When I heard of Chick Corea's passing, I listened to Return to Forever and the follow up,  Light as a Feather , my two favorites by both the man and the band. A friend of mine, who has much better taste than I, prefers the ensemble's second incarnation of Return to Forever, citing a concert at Central Park as one of the best shows he's ever seen. Like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and others, it is a jazz-rock fusion that features a jazz group using rock instrumentation.  The first lineup - Chick, Stanley Clarke (primarily on double bass), Joe Farrell (flute, sax), Airto Moreira (drum set), and Flora Purim (vocals) plays on both Return to Forever and  Light as a Feather.  In between, Chick, Clarke, and Airto joined with Tony Williams to back Stan Getz on Captain Marvel . All three are included on the playlist. Is it fusion? I guess so, although save for the electric piano. The instrumentation is fairly traditional, but Chick's Rhodes floats in an out, bubbles on top. It...

Which is not to say, Workin', nor -again- is it with his quartet. Instead, we have largely the same players as featured in last week's Chillin' post. Most of Miles's studio output from the period 1970-1974 comes from a series of sessions - Bitches Brew , Jack Johnson , Cellar Door (Live Evil) , and On the Corner - that largely ended by mid '72. In addition to the main albums that came from each session, the albums Live Evil , Big Fun and Get Up With It were also compiled from the sessions. With regard to his fusion period, the story goes that Miles was impressed with a Sly and the Family Stone show and tried to incorporate those sounds into his music. These tracks are in line with that story. We have here the gritty funk of There's a Riot Goin' On rather than the slick sounds of Fresh . It's a sound like early Funkadelic more than Parliament.... ...and the On the Corner outtakes somehow catch the vibe of the cover more than that album did.