Word: pianos
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...instruments in Narratives assume personalities of their own, carrying on musical conversations among themselves. In the opening skit, for example, a violin, cello and piano exchange various harmonies, attempting to reach a common ground. In a later piece an altercation between between cello and alto-trombone ranges from melodrama to farce. Kim's parallels and parodies the actors' disjointed monologues. In one skit a piano accompanies actress Irene Worth, responding to the natural cadences of her voice as she relives a traumatic childhood experience. The culmination of this tension between the actor and instrument occurs in the last piece when...
...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...
...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...
...tenor sax, an undersung quantity if there ever was one. Stanley Clarke performs a lengthy acoustic bass solo that is more a technical coup than a creative improvisation. His sheer enthusiasm makes the cut listenable despite serious intonation problems. Corea begins the show's finale with a 17 minute piano solo. His playing is so damned interesting that he very nearly carries off this whole venture by himself, and here, on his own, he imaginatively probes his Spanish roots and builds to the concert's climax...
Corea segues into the opening chords of his "Spanish Fantasy" suite, easily the best ensemble piece on the album. The horns really cook, belying their earlier sterile proficiency. Clarke's electric bass works beautifully, and Corea is literally all over the place--playing synthesizer, playing piano, stamping his feet with excitement. Appropriately, the encore is a Corea-Clarke duet; the chemistry between the two is obvious as they perform a free improvisation that is loosely based on the bop standard "On Green Dolphin Street...