boone every week, but that’s a tale for another time.) 

The Sid Simmons-Mike Boone-Byron Landham album Keep the Faith is worth hearing if you’re interested in this corner of the often-underrated mid-Atlantic jazz mainstream; look here for audio samples and download options. And the EPK below features some good interview and performance footage, shot at Ortlieb’s. (Simmons’ thoughts about Boone are very touching.)