Chick Corea & Origin: Change (1999)

CHICK COREA & ORIGIN: CHANGE (1999)

Track listing

"Wigwam" (Corea) – 6:56
"Armando's Tango" – 5:54
"Little Flamenco" – 6:42
"Early Afternoon Blues" – 6:37
"Before Your Eyes" – 5:08
"L.A. Scenes" – 5:36
"Home" – 7:51
"The Spinner" – 7:56
"Compassion [Ballad]" – 7:47
"Night (Lyla)" (Cohen) – 3:02
"Awakening" – 6:17

Personnel

Avishai Cohen – acoustic bass
Chick Corea – piano, marimba, handclapping
Jeff Ballard – drums, handclapping
Bob Sheppard – bass clarinet, flute, baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Steve Wilson – clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone
Steve Davis – trombone

If you dig Chick Corea but haven’t yet heard Origin, run — don’t walk — and pick up this record. And pick up their debut record from last year while you’re at it. It’s the most exciting stuff Chick has done in years. His bandmates in Origin are primarily young, up-and-coming, straight-ahead jazz musicians. And that’s refreshing. Origin’s music is not a mere showcase for hotshot soloists. Chick’s last acoustic jazz outing, his Bud Powell tribute band, was wonderful. But in the final analysis, it was a handful of amazing, famous players getting together and playing Bud Powell tunes. Origin has a sound. And it’s not a sound you’ve heard from Chick Corea before, although it bears his unmistakable stamp, and thankfully so.
An important facet of Origin’s unique sound is its multiple horns. There’s Steve Wilson on soprano and alto saxophones, clarinet, and flute; Bob Sheppard on tenor sax, bass clarinet, and flute; and Steve Davis on trombone. These combinations of horns call forth some beautiful textures, especially on "Armando’s Tango," "L.A. Scenes," and "Home." Other highlights include the shout chorus that sets up Chick’s piano solo on "Wigwam," the Kind of Blue -style harmonies of "Early Afternoon Blues," the intricate horn/rhythm section interplay of "Before Your Eyes," and the forceful melody and quasi-chamber music ending of "Awakening." All these guys are strong soloists, of course, but it’s the tight horn charts — and the equally tight counterpoint of bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Jeff Ballard — that provide a lot of the excitement on this disc.

Overall, it’s safe to say this is some of the most ambitious writing of Chick’s career. He’s outdone himself. Surprises abound: the curious atmosphere of early jazz on the eclectic and contemporary "Armando’s Tango"; Chicks’s use of the marimba on "Wigwam" and "L.A. Scenes"; the overdubbed handclaps on "Little Flamenco" (the best track on the record, in my opinion); the stop-start form of "The Spinner," a tune that is simply uncategorizable; and the haunting melodies of "Home" and "Night (Lylah)," the latter composed by bassist Cohen. And yet amid all the newness and originality, there are nods to Chick’s classic moments: the 3/4 minor blues of "Wigwam" is strongly reminiscent of the "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" era; the use of flute in "Little Flamenco" recalls his work with Joe Farrell and Steve Kujala; and the wonderful grandiosity of "Awakening" is, well, it’s pure Chick. There’s also a nice piano trio feature, "Compassion (Ballad)," which is based on the standard "It Could Happen To You." Origin played Chick’s up-tempo arrangement of the standard on its debut record, so "Compassion" is an interesting contrast.

Amazingly, all the songs were recorded in Chick’s living room with no headphones and no overdubbing, save for the aforementioned handclaps and one marimba part. "All takes are complete takes from beginning to end," writes Chick in the liner notes. The band thus achieves a perfect balance between spontaneity and rehearsed cohesion. It’s marvelous to hear, and although Chick has a constant need to Change, let’s hope he sticks with this band for a while.

Kurt Rosenwinkel - Heartcore (2003)

Kurt Rosenwinkel - Heartcore (2003)

With this recording, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel creates a unique sound world, blending elements of jazz and rock with electronica, occasional Third World strains, and other grooves in an absorbing, inward journey that defies classification. In doing so, Rosenwinkel refuses to limit himself to the guitar, often contributing keyboards, drums, and voice, and at times he takes over entire tracks all by himself via layerings in his Brooklyn studio. The way Rosenwinkel extends his strings of endless melody over an ever-changing harmonic backdrop reminds one of the winding compositions of Wayne Shorter. Indeed, at times he produces a sax-like tone from his guitar, with Mark Turner's duskier tenor sax as a unison co-voice and a foil. "Blue Line" finds Rosenwinkel drumming in the left channel, keeping up a complex groove with drummer Jeff Ballard on the right, eventually overcome by synthesizer washes. "All the Way to Rajasthan" evokes the Pat Metheny sound but the rhythm is fractured and the music seems to have and lack direction at the same time. "Your Vision" is a loop out of a sci-fi film — all Rosenwinkel except for Andrew D'Angelo's bass clarinet, a truly strange track — while "Interlude" is another fascinating gauzy bit of electronica at the CD's halfway point. "Thought About You," another one-man track, takes a Turkish rhythmic vamp and gradually builds a moody, enveloping texture. Rosenwinkel claims that the music of Arnold Schoenberg and hip-hop alike inspired another technique on this CD — producing unusual harmonic textures by means of different dynamic levels on the instruments in the mix. Well, maybe, but in a way, this is 21st century expressionism of a sort, creating levels of ambiguity and uncertainty, leaving the listener out on a limb yet always intrigued. Give it a shot; you may not want to leave this twilight zone.

Tracks

1 Heartcore
2 Blue Line
3 All The Way To Rajasthan
4 Your Vision
5 Interlude
6 Our Secret World
7 Dream/Memory
8 Love In The Modern World
9 Dcba//>>
10 Thought About You
11 Tone Poem

Personnel

    Kurt Rosenwinkel – Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Programming
    Mark Turner – Tenor Saxophone (1, 2, 6, 9), Bass clarinet (11)
    Ben Street – Acoustic bass (2, 3, 6, 8, 11)
    Jeff Ballard – drums (2, 3, 6, 9, 11)

With:

    Ethan Iverson – Piano (9), Keyboards (6)
    Andrew D'Angelo - Bass clarinet (4)
    Mariano Gil - Flute (5, 8)

The Chick Corea New Trio: Past, Present & Futures (2001)

Track Listing:

1. Fingerprints

2. Jitterbug Waltz

3. Cloud Candy

4. Dignity

5. Rhumba Flamenco

6. Anna's Tango

7. The Chelsea Shuffle

8. Nostalgia

9. The Revolving Door

10. Past, Present & Futures

11. Life Line

Personnel: Chick Corea, piano; Avishai Cohen, acoustic bass; Jeff Ballard, drums

Putting Origin on the shelf for a moment, Chick Corea sets about getting intimate with the band's rhythm section on this invigorating trio release. Corea also takes this opportunity to premiere 10 entirely new compositions as well as a lively reading of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz." Together with the phenomenal Avishai Cohen on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums, Corea continues with the kind forward-thinking acoustic jazz that has made Origin so appealing over the last several years. The opening minor blues, "Fingerprints," strongly recalls his first classic trio with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes . "Rhumba Flamenco," "Anna's Tango," and the closing "Life Line" are typical of the Spanish-tinged lexicon he's been developing since early on, but most recently with Origin and Gary Burton.

If anything, Corea's new music is more heavily composed than usual. Its involved, tightly executed passages evoke a sort of chamber-jazz feel that brackets relatively short episodes of fiery, free-flowing improvisation. But "The Chelsea Shuffle" and "Cloud Candy" open up a bit more, while "Nostalgia" changes the pace with its mellow, semi-classical feel.

Like Pat Metheny, who recently formed a trio with Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart, Corea recognizes the importance of forming deep associations with the new generation of jazz greats. Of course, Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard gain enormous prestige through their work with Chick. But Chick also keeps himself fresh and on his toes by working with these younger stalwarts.