Label:
Solid State Records – SS 18055
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1969
Style:
Free Jazz, Avant-garde Jazz
Recorded at Bell
Sound, New York City on May 11/12, 1969.
Art
Direction – Frank Gauna
Painting
[Cover] – Hans Weingaertner
Mastered
At – Bell Sound Studios
Producer
– Sonny Lester
A
- Is ...................................... 29:01
(by – C. Corea)
B1
- Jamala .............................. 14:14
(by – D. Holland)
B2
- This .................................... 8:18
(by – C. Corea)
B3
- It ......................................... 0:28
(by – C. Corea)
Chick
Corea – piano, el. piano
Woody
Shaw – trumpet
Bennie
Maupin – tenor saxophone
Hubert
Laws – piccolo flute
Dave
Holland – double bass
Jack
DeJohnette – drums
Horace
Arnold – percussion
There
is nothing better than hearing jazz legends as much younger men; hungry,
talented and wanting to make their mark on the world. This album gives you all
of that. Corea, Holland, DeJohnette and a very very fierce pre-Headhunters Bennie
Maupin, then there are also surprisingly free Woody Shaw and Hubert Laws.
Legends one and all.
Although
the recording of Chick Corea’s “IS” sessions took place in May of 1969, the
rhythm section, which consists of bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack
DeJohnette, and legendary Latin/hard-bop/fusion pianist Chick Corea, found its
footing seven months earlier in the electric tone poems of the In A Silent Way
sessions under Miles Davis’s leadership.
The
“IS” sessions, is a great LP released on Solid State Records, which is a
musical example of the exploratory sound of 1969. On IS, Corea, Holland, and
DeJohnette largely break into the “new thing” or avant-garde with the help of
hard bop players Woody Shaw and Bennie Maupin, flutist Hebert Laws, and
percussionist Horace Arnold.
Records
begins with “Is” is a 28 minutes of free association, a free jazz opus which
symbolizes the experimental attitude that was present in American music and
society in the late ’60s.
“Jamala”
introduces the free-form style with which begins the second side of the album.
The piece, composed by Holland, is over fourteen minutes of avant-garde
ramblings, unstated tempos, and dissonant piano chord changes.
“This”
breaks into free jazz territory, with Maupin dodging in and out of Corea’s
lines on electric piano. It’s not suprising that Corea’s soloing on “This” has
the seemingly chaotic but controlled intonations of Herbie Hancock considering
they both played in Miles Davis’s free bop quintet on Filles De Kilimanjaro.
Over five minutes of “This” is dedicated to showing off the simultaneous
improvisation between Holland and Corea.
“It,” a 28 second
classical duet between flutist Laws and Corea that is based on an original
Corea composition called “Trio for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano.”
This
music is 46 years old now. Just realize what has happened during this time in
contemporary music - jazz or "classical": The borderline has
completely vanished. Listen to 21st century contemporary music
("classical") - it sounds like Chick Corea in 1969.
If
you find it, buy this album!
