In an extended and glittering profession that spanned 55 years and introduced him a staggering 27 Grammy Awards, the much-feted jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea produced many memorable recordings. Arguably none had been fairly as particular or vital as Gentle As A Feather, his broadly acclaimed jazz-fusion masterpiece from 1973, which he recorded with the unique incarnation of his iconic group Return To Eternally.
Return To Eternally got here into being at a time when Corea was at a musical crossroads. Corea rose to fame enjoying in Miles Davis’ trailblazing late 60s band, which noticed him contributing to the trumpeter’s era-defining jazz-rock albums In A Silent Manner and Bitches Brew. These two data sowed the seeds for what turned referred to as fusion, however in 1970, simply as Miles’ immersion in amplified rock and funk grew deeper, Corea sought to discover the world of free improvisation and left to kind an acoustic avant-garde group, Circle, with fellow Miles defector, bassist Dave Holland, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton.
Hearken to Chick Corea and Return To Eternally’s Gentle as a Feather now.
From a purely inventive perspective, Corea discovered Circle’s music fulfilling. Nonetheless, the group’s difficult and uncompromising sonic experiments didn’t elicit a lot public enthusiasm, prompting the pianist to vary musical course. “My music has gotten too complex for people to relate to,” he confessed to the Brazilian singer Flora Purim in her memoir Freedom Track when he requested her to hitch a brand new group he was placing collectively at first of 1972. His intention, he instructed her, was to make music that was extra accessible. “I want to get back to some basic sounds and rhythms,” he stated, including: “I want to play music that people will carry home with them after they leave the gig.”
Corea’s new group advanced out of saxophonist Stan Getz’s street band, which Corea performed in after Circle dissolved in 1971. Alongside him in Getz’s group had been the double bassist Stanley Clarke and fellow ex-Miles Davis sideman, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira. Clarke and Moreira joined Corea’s new band in addition to the percussionist’s spouse, singer Flora Purim. “I liked the way she sang,” revealed the pianist in 1998. “I liked her spirit, and the Brazilian feel really fit with the material I was writing.” Corea additionally introduced in Chicago saxophonist and flutist Joe Farrell, and to play drums, he initially recruited Horace Arnold, although after listening to Moreira sit in and play samba rhythms with the group at an early gig, the Brazilian obtained promoted and took Arnold’s seat.
In February 1972, the group lower their first album collectively in New York, although ECM launched it as a solo Corea LP with the title Return To Eternally, a reputation he then gave his band. “It sort of nailed the spiritual intent of the music, that it should be pure,” he defined.
Gentle As A Feather, the quintet’s first album below their new billing, was recorded in October 1972 in London for Polydor Information whereas Corea and the group loved a residency at Ronnie Scott’s jazz membership. A heady fusion of post-bebop jazz lifted by piquant Brazilian and Spanish flavors, it was tighter and extra accessible than the looser Return To Eternally album, containing six memorable tracks.
For the primary time on his solo data, Corea, who produced the album, performed a Fender Rhodes electrical piano all through the session, typically feeding it by means of a wah-wah impact pedal; a function that helped give the report its distinctive, otherworldly vibe. Flora Purim, too, together with her hovering ethereal vocals and uniquely individualistic strategy to jazz singing additionally imbued the music with a joyful sense of liberation. “I can hear the effect of a great, free spirit on this tape,” noticed Corea in 1998 within the liner notes to the expanded reissue of Gentle As A Feather.
Purim’s extraordinary vocals graced three numbers, together with the ethereal title monitor she co-wrote with Stanley Clarke and the psychedelic-tinged “500 Miles High,” however it was a primarily instrumental monitor known as “Spain,” whose intro quoted the theme to Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, that was the album’s centerpiece. Outlined by lithe, Flamenco-tinged melodies and a jubilant carnivalesque aura, the monitor showcased the band’s remarkably compelling synergy.
Gentle As A Feather was enthusiastically obtained by the critics and jazz public on its launch in early 1973, grabbing the Playboy Jazz Album Of The Yr award, however Corea resisted repeating its profitable system and as an alternative, after being impressed by the high-decibel pyrotechnics of jazz-rockers Mahavishnu Orchestra, broke up the band to create a brand new, more durable incarnation of Return To Eternally. He saved Stanley Clarke by his aspect (who switched to electrical bass) to kind the nucleus of a extra prog-rock-oriented all-electric group that includes guitarist Invoice Connors, who would later get replaced by the flamboyant Al Di Meola.
Corea’s Return To Eternally Mark II was extremely profitable commercially, promoting out stadia gigs and racking up gold data however for a lot of Corea followers, Gentle As A Feather – which was featured in Tom Moon’s 2008 guide, 1,000 Recordings To Hear Earlier than You Die – was a sound that he by no means replicated. Fortunately, the eminently memorable “Spain” together with “You’re Everything” and “500 Miles High” had been rapidly acknowledged as requirements – and the truth that they continue to be a necessary a part of the jazz canon right this moment attests to the genius of the person born Armando Anthony Corea.
Hearken to Chick Corea and Return To Eternally’s Gentle as a Feather now.
