Chick Corea The Best Of

This CD reissue consists primarily of tracks from Chick Corea's early Blue Note LPs Now He Sings, Now He Sobs and The Song of Singing. Both are trio sessions. The former, recorded in 1968, featured bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes playing a program combining originals and standards. The latter, recorded in 1970, is a more experimental outing with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. Corea's playing demonstrates a freedom and spontaneity that became all too rare on his later recordings, while the compelling interaction of the trio pointed the way for the ECM chamber-jazz sound of the early '70s. Shortly after this recording, saxophonist Anthony Braxton joined the trio to form the short-lived Circle, which combined free jazz with avant-garde classical composition.

Believed to have been composed between August 1775 and January 1777, the Concerto In E Flat Major for two pianos technically counts as being the tenth of Mozart's twenty-seven concertos, that huge and prodigious body that would set the standards for all piano concertos from Mozart's time forward. Although it is not performed with the same frequency as his later works (especially the final eight concertos, 20-27), this "Double" piano concerto, believed to have been composed by Mozart for performance by him and his sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"), is nevertheless a fascinating experiment of Mozart's, one that requires a pair of solid keyboard virtuosos to do (and for the composer's Seventh piano concerto, you needed three soloists).

"Spain" is probably Chick Corea's best-known composition. Written in 1971, it was first introduced by his Return to Forever band and played frequently by many other Corea-led groups, including his 1988 Akoustic Band trio. Here it appears again – and arguably, for all time – in a powerful, extended form through the efforts of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Steven Mercurio, Corea, and five other members of the group Origin. Combining the sounds of Spain, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, and New York with a whiff of Gershwin and Ravel full of whispers and thunder, Corea's arrangement won the 2000 Grammy.

Aside from being legendary multiple Grammy-winning jazzmen on very different instruments, Chick Corea (piano) and Béla Fleck (the world's premier jazz banjo master) have a shared love for collaboration and the infinite improvisational possibilities their chosen idiom offers them. In some ways, the two have been preparing for this masterful, musical dialogue-driven masterpiece for over ten years. Fleck, who has always credited Corea as being one of his chief influences, invited the pianist to play on the Flecktones' Tales from the Acoustic Planet, as well as the group's live CD Live Art. Some years later, in 2001, Corea found a spot for Fleck on his Rendezvous in New York DVD.

2013's Trilogy showcased the engaging collaboration between pianist Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. Virtuoso leaders in their own right, Corea, McBride, and Blade found common ground as a trio, exploring a mix of sophisticated standards as well as originals culled from Corea's extensive book. The album cracked the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and earned two Grammys, including for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The super-trio's follow-up, 2018's Trilogy 2, features further in-concert performances captured during their various tours between 2010 and 2016 in places like Ottawa, Bologna, Zurich, and St. Louis…