Chick Corea: My Spanish Heart

Large dotes of classical Spanish and flamenco elements characterise this particular release In the cover notes, Corea says that "a recent trip to Spain re-inspired my interest in flamenco music and led to a whole new awareness of my love for the music, — as well as the music of Latin America and Africa "My Spanish Heart is the latest evidence of this love, and as such, it is essentially romantic in style.

It is not just Spanish romanticism he draws from, although this influence is obvious, in the rhythms and melodies of much of the material on a first hearing. "Night Streets" springs from a Latin American well, and many other passages are classically romantic in style, reminding the listener, in places, of phrases from composers such as Brahms, yet if it was Corea's intention to produce a singularly romantic recording, he falls short of the mark. If you are susceptible to its emotions, romantic music should sweep you off your feet in its twirling ascending cadences, awed by the power of its furious fortissimo passages, or leave you reflective and serene in its more pensive moments. "My Spanish Heart" seldom achieves this. It lacks the true spirit, the robustness of Spanish romanticism. The motifs are there — and many of them may sound familiar as Spanish influences have been inescapable in previous Corea and Return to Forever sets — but they are merely motifs and fail to be concise or meaningful.

In spite of all this, spread over four sides, the musical experience is not totally satisfying. The "El Bozo" sequence, for instance, is slightly overdone, labouring under heavy organ and moog riffs with lots of general fooling around on all electronic keyboards. The passages of solo acoustic piano scattered throughout are good, but mean little when heard against Chick's solo improvisation recordings. Yet the highlights, and there are quite a few, suggest that a more frugal editor could have produced one excellent single album. "Love Castle" is pleasant and memorable. "Day Danse" intriguing, although somewhat contrived in the chase passages between the piano and the string quartet; "Armando's Rhumba" featuring Jean-Luc Ponty on violin is all good fun with excellent solos from Ponty, Clarke, and Corea, lacking only the click of the castanets and shouts of "Ole". "Spanish Fantasy", Part IV is a fitting climactic end piece — "Spanish romanticism brought up to a resounding majestic pitch.

On the whole it is a worthwhile release, although the central vein of romanticism is not strong enough to sustain the entire programme. It is essentially solo Corea, yet it doesn't possess the same lasting qualities inherent in his earlier work. For less than ten dollars for a double album you get your money's worth of listening material, still I think I'll wait for Return to Forever's next, due out soon.

— Tim Nees