Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea's musical pendulum is swinging away from Return to
Forever's molten rock mechanistics and back to Corea's ultralyrical melodic style and, at
least here, to his Latin roots. Corea himself may be of Boston-Italian ancestry, but since his
early-Sixties days with Mongo Santamaria he's been especially adept at marrying Latin
sounds to jazz. So when he records My Spanish Heart, a lighthearted set minus t... More >

From the schlock pomp of Romantic Warrior to the schlock funk of Musicmagic, Return to Forever's recent work has been so far from galvanizing that I've tended to ignore Their Leader, but this double LP includes the subtlest playing he's done in years. At its best it's playful and passionate enough to make an unashamed Nordic like me wonder about duende. At its worst it features a soprano "vocal choir" who prove once again that the notions of beauty and spirituality inspired by L. Ron Hubbard aren't much different from those inspired by Percy Faith. (Grade: B+)