Of all his Elektric band recordings I can't explain why I find this one to be the most consistent.
Of all his Elektric band recordings I can't explain why I find this one to be the most consistent.
I like this one a lot too, but my favorite is the prior album, Inside Out. Might be because it was my very first Corea album. I had already heard Light Years thanks to my college radio station where I was a DJ. But Inside Out was the first one I got around to buying, and pretty much my introduction to fusion. Before that, the only fusion I ever heard was some Brand X (Product), also from the radio station.
Thank goodness for one of my college professors for mentioning Chick Corea, or I would have no idea who he was. And it was actually negative comments. The prof had taken a different class to one of his solo performances, a classical tour of Corea playing Mozart. He hated Corea's take on classical, even imitated his style on the piano in the class. Thankfully the name stuck in my head.
Inside out is my second choice. I find that eye of the beholder has a more organic sound to it. Both have great music.
I'm a fan of both Inside Out and Eye of the Beholder....and also Beneath the Mask. I like the debut, too...but Light Years is like Processed Cheese Spread. My all-time least fave Chick album, in fact.
I thought light years was the first. Don't remember now. But I do remember that one or two of them were really cheesy even with Scott Henderson appearing on it.
You're thinking of the first one, just called "Chick Corea Elektric Band," which had some cool stuff on it, IMO...."Got a Match" being my fave, but there's some proggy stuff on there too.....I grant you there's also the "Dreaded 80's Production Values."
Light Years was, IMO, the attempt to play Quiet Storm and some slick "urban funk." I dunno.
Cone is right, Scott was on the first s/t one. He wasn't happy in that band for numerous reasons and left to play with the Joe Zawinul Syndicate. I think at least half of that album is quite good, despite the aforementioned '80s production values and synth sounds (which sounded pretty cool at the time, but some synth sounds just don't age well). There's some great tunes on there. It was Chick's return to fusion (no pun on the acronym RTF) after a hiatus and I was pretty thrilled with most of it when it came out. Carlos Rios also plays guitar on that album and he's a great player too; very underrated (though not in the L.A. studio scene).
"Light Years" is the only EB that I just couldn't dig, for reasons (Cone) already mentioned.
'Cool Weasel Boogie' is the one I head for on the debut album - great guitar work from Carlos Rios. I agree its sounds have dated badly. Eye Of The Beholder, on the other hand, has worn much better - a lot more piano and superior compositions help. The album reminds me of My Spanish Heart.
I too was glad to see chick return to a fusion form. I guess that's why I really liked the first one when it came out. I tried listening to it a little while ago and couldn't stomach the keyboards which sounded so synthetic. Back then I remember not much coming out of quality music with synthesizers back then and I welcomed anything like this especially when chick was involved.
Eye of The Beholder and Inside Out were the best 2 offerings in my opinion, LIght Years and Beneath The Mask were just pure smooth-jazz cheez-wiz.dreck!
Never play slap bass around bears, you'll make them VERY angry.
Light Years was the first CD I ever bought in 1988(?) and I still have it (unlike many others...) I know its cheesy Chick but I still love it!
Smooth-jazz? No way, as there are actual drums on each of these. And Beneath the Mask at least has a rocking element you will never hear in the smooth-jazz world. YMMV on these two albums, I'm personally luke warm to Light Years but really like BTM. But describing them as smooth-jazz just seems terribly inaccurate.
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