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Chick Corea: Sometime Ago

Mike Jurkovic By Mike Jurkovic

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Everyone listening to Sometime Ago, a previously unheard deep dive into solo Chick Corea, is hereby pardoned and excused if at first Sometime Ago is mistaken for a previously unreleased (or unremembered) Keith Jarrett concert. Jarrett had just recently ventured into solo territory at the Stadthalle in Heidelberg, Germany in June of 1972. So the vibe is there in the air of young artists capering, conjuring thin air into something like a song. A sonata. A lasting overture.

In her observant liner notes, German music journalist Ann Schumacher writes that when Sometime Ago was recorded six months later at the Sendesaal of Germany's Radio Bremen (she was 15 years old and there that night), Corea was in a transitional state: Coming off the stark, modal funk of hallowed late '60s Miles Davis and coming on with Stanley Clarke, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira and vocalist Flora Purim for the early adventures of Return to Forever.

But that notion begs the question as to when the budding maestro was not in a state of transition? When was he not at a moment, in a life of moments, evolving, not examining the margins, the strictures and structures of his chosen art? Every artist that sticks in the collective or individual memory bank approaches it that way. That is why we listen. That is why we dream.

As early as it comes in the pianist's grand canon,  Sometime Ago could play as a greatest hits. Tellingly intimate performances of "Noon Song," "Song For Sally," "Crystal Silence," "Sometime Ago," "La Fiesta," the inimitable "What Game Shall We Play Today?," a majestic rendering of Wayne Shorter's "Masqualero," and "Crystal Silence." And since everyone in the early 1970s was hippie-ly infatuated by Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, why not the guy at the piano in the front of the room? Reflective of his innate delicacy and care for melody, "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" romps and glides: his jaunty left hand restless, blue. His right revels in playful joy. Sometime Ago. Corea purely.

 

Mike Jurkovic FOLLOW Mike Jurkovic and get notified whenever a new article published.
2025 -2027 Ulster County Poet Laureate. Host of NuJazzXcursions, WVKR 91.3FM Vassar College



Track Listing

Disc 1: Interlude: Noon Song; Noon Song; Interlude: Song for Sally; Song for Sally; Interlude: Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Interlude: Masqualero; Masqualero; Interlude: Children's Song No. 1; Children's Song No. 1. Disc 2: Interlude: What game shall we play today?; What game shall we play today?; Interlude: Crystal silence; Crystal silence; Interlude: Sometime ago; Sometime ago; Interlude: La fiesta; La fiesta.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Sometime Ago | Year Released: 2026 | Record Label: Moosicus Gmbh


About Chick Corea

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