Chick Corea 2021

Start with a pair of virtuoso musicians, two guys who have twenty Grammys between them but have worked together only sporadically. Add in the freedom to explore and create, and then turn them loose. That's the recipe for this exciting new Concord album, The Enchantment, featuring legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea and Bйla Fleck, the banjo wizard known for pushing the boundaries of an instrument that's normally part of folk or country music. The only problem I'm going to encounter in reviewing this album is in trying to restrain my galloping enthusiasm - it's that good. I would not have guessed that a collection of songs this enjoyable could have been created with only piano and banjo, but these guys are so talented and innovative that it works.

Joe Henderson is the essence of jazz. He embodies all the elements that came together in his generation: the virtuosity of hard bop and the avantgarde. He can be harmonically abstract and yet keep to the roots. On 1980's "Mirror, Mirror", Henderson has gathered a truly all-star group. This album isn't about a soloist and his sidemen: all the musicians are on an equal footing, everyone has their space to play.

Within the last 18 months, Chick Corea has released albums with an eight-piece Latin ensemble (Antidote with the Spanish Heart Band) and a trio (Trilogy 2 with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade). On his new album Plays, the live audience is the band. Here I am with my piano," he says in the opening track. "The piano’s tuned up all nice, but we have to tune up. Yeah, we." Corea strikes a middle A. "Ahhh," the crowd sings back with a nervous giggle. G to A. "Aaah-aaah." So on and so forth; he teases them with increasingly complicated phrases, then settles into a lovely medley of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F and George Gershwin’s "Someone to Watch Over Me." "It feels uncomfortable to just sit up on stage, play and nod at [people]," he says in the Plays press bio. "I like people to feel like they’re in my living room and we’re hanging out."

Sean Shibe's second PENTATONE album Lost & Found is an ecstatic journey containing music by outsiders, mystics, visionaries, who often have more than one identity and lay claim to various artistic traditions, genres, or audiences. The repertoire ranges from Hildegard von Bingen to Olivier Messiaen, Moondog, Julius Eastman, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Meredith Monk, Shiva Feshareki, Oliver Leith and Daniel Kidane. Stretching ten centuries, these pieces are bound together by Shibe's unique electric guitar sound and aesthetic. Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. He continues his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE after his well-received label debut Camino (2021).