Chick Corea

Osarion

I just hooked up an old Braun RTR that my old boss gave me several years back. It has a tape on it and I had no idea who it was, it's almost all instrumental but I finally heard a lady sing "what game shall we play today" and with the power of Google I found out its Chick Corea and the album "Return to Forever".
Wow this is really good stuff! I've never heard Chick before but I'm a fan now. Can I expect all his work to be this good? Amazon has a bunch of stuff from him, what other album would be good to sink my ears into?

xj4094dg

Return to Forever was a group which included Chick. Check out chickcorea.com. There is a great bio there. This guy has played with some of the most important artists since the 1960's. Killer find my friend, enjoy.:)

Ricardo

If you are looking at other Chick Corea's CD's, make sure you do the "listen to samples" in Amazon. What he did with Return to Forever was very different from the rest you might find with his name.

Fongolio

Interestingly Chick Corea rejoined with some of the old Return to Forever alumni last year and has been touring with them. RTF was formed by some of Miles Davis' former band members including Lenny White and Chick himself. RTF also started Al Di Meola's career who is one of my all time favourite guitar players. A great group durring the jass/fusion era.

Bass_Pedal

And don't forget one of the all time greatest bass players Stanley Clarke! That man can play the crap out of an electric and stand-up bass like few others. I believe through all the line-up changes of RTF, Corea and Clarke were the constants.

dkg999

RTF is pretty consistently good stuff, IMHO. Some of the other Corea stuff isn't my cup of tea, however the quality of the musicians he plays with is always very high. I have a Corea and Herbie Hancock LP I found at a flea market a while back that I need to clean and give a listen to.

Fongolio

I found a vinyl copy of RTF's Musicmagic in perfect condition in a $1.00 bin at a local record/junk shop. And yes, Bass_Pedal how could I forget Stanley Clarke?!! One of the best bassmen of all time. And Osarion if you like the jazz/fuzion stuff check out Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin or Weather Report's older stuff.

Osarion

Oh ok Return to Forever is the band, not the album. The picture I saw on Amazon said Chick Corea Return to Forever so I just assumed that was the album name. I definitely like the jazz fusion style so I''ll check out the stuff Fongolio recommends. And I'll sample some of Chicks other bands/albums on Amazon to see if it hits me like RTF did.

Fongolio

I think their first album was self titled so you had it right Osarion.

Bass_Pedal

Since we are talking fusion, we would be remiss if we didn't to mention ****'s Brew. As mentioned by Fong earlier, Corea worked with Miles Davis, one of these collaborations was on ****'s Brew. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is a landmark album in jazz rock fusion and shouldn't be missed by anyone getting into the genre.

Fongolio

And also on ****'s Brew was drummer Billy Cobham who went on to play with Mahavishnu Orchestra and later a solo career and collaborator with many jazz and rock artists. Probably the best jazz drummer of all time. His early work was very fusion based.

jabrax

RTF is one of the most skilled bands ever. (my opinion) - Try and get your hands on Romantic Warrior or Vulcan Worlds.

Individually, that are some of the most skillful musicians. I like the Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Al Dimeola and Lenny White group the most.

Speaking of Miles (Father of Fusion), The list of musicians that started with him and moved on to be amazing jazz/fusion muscians is incredible.

I still think Joe Zawanu's (Wheather Report) sound and input when playing with Miles was the true fusion sound. Some of the early weather report recordings after left Mile's group sound like early miles fusion recordings.

Example of the vast amount of talent starting with Miles - 3 of the top five jazz fusion drummers all played with Miles at some time - Cobham, Tony Williams, lenny white etc etc.


Anyway, welcome to world of Jazz Fusion circa 70's and 80's. They just aren't putting out musicians like they used to..... Studio made smooth jazz has taken over lol

jabrax

Forgot to Mention - Chick Corea is an accomplished composer/keyboardist.
He has many sounds under his name. Be careful if it is only the Fusion recording you are interested in. Recordings under RTF is pure fusion

You will not only find fusion, but also many "standard" jazz albums by him. If you like all jazz, you will probably love his many styles

Jeff

Osarion

Well I checked out Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report on Youtube and both are great! Definitely on my short list of future album purchases. I also came across Hiromi Uehara and her recordings with Chick. Her solo stuff is great! I'm listing to Caravan from Hiromi's Sonicbloom album right now on Youtube and it's going to be must get as well. Thanks for all the suggestions and info, this is really exciting for me to discover all this new music!

George Grand

As good as Mr. Cobham is, there's another guy named Buddy that played jazz drums....

The first few Corea albums including Return to Forever, and Light As A Feather were revelations. The first one or two real rock RTF albums, Hymn to the 7th Galaxy, and Where Have I known You Before were about as far as I went with that. Check out all the early Cobham albums, Larry Coryell's Eleventh House, Airto Moreira's early albums, Weather Report's early albums. Joe Farrell and Hubert Law's CTI albums. The Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine CTI albums. All these guys all played on each others albums. And Ron Carter played on EVERYBODY'S album. It was a great time to be around.