In their first offering of recorded music as a trio, the Chick Corea New Trio has masterfully interpreted ten excellent, original compositions written by
Chick Corea and one jazz standard written by
Thomas "Fats" Waller on their Stretch Records CD titled
Past, Present, and Futures. Just as the mind interprets what the ear hears, the trio's mind builds on
Corea's meticulous and beautiful inspirations and arrive at concepts that are spiritual, metaphysical, and open-minded. Playing a variety of musical genres and styles including the blues and flamenco, bassist
Avishai Cohen and drummer
Jeff Ballard provide total agreement for
Corea's thematic forms through their unlimited creativity and combination of multiple textures, time signatures, and different tempos. The program opens with "Fingerprints," a tip of the hat to
Wayne Shorter's classic "Footprints."
Corea uses a 12-bar form in C minor with an unusual harmonic twist for the last four bars, as with
Shorter's classic.
Ballard is sensational on his drum solo and on his exciting percussive heartbeats.
Cohen burns on bass, and presents a fascinating and exciting bass dance that is highly enjoyable. The only standard on the CD is
Waller's great "Jitterbug Waltz" -- one of the first jazz waltzes ever written.
Corea's blithe interpretation is a reflection of the past, resurfacing in the present with vastly different results. The colorful composition is further enhanced as both
Corea and
Cohen artfully dance on their instruments, playing their top-to-bottom command of the scales with the kind of beauty and grace that the waltz form captures so consistently. "Dignity" is also a jazz waltz and is certainly the most beautiful song on the CD. Dedicated to Armando Corea's wife, it is the consummate portrayal of a woman's sensitivity and spirituality, and her reflective, loving, and dignified nature is captured gracefully in
Chick Corea's piano melodies. The title track is absolutely astounding in its artistry, harmony, and rhythmic beauty.
Corea escorts his listeners into several musical scenarios, catching the beat of the particular time, space, and moment by varying the cadence and harmonic positions. Where
Cohen's amazing use of pizzicato techniques to represent multiple images of time (in this instance, past, present, and futures) is sure to enchant the listener, his piano mastery becomes an event and a springboard for three different musical perspectives from
Ballard and
Cohen.
Corea rolls out formidable lines and brilliant improvisory passages on "Life Line," with both
Ballard and
Cohen displaying the technical brilliance of the virtuoso performer in their compatible note-for-note rim shots and basslines. This song shows the mastery of the trio at its core, with both
Cohen and
Ballard putting themselves in the middle of a blaze of piano dialogue that connects their skills to the nucleus of
Corea's brilliant accomplishment. This song is awesome. The Chick Corea New Trio is exceptional in their execution of
Corea's compositional integrity, incorporating the themes of past, present, and futures throughout the set with continued sequences and modulations that develop its sustained intensity, musical subtext and text, and deep listening opps. The musical concepts on
Past, Present, & Futures, as played by this trio, present no comparisons to previous
Corea bands, and this release contains some of the freshest and finest compositions of
Corea's career. A must-have. ~ Paula Edelstein