Eight Pastels and Seven Tatum Sketches
Chick Corea alone at the piano, sketching a school and paying tribute to Art Tatum.
Delphi I, Solo Piano Improvisations, released in 1979, is Chick Corea's third solo piano album, and it arrives after he had already spent years moving between electric fusion and acoustic work. Here he drops the band entirely and sits down alone. It is a quieter record than much of what surrounded it, and it shows a pianist comfortable enough in his own voice to need nothing else.
The program splits into two halves. The first is eight pieces titled after the Delphi school, each a short portrait of his feelings about the place and the life there. The second is seven pieces inspired by Art Tatum, so the record is partly a conversation with one of the great stride and swing pianists of the earlier generation. Corea does not imitate Tatum note for note. He takes the spirit of that virtuosity and filters it through his own harmonic habits, which is why the Tatum-inspired material feels like a dialogue rather than homage.
DownBeat gave it five stars, and reviewer Jon Balleras praised Corea's stylistic continuity and inventive powers, along with what he called his caring musicianship. That praise fits. This is not the record to start with if you want the famous Corea sound in a group setting. It is for listeners who already know him and want to hear the piano stripped down. If you are new to his work, begin with a band album and come back to this one later.
Who's playing
Chick Coreapiano
