CHICK COREA ELEKTRIC BAND: TO THE STARS

There is one mandatory prerequisite for you to be able to enjoy this album nicely, peacefully and safely ... You must set your mind with one word: 'jazz'. Well, yeah, without having jazz mindset as well as expectation right from the beginning, it's gonna be very very difficult for you to enjoy this album. I am not saying that this album does not have any prog elements - there are bunch of them. But you should set your mind to jazz first before you regret. It apples not only to this album but in any Chick Corea work, including Return To Forever. On RTF there are many rock elements while maintaining its roots on jazz. But right here with this album there is no rock element at all. But don't worry .. as far as you have an open mind on jazz music, this album would bring to a wonderful musical experience.

The band had actually been inactive for the last ten years prior the making of this album which is based on Chick's excitement on L Ron Hubbard's books, 'To The Stars'. Looking at the CD inlay I was so entertained as well as inspired by the way Chick materializing his lifetime dream as composer / performer for L Ron Hubbard as the ideal artist. The beauty of this album lies in its CD design package whereby Chick prepared a write-up for each of his work in this CD relate to the pages in the book that the music is created for. For example, associated with wonderful track like 'Johny's Landing' he refers the composition to page 79 and 147 of the book. This is really great and I do enjoy reading the CD inlay.

I am telling you that the music of this album is really excellent as it has good dynamics in any segment of the song. The opening track 'Check Blast' (3:38) proves that Chick Corea planned that the overall tone of the album would sound something like this. This opening has everything in terms of composition: excellent main melody, frequent style change, great harmonies, solid structural integrity. In terms of performance from the musicians, they work in a similar way, creating great music arrangenent. 'Johnny's Landing' with its dynamic composition starts beautifully with wonderful drumming followed by bass guitar work, plays solo. Chick Corea's solo is fabulous. All songs are integrated into one cohesive whole that supports Chick's work. 'The Long Passage' is an excellent composition that brings the listener to the area where jazz music sounds really inspiring and it has great dynamics! I think if all jazz music sounds like this, I will definitely join the jazz bandwagon.

The best album, so far .. - what do you think?

Overall, I highly appreciate this album as an excellent one with a rating of four stars PLUS because it's not just excellent, more than excellent. The key to the album's music is its excellent composition where the melody is quite catchy, the harmonies of all instruments sound really good, the style changes happen quite frequently while the structural integrity of each song is really good. Not only that, the whole album sounds really cohesive and it supports the story line. In addition, the sonic quality of the CD is truly MASTERPIECE. The package of the CD is also excellent, especially the inlay where the write-up of each song is made. In my opinion, this is the BEST album from Chick Corea Elektric Band. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW