Piano Improvisations Vol. 1

Chick Corea

CD10,90 out of print
LP39,90 add to cart
EN / DE
LP from the "Luminessence" Series.
CD from the "Touchstones" Series.
 
ECM’s pioneering documentation of solo piano music was one of the genre-changing experiments of the early 1970s, and this beautifully recorded session, capturing Chick Corea in Oslo’s Bendiksen Studio in April 1971, marked the beginning of this new development. Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 has long since acquired the status of a classic. It includes, in “Sometime Ago”, a foretaste of the richly melodic and Latin-tinged music Chick would introduce a year later in the first Return To Forever band, but most of the pieces here were simply pulled from the aether. Corea, it transpired, had the uncanny ability to shape fully formed compositions in real time. Corea: “This was an intense period of discovery for me. The Piano Improvisations recordings were made spontaneously in the studio.  I took the next idea that came to mind and played it down – then titled it later. This was a new way to create for me at the time. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be – but just got into the joy of trying it out to see what would happen…” That sense of joy is palpable in the recording, produced by Manfred Eicher. The Luminessence vinyl edition of Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 adds a gatefold sleeve with Chick’s performer’s note and a text by Neil Tesser reflecting on the impact of the music in its historical context.
LP aus der "Luminessence" Serie.
CD aus der "Touchstones" Serie.
 
ECMs bahnbrechende Präsentation von Soloklaviermusik war eines der genreverändernden Experimente der frühen 1970er Jahre, und diese wunderschön aufgenommene Session, die Chick Corea im April 1971 im Osloer Bendiksen Studio aufnahm, markierte den Beginn dieser neuen Entwicklung. Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 hat längst den Status eines Klassikers erreicht. Es enthält mit "Sometime Ago" einen Vorgeschmack auf die reichhaltig melodische und lateinamerikanisch angehauchte Musik, die Chick ein Jahr später in der ersten Return To Forever-Band einführen sollte, aber die meisten Stücke hier wurden einfach aus dem Äther gezogen. Corea, so stellte sich heraus, hatte die unheimliche Fähigkeit, in Echtzeit vollwertige Kompositionen zu formen. Corea: "Dies war eine intensive Zeit der Entdeckung für mich. Die Aufnahmen der Piano Improvisations sind spontan im Studio entstanden.  Ich nahm die nächste Idee auf, die mir in den Sinn kam, spielte sie ein und betitelte sie dann später. Das war damals eine neue Art des Schaffens für mich. Ich war mir nicht sicher, wie das Ergebnis aussehen würde – aber ich hatte einfach Spaß daran, es auszuprobieren, um zu sehen, was passieren würde…" Diese Begeisterung ist in der von Manfred Eicher produzierten Aufnahme spürbar. Die Luminessence-Vinyl-Ausgabe von Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 erscheint in einem Gatefold-Klappcover mit Chicks eigenen Anmerkungen sowie einem Text von Neil Tesser, der die Wirkung der Musik in ihrem historischen Kontext beleuchtet.
Featured Artists Recorded

April 1971, Arne Bendiksen Studio, Oslo

Original Release Date

01.08.1971

  • 1Noon Song
    (Chick Corea)
    04:04
  • 2Song For Sally
    (Chick Corea)
    03:45
  • 3Ballad For Anna
    (Chick Corea)
    02:27
  • 4Song Of The Wind
    (Chick Corea)
    03:12
  • 5Sometime Ago
    (Chick Corea)
    08:22
  • Where Are You Now? - A Suite Of Eight Pictures
    (Chick Corea)
  • 6Picture 104:53
  • 7Picture 202:04
  • 8Picture 302:31
  • 9Picture 402:44
  • 10Picture 500:34
  • 11Picture 603:55
  • 12Picture 702:00
  • 13Picture 801:36
One of the great early artistic successes of the ECM catalogue and a foundational text for contemporary solo jazz piano, Chick Corea’s ‘Piano Improvisations Vol 1’ still sounds marvellously ahead of the game. Recorded in 1971 at the Bendiksen Studio in Oslo, and produced by Manfred Eicher, it’s a miracle that it came into being at all, for at the time there was no commercial market for solo jazz piano, and little historical drive to try and create one. […] what remains inescapable is that at this precise time and on this specific session Chick Corea was absolutely inspired. Indeed, he plays like a man possessed, incarnating the very spirit of rhapsodic pianism. A torrent of ideas seems to propel those flying fingers onto the impressed keys of the studio’s Steinway in wave after wave of impassioned creativity. It still sounds shockingly new, this mixture of pure melodic lyricism with some daringly abstract doodling in a classically influenced, occasionally almost Viennese atonal mode, the whole thing tied together with Corea’s signature Latin trills, blues inflections and darting repetitions. […] The new remastering for the Luminessence reissue is a thing of beauty, bringing new clarity to engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug’s already pristine sound. Pair this with the superb debut ‘Return to Forever’ album, and the duo with Gary Burton, ‘Crystal Silence’, both also for ECM, and you have Corea’s best of the best.
Phil Johnson, UK Jazz News