The Chick Corea New Trio
Past, Present & Futures

An explosion of colors. That's what Chick Corea's acoustic album is. Warm colors blending together in a large musical palette as changing as a tropical sunset. A direct album that reaches the heart before the mind. With the thread of a strongly expressionist piano style, with more than a nod to be-bop, with few slow pieces and a great vital drive dominating most of the tracks.

I press the "play" button. A few nervous chords, a simple, short, direct theme, one that sticks in your mind. That's how the album opens, with Chick's "Fingerprints" marking, like a brand, the musical environment in which the entire disc will move. Jeff Ballard does himself proud from the outset on drums with drumming reminiscent of the raw roughness of the earliest Paul Motian (from "New Jazz Conceptions" with Bill Evans). But the real surprise is the bass of Avishai Cohen. Neurotically beautiful, with a beat of a racing heart, top-level focus, amazing technique. A young man to watch.
After an ironic and at times irreverent "Jitterbug Waltz", Chick's New Trio offers its first homage to the be-bop tradition in "Cloud Candy", with sounds reminiscent of the great Bud Powell. Sounds that will be found again in "The Revolving Door" and become a true tribute in "The Chelsea Shuffle", with Ballard's drums paving the way for a determined and energizing groove.

A convincing album, even if with sounds not particularly in the name of innovation, that must be said. In a work whose title is indeed perhaps a bit misleading, because Chick in this album truly looks more to the "Past" than to the "Futures". And thus one cannot fail to catch, in tracks like "Dignity" or "Nostalgia", the self-indulgence in that refined but somewhat anodyne piano style of the previous solo album "Expressions".
But luckily there's the Latin soul, that "Spanish Heart" of Chick, which in this album also gives us scenes filled with sensual and timeless rhythms. On Cohen's magnificent bass, "Rhumba Flamenco" and "Anna's Tango" are true unmissable delights, where the music becomes pure dance, corporeality, a magnificent hymn to the Dionysian. An excellent album, this one, not Chick's masterpiece, but still an excellent album.