Light as a Feather - Cool as the other side of the pillow

1/23/11 – Light as a Feather (Chick Corea)

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
– Leo Tolstoy

Chick Corea, more than any other artist, is responsible for my interest in jazz music.  Years after the scrapbook project mentioned earlier, I was browsing random music from the South Bend Public Library and was drawn inexplicably to an illustrated CD cover, deeply colored and surrealistic – an alien smoking outside of a nightclub, advertising Chick Corea and the Time Warp Quartet.  Inside were liner notes telling a fantastical story of Ardnok, the neon green figure on the cover and his descent to earth… which to many I’m sure was quite cheesy, but to my 15 year old self, it compelled me to check the disc out.  Soon afterward, I was hooked.  I followed up with Chick’s collaboration with Bobby McFerrin, Play.  Not until now, however, have I gotten around to getting my hands on Corea’s best known album, Light as a Feather.  Yet another CD I’ve been anticipating since this project’s inception.

Despite the fact that Chick is primarily an electric keyboardist, both of the above albums feature him exclusively on acoustic piano.  It took a little getting used to getting into this album, where he plays solely a Fender Rhodes, even though I was intellectually expecting it.   The opening track, “You’re Everything” is reportedly Chick’s favorite of his own vocal compositions.  Flora Purim’s warm yet clear tone is a perfect match for the bell-like sound of the Rhodes.  When the tune goes into time after the rubato opening, it maintains a lightness and easygoing feel, despite being a racing bossa nova.  Joe Farrell’s lush, low-register flute work melds perfectly with Purim’s voice.  The one thing I’m not a big fan of is Nevile Porter’s lyrics.  They seem either forced or contrived at times.  This continues as an ongoing issue with the CD.

The second track, from which the album gets its name, is the only track not written by Chick himself.  The track gets a little heavier into the rock-jazz fusion sound, with Chick taking more extensive solos, and distorting the tone of his electric piano, almost to a grungy power-chord machine at times.  Still, the tune keeps mellow and smooth (although I know that word is at times taboo when describing jazz,) with occasional interjections of wailing pseudo-guitar sounds from Corea.  Farrell switches over to tenor sax, and everyone in the band is featured somewhere along the track’s solos.  This time, the awkwardly written lyrics are Purim’s own.

“Captain Marvel” is an uptempo Latin tune, which provides an excellent vehicle for Farrell (who is now back on flute,) and Corea to soar over the changes.  “500 Miles High” begins as a bittersweet ballad, somewhat similar to the opening song.  It soon opens up into a straight-eighthed, forward driving post bop tune with a catchy, yet angular theme.  Farrell, now on soprano sax, takes the melody and runs with it, the underappreciated member of the Return to Forever team.  (RTF was the name of Corea’s band on this and one previous album.)

“Children’s Song,” as the name would imply, is somewhat simpler than the rest of the works found here; almost entirely in the keyboard, Stanley Clarke doubles the melodic loop the piece is structured around on bass, and a simple woodblock keeps time.  Purim and Farrell (who can’t seem to stay put on one instrument,) are absent.  The final track, which has become one of Corea’s biggest, trademarks, is a cool Latin inspired standard called “Spain.”  Almost entirely throughout, the melody is carried my the keyboard, doubled with either Farrell (on flute,) Purim’s vocalese (without words,) or occasionally, both.  For the main motif, the bass even joins for a complete tutti from the ensemble.  I first heard this particular tune on Play with Bobby McFerrin, and now hearing the original, I have a greater appreciation of everything the genius vocalist accomplished with this song.  While there are a great many similarities, both are amazing recordings of a great melody in their own right and deserve a look.  Light as a Feather’s is much more aggressive of a sound than Bobby’s interpretation of the tune, but I think some of that may be simply because when the bass, drums and flute are stripped away and the piano “unplugged,” a softer approach isn’t too unimaginable.  Still, there’s a cool chill to this and all the Latin-esque tunes on this brilliant album.

Tomorrow – Nevermind (Nirvana)

Next week – The Diva Series: Billie Holiday