Chick Corea

[Guy Berger]

funny to see this thread up again on the day I bought another disc that I guess jazzkat should have tasted if he was still around:

IMHO the live versions of this material (on Between Nothingness and Eternity) are MUCH better.

I quite agree with the alias-changing-one's assessment of Corea, though obviously I don't know that much about RTF (only original one for me, so far, but I haven't had an opportunity to check out later editions).

I think Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (which Dip mentioned above) is actually pretty good guitar-oriented fusion. I'm not a huge fan of the genre (aside from Mahavishnu) or this band after DiMeola joined, but this one is nice.

Guy

[Guy Berger]

guy, i could see one seeing corea as a fraud...i mean he did TOTALLY SELL OUT for dubious reasons.

He wasn't any more or less of a sell out than Herbie Hancock.

Guy

[Guy Berger]

I'm probably a bad person for diggin THIS thread up...

[Guest donald petersen]

guye, just an opinion but i can respect someone for selling out because they want the $$$ over a religious cult telling them to do it any day!

plus herbie's sellout albums were arguably more influential and are more highly regarded in these days and times.

[Guest donald petersen]

probably because corea threw in that cheesy and mystic wizards and smurfs and fairies kind of stuff and dressed up like a matador and a secret agent on his album covers.

herbie just had nice suits and an afro.

[king ubu]

Guy, I'm not quite sure about Herbie. With him I always have a feeling that there's some kind of exploration involved (not to say he's an "explorative mind", I guess that would be a bit of an exaggeration). His "Rock It" stuff was what's happening at the time, as far as I know (I hadn't been around for more than a couple dozen months back then, so I don't *know*). I don't think Corea's elektrik (yuck, the spellink already hurts my mind!) band ever was about much, except showing off chops and doing doodly muzak. Maybe Hancock was there at some points in his career, but then he always gets out of it again, I think, for instance with his duo with Shorter (live shows may be a better example than the studio album), or later again with Shorter in the Hancock-Shorter-Holland-Blade band. Corea hasn't really done that kind of stuff often, anymore, has he?

[king ubu]

probably because corea threw in that cheesy and mystic wizards and smurfs and fairies kind of stuff and dressed up like a matador and a secret agent on his album covers.

herbie just had nice suits and an afro.

and this one is so great, it's beyond comparison anyway!

[Hot Ptah]

There was an album art game on another board (which starts with A) and in searching for matching images to fit the thread's several categories, it became quickly apparent to me that Chick Corea's album covers are one of the most fertile sources of strange and ridiculous images in all of jazz.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Hot Ptah

[clifford_thornton]

I like Chick's earlier work, myself. It's not earth-shattering, but the work with Pete La Roca, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, etc. is pretty sweet. I also dig mightily on Circle.

Don't care so much for anything after that, though.

If I'm not mistaken, Miles discussed Herbie as a "tinkerer," always looking for new sounds and combinations, which explains the attraction of electric instruments and so forth.

[Hot Ptah]

I like Chick's earlier work, myself. It's not earth-shattering, but the work with Pete La Roca, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, etc. is pretty sweet. I also dig mightily on Circle.

Don't care so much for anything after that, though.

If I'm not mistaken, Miles discussed Herbie as a "tinkerer," always looking for new sounds and combinations, which explains the attraction of electric instruments and so forth.

Personally, I never found Corea convincing in his Circle role, nor on Miles Davis' Black Beauty, where he played in a similar style but on electric piano. But that's just me.

[Guy Berger]

Personally, I never found Corea convincing in his Circle role, nor on Miles Davis' Black Beauty, where he played in a similar style but on electric piano. But that's just me.

I think he is great on Black Beauty, as well as on other '69-'70 live Miles.

Guy

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

corea was worse BEFORE he sold out-- at least after he sold out you could snap your fingers to it......

[Guest donald petersen]

surely chewy chew chew can snap his fingers to some blue mitchell joints with mister corea on em.

[Guest donald petersen]

though i agree that corea with miles-i just feel like jarrett smoked him like hillshire farms, as ghostface killah said. different styles, though.

however on corea's first return to forever album he had found a nice personal way of using the rhodes which i certainly enjoyed even though "what game shall we play today" is indefensible sticky sweet bad brazil garbage.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

listen guys, i love u guys, but you guys shouldn't just listen to every "classic jazz artist" that made albums just because they were in the era:: i like the 70s but i dont listen to Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show. I ** have** to listen to c.c because, as u pointed out, is on some Blue Mitchell albums. I still respect B.M or duke pearson or whomever selected C.C. for this record date, but ::::

you guys would highly criticize B.m's post BN career but you guys would just eat up all the chick corea you can get your hands on (elektric band notwithstanding)

here are some chewy-approved artists that you can listen to as a replacement for c.c.:

-James Spaulding

-Gene Harris post 3-sounds solo albums

-Yma Sumac

-Dave Pell Octet + their diverse humongus lp catalogue some which is on RCA victor but most which is on private pressing dave pell labels covereing many different aspects of music, applied in the w.c.j. style.

-The Power Station

-Earl Hines (and u guys listen to chick corea! =lol)

-The Music of Amhed Abdul Malik

-Rimsky-Korsakov

-Cameo

and Master Higgins and Phil Collins

[sidewinder]

-Dave Pell Octet + their diverse humongus lp catalogue some which is on RCA victor but most which is on private pressing dave pell labels covereing many different aspects of music, applied in the w.c.j. style.

Caught that group live once and Dave Pell and the guys sounded great. Love that stuff !

[Hot Ptah]

chewy, I agree with you on Earl Hines! He is someone that everyone should listen to regularly.

As to the ridicule of "What Game Shall We Play Today", I saw Corea play an unaccompanied solo piano concert last spring. He announced at the beginning that he had nothing planned. Thus he paused between some songs, sometimes for a fairly long time. The audience shouted out requests at those times. Corea said in a negative tone of voice that he did not take requests, but he commented on some of the requests anyway, and the requests did inspire some of his performance choices. When someone from the audience shouted out a request for "What Game Shall We Play Today", Corea made a disgusted face and sang the title in a mocking voice.

[7/4]

chewy, I agree with you on Earl Hines! He is someone that everyone should listen to regularly.

As to the ridicule of "What Game Shall We Play Today", I saw Corea play an unaccompanied solo piano concert last spring. He announced at the beginning that he had nothing planned. Thus he paused between some songs, sometimes for a fairly long time. The audience shouted out requests at those times. Corea said in a negative tone of voice that he did not take requests, but he commented on some of the requests anyway, and the requests did inspire some of his performance choices. When someone from the audience shouted out a request for "What Game Shall We Play Today", Corea made a disgusted face and sang the title in a mocking voice.

too much exercise and vitamins.