Word: corea
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Unfortunately, these promotional details are the most interesting things about this epic live recording. Columbia has packaged these records as an event, a happening of lasting musical significance, but the music represented here does not justify their extravagance. Chick Corea and company pulled out all the stops for their Spring 1977 tour of North America--they even carted along a full brass section and a concert grand piano--and their Boston appearance was sensational. But as so often happens, this performance lost much of its magic in the translation to vinyl...
...uncooperative audience. Unaccompanied solos are punctuated with cries of "Boogie!" and "Get down;" the performers were repeatedly forced to wait for the audience to relax so they could continue playing. The album does capture some of the uniqueness of RTF live--the Rach-maninoff fanfares and showtunes that Corea improvises as incidental music--but there is enough garbage noise to make the entire project vaguely irritating...
...MUSIC. Ah yes, well, there is music on this album, some of it very good, for those willing to wade through all the extraneous hype. Chick Corea (and RTF is Corea's band) always plays well; the success or failure of his records usually depends on the musicians he chooses and the selections he plays. The results here are uneven. Versions of flashy but vapid tunes from Musicmagic (1977) comprise the first two discs. The band is tight, but the intricate mini-fugues and pompous fanfares that highlight the horns still sound gratuitous. The vocal sections are disappointing; Chick...
...Corea continually rearranged the group's charts during the tour, and in spots they bear the stamp of an impressive musical imagination. In the middle of Clarke's "Hello Again," Chick has the bass leap into a swinging stride figure, then covers a couple of choruses in classic cabaret-style piano. The moment is totally unexpected, and it inspires an otherwise weak composition. The big-band funk of "Musicmagic" becomes a vehicle for extended solo exchanges--Corea duels with Clarke's hard rocking bass, Joe Farrell's jazzy reed lines, and workhorse Gerry Brown's polyrhythmic drums...
...Chick Corea and Gary Burton--Berklee Performance Center...