Record Reviews

CHICK COREA ~ THE MUSICIAN STRETCH 888072026490 (Barcode: 888072026490) ~ USA ~ Jazz Recorded: 2011 Released: 2016 As 2021 nears its end it’s time to commemorate the passing of one of the greatest heroes of American Jazz, keyboardist / composer / bandleader Chick CoreaFind albums by this artist, who sadly passed in February this year. This is a 3CD album by Corea, recorded live at the NY Blue Note club in 2011, during the celebrations of his 70th Birthday. It features ten different lineups with thirty musicians, which span Corea’s extraordinary career and which produced some of the greatest American Jazz ever. The lineups include Return To ForeverFind albums by this artist, Five Peace BandFind albums by this artist, Electric BandFind albums by this artist, duos with Bobby McFerrinFind albums by this artist, Gary BurtonFind albums by this artist, Herbie HancockFind albums by this artist, Marcus RobertsFind albums by this artist and others. Together the collected list of musicians sounds like the Who’s Who of the 20th Century American Jazz (and a few Europeans for good measure). For the avid Corea fans, who followed his career for five decades (up to that point) the album does not innovate of course, being primarily an overview and it excludes his early days, when he played mostly Avant-Garde Jazz, but a comprehensive summary would have taken a few more hours (or CDs) of course. But as it is, it offers four hours of incredible, diverse and superb music, performed by brilliant musicians, so one can’t go wrong here. Overall, this is certainly a proper document of one of the many facets of Corea’s music, which embraced a plethora of styles, genres and approaches, from Avant-Garde to Fusion, always brilliant and completely unique. His Artistry will be sadly missed and his sweet personality, to those who met him, will be always a cherished memory.

Updated: 30/12/2021Posted: 30/12/2021

CD 3 Recommend To A Friend

CHICK COREA / ELECTRIC BAND ~ THE FUTURE IS NOW CANDID 708857330027 (Barcode: 708857330027) ~ USA ~ Jazz-Rock Fusion Recorded: 2016 - 2018 Released: 2023 This is a live album by the iconic American keyboardist / composer / bandleader Chick CoreaFind albums by this artist and his Electric BandFind albums by this artist, which comprises of saxophonist Eric MarienthalFind albums by this artist, guitarist Frank GambaleFind albums by this artist, bassist John PatitucciFind albums by this artist and drummer Dave WecklFind albums by this artist. The 2CD album collects nine performances from five concerts, recorded during a couple of years. The album was released posthumously, following Correa’s death in 2021. All the music was composed or co-composed by Corea, except one track, which is a standard. The music is as perfect as Fusion gets, and for people who love that genre, it is exactly what they expect to hear. These are some of the best American Jazz musicians, and they know what is expected of them. Corea was a sublime composer and his tunes are always a pleasure to hear. And yet, this album is quite a disappointment in many ways. It adds absolutely nothing to what we have already heard from this band earlier on, and in a broader sense everything we have heard from electric Chick Corea, since the beginning of the Return To ForeverFind albums by this artist days. The problem is not Corea – it’s the Fusion idiom, which in retrospect turned out to be the most limited and narrow-minded Jazz genre in history, which enjoyed a few years of grace in the 1970s and since then is stuck completely. This does not mean this is a bad album, not at all, it is a great Fusion album, but it suffers from all the faults of contemporary Fusion, which makes the genre simply redundant. But since Corea, who, mind you, is one of my all-time favorite musicians, decided to play this music, I respect it and try to enjoy it for what it is. Overall, for Fusion lovers, this is an excellent addition to their collection and a most enjoyable piece of music. For Jazz lovers, who are familiar with Corea’s Fusion output, this is just more of the same, which is also perfectly fine in his case, since he was a Genius, but perhaps not enough to include this album in their collection?

Updated: 02/09/2025Posted: 02/09/2025

CD 2 Mini-Sleeve Recommend To A Friend

PIOTR LEMANCZYK ELECTRIC BAND ~ INHERITED DREAM NOT ON LABEL (Barcode: 198004805995) ~ POLAND ~ Jazz-Rock Fusion Recorded: 2022 Released: 2023 This is the second album by Polish Jazz bassist / composer Piotr LemanczykFind albums by this artist under the Electric BandFind albums by this artist moniker, this time as a basic trio with guitarist Marcin WadolowskiFind albums by this artist and drummer Tomasz LosowskiFind albums by this artist, expanded to a quartet with the addition of pianist Leszek MozdzerFind albums by this artist. Vocalists Hanna-Sosnowska-BillFind albums by this artist and Natalia Capelik MuiangaFind albums by this artist guest each on one track. The album presents eleven original compositions, ten composed by Lemanczyk and one co-composed with Mozdzer. In the last few years Lemanczyk seems to prefer the (six strings) electric bass guitar over the acoustic bass, and his recordings become consistently more Fusion oriented, leaving Jazz behind. This album continues this new direction and offers a series of melodic compositions, performed by the quartet, with the electric bass at the very epicenter of things. Lemanczyk is a great virtuoso beyond any doubt, and the only question remains if this is enough to keep things to hold water. There is no doubt that Wadolowski refined his guitar playing over time and he adds some excellent soloing on this album and Losowski is a superb drummer with great experience and technique, who keeps this album rhythmically together. But Mozdzer seems to have kidnapped the music completely, adding his piano parts, which are hardly appropriate to the Fusiony environment, with his usual “as many notes per second as humanly possible” approach. Mozdzer’s lyrics to the song he co-composed with Lemanczyk don’t help to clear the confusion as well. As a result, the music loses its focus time after time and sadly the album, despite its potential, does not manage to create a cohesive musical massage. Overall, although offering some amazing bass guitar performances by the leader and great support by the guitarist and drummer, the album succumbs to overproduction and studio manipulation, lack of artistic vison and way too many piano notes. I miss the old Lemanczyk…

Updated: 06/04/2023Posted: 06/04/2023

CD 1 Digipak Recommend To A Friend