Search - Chick Corea :: Marian Mcpartland's Piano Jazz

Chick who plays the rhythm is back!

Toshio Fukuhara | Yokohama, Japan | 01/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I used to dig Chick Corea badly up until the mid 80s. Afterwards, I got tired of Chick who kept disappointing me every time I saw him live whether in Tokyo or in New York. I even complained to him once in person at Blue Note New York during the break.
On stage, unless he duets with Gary Burton, he improvises too much to the extent that you hardly recognize what he is playing even when he performs a jazz classic like Around Midnight. (Around Midnight that you don't recognize? Can you imagine?).
Chick also refuses to play his own masterpieces, even when he receives a request from the audience for an encore. You are lucky, during the entire concert, if you get to hear three of his own masterpieces, such as Spain or La Fiesta,,, provided that you recognize them.
Worst of all, he even takes out scores of real classical music and starts practicing on stage(it's not a sound check or reheasal), when the audience is paying big bucks to hear him play JAZZ!
Now in this interview CD recorded in late 2001, you find good old Chick who plays the rhythm. He pays immense respect to the gracefully aged host, who may be approaching 80, by speaking and playing the piano with tender loving care. I was happily reminded that, if he chose to, Chick could still play the original rhythm of his own and other classics with relatively little improvisation. Both the conversation and the music contained in this CD is pleasant, simply because you can understand it without having to wonder what the heck he is playing. McPartland is brave to perform solo Chick's early composition Crystal Silence in front of the composer. I wish Chick would stay this way, but I doubt it."