The Complete "Is" Sessions
| The Complete "Is" Sessions | ||||
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| Studio album by Chick Corea | ||||
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| Label (s) | Solid State Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, 2 CD |
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running time |
(LP) |
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Sonny Lester , Michael Cuscuna (re-release) |
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Studio (s) |
Malcolm Addey Studio, New York City |
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The Complete "Is" Sessions is the title of a 2-CD edition released by Blue Note Records in 2002 with over two hours of material that was created during the recording of pianist Chick Corea's long-playing record Is . The recordings took place from May 11 to 13, 1969 at the Malcolm Addey Studio in New York City. They appeared in 1969 on the record label Solid State Records ( Is ) and in 1972 on Groove Merchant ( Sundance ).
background
Although Chick Corea's The Complete "Is" sessions were recorded in May 1969, the rhythm section, consisting of bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and pianist Chick Corea, was based on the sessions for In A Silent seven months earlier Way under the direction of Miles Davis .
The material, recorded over three days in New York, was first published on two long-playing records on various music labels; the tracks "Is", "This", "Jamala" and "I" were released under the title Is on Solid State Records. The remaining titles of the sessions came out as Sundance on Groove Merchant; these were the tracks "The Brain", "Song of the Wind", "Converge" and the title track. With the album, which was released in 2003, Blue Note has not only put together the two published recordings on a double CD edition, but also the alternative recordings. Participating musicians were Chick Coreas Trio of Dave Holland (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) de trumpeter Woody Shaw , the tenor saxophonist Bennie Maupin , the flautist Hubert Laws and, as an additional drummer, Horace Arnold .
The first CD begins with “It”, a 28-second classical duet between flautist Laws and Corea, based on an original Corea composition called “Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano”. "The Brain" and "This" add saxophonist Bennie Maupin to the mostly avant-garde nature of Corea's playing, which Thom Jurek believes is reminiscent of the previous 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs . “The Brain” plays the head arrangement four times in unison, bass and drums “start and stop like a motor that cannot be turned. Corea hits block chords like his classic role model Chopin , and the rhythm section begins to boil with the intensity of a summer thunderstorm. ”Corea plays long, French-impressionistic lines mixed with abstract improvisation, while Maupin puts motifs with Coltrane- influenced tenor lines over the rhythm.
According to Aaron Rogers, the following “This” breaks into the field of free jazz when Bennie Maupin swings into Corea's lines on the electric piano and then back off again. Unsurprisingly, Corea's solo on “This” features the seemingly chaotic but controlled intonations of Herbie Hancock , considering that they both played in Miles Davis' free bop quintet on Filles de Kilimanjaro in 1968. More than five minutes of "This" is dedicated to the simultaneous improvisation between Holland and Corea. The fourth track on the first CD is "Song of the Wind"; its lyrical and contemplative interpretation is about "a never-ending theme that sounds like a tone poem of Corea's return from eternity."
Woody Shaw, who played with Corea in Willie Bobo's band in the early 1960s, can be heard on the last track of CD 1. “Sundance” begins with an improvisation between Holland and Corea, reminiscent of the haunting opening of Wayne Shorter's “Sanctuary”, with which the two were to perform at Bitches Brew four months later . Percussionist Horace Arnold extends DeJohnette's aggressive drumming into "Sundance". According to the author, the highlight of the alternate takes on CD 1 is a softer version of "Sundance", characterized by an easier game on the part of Jack DeJohnette. "Jamala" introduces the free form style prevalent in Disc 2 of the "IS" sessions. “Converge” emerges in a mysterious way from a theme made up of four tones and Corea then adds additional notes without any context, according to the author.
"Is" is a 28-minute free association, a free jazz opus that symbolizes the experimental attitude that was present in American music and society in the late 1960s. The alternate track of “Jamala” is shortened to less than nine minutes, which helps to end the “IS” sessions more coherently.
Track list
LP edition
- Chick Corea - Is (Solid State Records SS 18055)
- Is (Corea) 29:00
- Jamala (Holland) 14:05
- This (Corea) 8:20
- It (Corea) 0:27
2-CD edition: The Complete “Is” Sessions
- Chick Corea - The Complete "Is" Sessions (Blue Note - 7243 5 40532 2 1, Blue Note - 40532)
- CD1
- It - 0:30
- The Brain - 10:10
- This - 8:18
- Song of the Wind - 8:05
- Sundance - 10:02
- The Brain [alternate take] - 7:26
- This [alternate take] - 11:49 am
- Song of the Wind [alternate take] - 6:46
- Sundance [alternate take] 12:28
- CD 2
- Jamala (Dave Holland) - 14:07
- Converge - 7:59
- Is - 28:54
- Jamala [alternate take] (Holland) - 8:57
- Converge [alternate take] - 7:59
review
Scott Yanow reviewed the album Is in Allmusic and gave it 4½ (out of 5) stars. The reviewer felt that “those who know Chick Corea best through his work with Return to Forever and the Elektric Band should be very surprised if they stumble upon this LP. The music of the sextet formation is often quite free and exploratory and explores a variety of moods (some of which are more violent). This set is not compelling, but it has some interesting moments. It is particularly restless and uneven during the 29-minute title track ”.
Thom Jurek wrote for the edition The Complete “Is” Sessions , Corea, who plays both acoustic and electric piano on these records, “pushes his own sense of melodic inventions to the limit with his right hand”. Stylistically, this material is in no way a jazz-rock session [Jurek probably refers to the same time published LP In a Silent Way by Miles Davis ] because before ( "so without outside ") as it may be, it was formally of conception when not intended - these players swing hard even when they were not intended to. An example of this is “The Brain,” where Maupin and Corea use counterpoint in a blues fragment to open up a track for a hard swing rhythm. In “This” and its longer alternative take, bassist Holland reflects angular Rhodes solos in a breathtaking way into a polyrhythmic mass. Corea's runs are encountered in rhythm and harmony. “Song of the Wind”, a ballad from the start, becomes a kind of mid-tempo piece that, thanks to Corea's glissandi and Hubert Laws' beautiful single-tone playing, uses mode and formal composition to create a meandering wind through almost pastoral soundscapes. All in all, this is jazz that every jazz fan appreciates. She not only respects modern tradition, but also uses it to achieve her own goals, the author sums up. "This is the kind of thing Blue Note should be doing more of the time."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Aaron Rogers: Chick Corea: The Complete "IS" Sessions. All About Jazz, June 19, 2004, accessed December 7, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Review of the album The Complete "Is" Sessions by Thom Jurek at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ↑ The Complete "Is" Sessions at Discogs
- ↑ Review of Scott Yanow's album Is at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 29, 2019.