Chick Corea - S&D

Okay, that is amazing.

Great piece by Mark Stryker, on Ethan Iverson’s site:

https://ethaniverson.com/chick-corea-1941-2021-by-mark-stryker/

Extremely informative -- much thanks for that.

Stryker piece is a proper remembrance, not dominated by all the RTF/Eletrik/Akoustik Band stuff.

To that point, it strikes me that there are lot of parallels between Chick and Todd Rundgren. Both were savants whose early works brought a ton of critical praise but also expectations, which they seemingly intentionally ran away from. Both spent decades exploring their own proggy fusoid directions to the horror of critics (and delight of many fans) and never apologized for it. For all that (as the Stryker piece shows), neither really ever lost touch with their respective traditions either – there are a ton of more straight ahead releases and tours littered throughout both men’s catalogues. Lastly, as stuff like the Garson thread demonstrates, both were deeply involved in the success of others along the way.

We need more of these types.

Interesting comparison. I wonder if the fact that Corea was universally regarded as a giant of his genre, while Todd is seen as a minor or cult artist with a handful of hits, can be traced to the differences between rock and jazz (or personality differences).

Good essay, yeah. He's definitely a unique jazz artist in that I love some of his records while finding many others unlistenable. Every respected jazz artist has ok records that merely have good musicianship, without that extra spark or synchronicity of all the factors aligning (band chemistry, material, recording). But I'm struggling to think of anyone with that many records that I truly do not want to hear.

Listening to this NTS show which looks like a cool selection:
https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-chick-corea-19th-february-2021

Ok 45 min and I need to take a break, too many notes

So do you people have your Return to Forever records filed along side your Chick Corea. Checking for a friend. I got my Mahavishnu and Weather Report filed as it's own thing, but considering Return to Forever, I can't quite make it work - they just go with Chick's other records.