[andy_c]

Pardon the rambling post here, as this story goes back to when I first started getting into jazz around the 1972 time frame.

In 1973, the Chick Corea album LIght as a Feather became hugely popular.  I liked the album at the time, but am not so fond of it now.  As a result of the album's success, Atlantic Records, who had recorded him in a variety of contexts (in some cases with other artists as leader) created a compilation album under Chick Corea's name called Inner Space.  Unlike Light as a Feather, Inner Space is all-acoustic, and tends more toward the hard bop style, of which I am still a huge fan.  I bought this album back then, probably sometime around 1973, and enjoyed it a lot.  However, I never got around to replacing it with a CD version after all these years.  I've since given the LP away to my niece, as I did with all my old LPs, as I no longer have a turntable.

This evening, I got a wild hare to look up the album to see if I could find it on CD.  Lo and behold, oldies.com had it for $2.38!  Shipping was $4.98, but still, getting this album that I have such fond memories of was well worth the minimal $7.36 I paid for it.  So if you are looking for this album, it's a good time to grab it!  It has a lot of good musicians on it, especially one of my favorite trumpeters, Woody Shaw.

It's kind of funny to not have replaced this album until 43 years after I originally bought it!

[ArthurDent]

Thanks for the tip andy, will check it out. My favorite Chick are his two acoustic concert albums with Herbie Hancock. If you don't aren't already familiar, they are well worth checking out.

[andy_c]

Thanks for the tip andy, will check it out. My favorite Chick are his two acoustic concert albums with Herbie Hancock. If you don't aren't already familiar, they are well worth checking out.

Do you happen to remember the titles of the albums?

[jimdgoulding]

Well, here's one to bloody well die for. . for his jazz composing and playing not to mention his bandmates: "Three Quartets" with Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez and Steve Gadd.  Guess everyone knows his "Romanic Warrior" album?  You should, also, if you don't.

[BobRex]

Well, here's one to bloody well die for. . for his jazz composing and playing not to mention his bandmates: "Three Quartets" with Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez and Steve Gadd.  Guess everyone knows his "Romanic Warrior" album?  You should, also, if you don't.

I agree with this.  It was also a helluva concert.  I saw the quartet do the album at Penn, right before the album came out.

[dB Cooper]

Chick is an amazing player. Have most if not all of his collaborations with Gary Burton (another favorite artist) and a smattering of others (his duet albums with Bela Fleck are standouts).
Not such a fan of the period you're talking about or the Return to Forever era... Never been a fusion fan really, and a lot of that vintage synth material sounds dated now, but the acoustic stuff still holds up. (All of the aforementioned is IMHO of course.) Also saw him live with Herbie Hancock.

Chick performed at the NEA JazzMasters awards show just last night, which was webcast. It's on youtube for anyone who wants to watch it.

[ArthurDent]

Do you happen to remember the titles of the albums?

These two -

     

They are both from the '78 tour, different labels (Colombia & Polydor), with mostly different cuts. Here's what allmusic says:  AllMusic Review by Richard S. Ginell  [-]


A year after the 1978 Chick Corea/Herbie Hancock duo tour was documented on a two-LP Columbia album, An Evening with Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, Corea's label, Polydor, issued its own two-LP collection of extracts from the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ann Arbor concerts. With both artists still selling lots of electric records then, it was feasible to do so -- and the two double sets served as massive ripostes to those who accused the two pianists of abandoning jazz per se in favor of filthy electronic lucre. Fortunately, there was enough worthwhile, often brilliant material on the tapes for both albums, with only one duplication of repertoire. The sole repeated item, the medley of Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" and Corea's "La Fiesta," differs noticeably from the version on the Columbia album. For one thing, it clocks in seven and a half minutes shorter at 27 and a half minutes. For another, "Maiden Voyage" is developed more elaborately and "La Fiesta" incorporates more touches from the avant-garde and generates a little more heat. Indeed, the Polydor album seems to have been programmed with more of a classical bent than its companion. Corea's "Homecoming" comes off like a big, progressive 20th century classical composition, broken up in the center with humorous fury that is followed by a section for prepared piano à la John Cage. "The Hook" develops the prepared piano ideas even further, with plunkings and buzzing strings galore. And as if the point wasn't clear by now, Corea and Hancock hammer out a pretty good rendition of the brittle ostinato movement from Bartók's Mikrokosmos, which doesn't sound at all out of place with the rest of the program. As on the Columbia album, side three is a solo side, this time with Corea offering his lovely, Spanish-flavored "Bouquet." Overall, the Polydor album is more stimulating than its Columbia cousin.

[andy_c]

Thanks a bunch!

[ArthurDent]

Thanks a bunch!

My pleasure.     Hope you enjoy.