The album was very well received, winning the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album!
Chick Corea and John McLaughlin share one of the great pedigrees in the music of the 20th century: they were both key sidemen on Miles Davis' seminal albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. They have played together since those heady days, as a duo or as sit-in guests. Five Peace Band was Corea's idea of putting together a dream band to play all kinds of jazz, and he approached McLaughlin. Corea chose the other members in saxophonist Kenny Garrett, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, and bassist Christian McBride…
This is a rather unusual tribute to Herbie Hancock on a couple different levels. There is no piano on the date, so obviously no one is heard trying to sound like Hancock; the intimate all-star trio (bassist Christian McBride, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and guitarist Mark Whitfield) avoids such typical Hancock hits as "Watermelon Man" and "Maiden Voyage," and several of the songs are real obscurities. The 14 Hancock compositions date from 1962-79, with one tune from 1985, so they do not cover his later output. Among the lesser-known tunes are the title track (first played by V.S.O.P.), "Sly" (from the Headhunters LP), and two melodies taken from the 1965 soundtrack of Blow-Up. Several of the songs (most notably "Driftin'") deserve to be revived more widely…
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).
This post-Return to Forever Chick Corea LP is a bit of a mixed bag. Corea is heard on his many keyboards during an atmospheric "The Woods," interacts with a string section on "Tweedle Dee," features a larger band plus singer Gayle Moran on a few other songs and even welcomes fellow keyboardist Herbie Hancock for the "Mad Hatter Rhapsody." The most interesting selection, a quartet rendition of "Humpty Dumpty" with tenorman Joe Farrell set the stage for his next project, Friends. Overall, this is an interesting and generally enjoyable release.
The Jazz Club series is an attractive addition to the Verve catalogue. With it's modern design and popular choice of repertoire, the Jazz Club is not only opened for Jazz fans, but for everyone that loves good music. This collection by the Jazz keyboardist features 10 tracks including 'Slinky', 'Love Castle', 'Fickle Funk' and more.
Chick Corea has been one of the most significant jazzmen since the '60s. Not content at any time to rest on his laurels, he has been involved in quite a few important musical projects, and his musical curiosity has never dimmed. A masterful pianist who, along with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, was one of the top stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, Corea is also one of the few electric keyboardists to be quite individual and recognizable on synthesizers…
Reissue with the latest DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. It's unlikely that two major musicians could have more in common than Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Born a year apart, they both got their starts on Blue Note sessions in the early 1960s, worked extensively with Miles Davis (albeit in very different periods), and were among the architects and biggest successes of fusion in the 1970s. Equally distinguished as pianists and composers, they share many of the same influences, both in classical music (Ravel, Debussy, Bartók) and jazz (Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans), and in the late 1970s, both were dividing their time between electric and acoustic projects.
This odd anthology from Atlantic reissues selections from trio dates recorded during the 1960s by Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, along with otherwise unobtainable early recordings by McCoy Tyner. Jarrett is joined by Charlie Haden and Paul Motian on two originals, both of which show the obvious influence of Bill Evans. Chick Corea is accompanied by Steve Swallow (on acoustic bass rather than the electric bass he switched to a short time later) and Joe Chambers. The pianist's "Tones for Joan's Bones" is swinging, but not nearly as driving as his works in the decades to follow, while his reworking of the show tune "This Is New" features Joe Farrell and Woody Shaw; both tracks also show the influence of Bill Evans.
Herbie Hancock recorded for Columbia between 1972 and 1988. During that period, between the label's American and Japanese divisions, he released 31 albums, both solo and with an astonishing variety of players in an equally breathtaking panorama of styles, from straight-ahead post-bop, to fusion, jazz-funk, disco, R&B, smooth jazz, and even hip-hop. Though Hancock had a celebrated career before signing to Columbia, it was his longest label association; and during his tenure there, he experienced his greatest commercial success and his name was etched permanently into the history of popular music. This box set contains 34 discs – 28 single and three double albums – all housed in handsome individual LP and gatefold sleeves.