Chick Corea Elektric Band - Eye of the Beholder (1988)

Chick Corea Elektric Band

Eye of the Beholder (1988)

Personnel

Chick Corea – synthesizer, piano, arranger, keyboards, producer, engineer, liner notes, mixing

Frank Gambale – guitar

Eric Marienthal – saxophone

John Novello – synthesizer (track 2 only)

John Patitucci – bass

Dave Weckl – drums

Tracks

"Home Universe" – 2:43

"Eternal Child" – 4:51

"Forgotten Past" – 2:58

"Passage" – 4:55

"Beauty" – 7:55

"Cascade - Part I" – 1:53

"Cascade - Part II" – 5:18

"Trance Dance" – 5:50

"Eye of the Beholder" – 6:38

"Ezinda" – 6:54

"Amnesia" – 3:26

During an era when the word "fusion" was applied to any mixture of jazz with pop or funk, Chick Corea's Elektric Band reinforced the word's original meaning: a combination of jazz improvisations with the power, rhythms and sound of rock. Eye of the Beholder, which found guitarist Frank Gambale, saxophonist Eric Marienthal and bassist John Patitucci displaying increasingly original solo voices, is one of this group's finest recordings and ranks with the best fusion of the latter half of the 1980s.

Even after a measure of years I found myself very impressed with the first Elektric Band. Not knowing much about the second I discovered this third album from 1988 that I knew nothing about. But being impressed by what I heard on the first I picked it up. On this album the Elektric Band finally settled on one guitar player in Frank Gamble and added saxaphonist Eric Marienthal. The presence of a horn did add some new flavors to the music. But there's a lot more here than that. The first Elektric Band album showcased Chick Corea's ability to maintain musical excellence while fully adapting to modern instrumentation. A lot has changed by this time. But it's lot exactly chamber jazz either. I'll do my best to explain.

The main reason why this album is still "elektric" is because Chick is still playing synthesizers. But the electronic drums and electric bass used on the earlier recordings are gone now,replaced by an largely acoustic rhythm section. Not to mention a likeminded production. Most of the songs here such as "Home Universe","Forgotten Past","Cascade",the title song and "Amnesia" revolve around very complex melodic exchanges that are far removed from the lyrical style of the bands first recordings. "Beauty","Trance Dance" and "Ezida" concentrate more on uptempo rhythms. But again the melodies and solos are so complex that it has the effect of getting the listener tangled a bit into it as opposed to being drawn in.

So basically this is a much jazzier album strictly in terms of production and style of playing. It doesn't sound at all like anything they'd done up to this point. And also it did end up representing the direction the band would take in the future. Even when they made a comeback after the turn of the millennium. Chick Corea,especially being someone who'd played with Miles Davis,had become no stranger to musical growth and occasional experimentation. Even if he was involved with a band,like this one,with a sound that was actually pretty well established right off. He was more identified by growth than his distinctive sound. And he had a lot of both. And growth is more the direction this album goes in.