CHICK COREA — The Leprechaun (review)

CHICK COREA — The Leprechaun album cover

Album · 1976 · Fusion

4.5/5 · 2024-08-22
FunkFreak75

Chick's demo hopeful for entry/admittance to the world and work of Broadway composer.

1. "Imp's Welcome" (2:55) very cool intro with many weird, quirky sounds coming from Chick's vast collection of keyboards. (4.5/5)

2. "Lenore" (3:25) great melodic jazz-rock tune with Chick playing off of and against ... himself! Piano, Moog, clavinet, ARP Odyssey, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha organ--they're all playing off one another--as if coming from different musicians on the same stage! Gayle Moran's wordless vocalese at the end is nice touch. (9.25/10)

3. "Reverie" (1:58) opens as a solo piano piece, very pensive and heart-felt, but then Gayle's overly-reverberated vocalese float across the back stage. A sign of how in sync husband and wife are at this point in their lives. (9.625/5)

4. "Looking at the World" (5:29) opening with some previews of some of the future riffs that'll be central to next year's The Mad Hatter, Gayle joins with the rhythm section, this time singing in a more jazz-pop style (with words) before Chick ramps quickly into some heavier j-r fusion between Gayle's multi-track verses. Kind of like an oldie from the 40s with the future jazz-rock fusion that's coming with the Jaco Pastorius version of Weather Report. Interesting "underwater bass" from Anthony Jackson. (8.875/10)

5. "Nite Sprite" (4:31) this one sounds like it feeds right into the RTF Romantic Warrior recording sessions (especially Part II of "The Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant"). A little funkier with Anthony Jackson's bass and Steve Gadd's fantastic near-disco jazz drumming. (9.25/10)

6. "Soft and Gentle" (5:08) with Gayle in the vocal seat for the whole song, this one once again evokes many reminders of Broadway musicals, great chanteuses of old, as well as many old jazz/pop standards of the 1940s and 50s. And I love the presence and powerful effect of the strings, Chick's grand piano, Eddie Gomez's acoustic double bass, Steve Gadd's classy jazz drumming, and the horn section. Quite lovely--as well as being quite a lovely composition. Deserves to be heard. (9.5/10)

7. "Pixiland Rag" (1:10) more light and whimsical keyboard experimentation in a solo format. There's even a little ragtime jazz in here. (4.333/5)

8. "Leprechaun's Dream" (13:03) a thoughtful, rather pensive song that makes one feel fear and uncertainty: as if a person is living in the moment so as to escape having to make any/all decisions in the Big "Real" World. The play of double bassist Eddie Gomez and flutist Joe Farrell are delightfully uplifting--especially playing off of the syncopation genius of Steve Gadd. The contributions of the string and horn sections are also quite welcome. Crossing/blending several unusual styles makes this a rather unique and ambiguous song--making it difficult to define or categorize. Again, I feel that Chick this album's music is best serving as a "getting to know" each other germination fest for what will become Romantic Warrior, and then, The Mad Hatter. Still, it's hard to not admire, respect, and be awed by the performers' performances as well as Chick's growing big-band compositional mastery. (22.6667/25)

Total Time 37:39

This album, as a whole, sounds like an artist that is sitting on a fence, trying to decide which direction to take his music. As displayed here, the talented man has many directions to choose: we here much of his recent Return To Forever style, some of his older Latin roots, some of the future fanciful future dreaming that he's doing, and a surprising number of riffs, sounds, and styles that feel as if they are coming from the world of the Broadway musical (especially Leonard Bernstein)! The question of what he will choose to "specialize" in--and when he'll come out of his haze of confusion and synaesthesia--will be resolved in the next year or two with the demise of his popular and highly- acclaimed Return To Forever project and the repetitious re-confirmation of his solo career. All in all, this is definitely a step toward Chick's other upcoming masterful releases, Romantic Warrior, My Spanish Heart, and my favorite, The Mad Hatter.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of eclectic jazz-rock fusion and another amazing release in a long career of astonishingly high creativity and top-tier quality products.