Customer Reviews

Native Sense: New Duets

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's about time someone brought out the final star for this excellent album by the duet veterans.

This is an example of a duet where the two parts have developed into a higher unity. The sensitivity and interplay of Corea and Burton as a team, the incredible time, the great compositions and arrangements, the highest high level of their musical craft, everything amazes this listener.

The music draws on a wide musical heritage without ever falling into one style. Most prominent are the influences of European art music and, of course, jazz. There is also plenty of latin flavor in this recording, plenty of rhythm. Corea and Burton are such masters of polyrhythmic playing, cruising in and out of subdivisions, making the music flow in the manner of a wave, constantly moving, but ever organically.

It is an album deserving serious listening, but it's also perfect for those late Sunday mornings. It's great as a real time out; listening the album through leaves you with energy and positivity - it's guaranteed to evoke smiles.

The production and sound quality is also exceptional, making this an album truly worthy its five stars.

Chick Corea and vibrist Gary Burton's musical relationship spans three decades, and the fruits of that relationship manifests itself every so often in the form of a duet album and other collaborations. Incidentally, the two just won a Grammy last night (as of this writing) for the record they did with Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland.

"Native Sense", recorded and released just a couple of years earlier, is another welcome treat for fans of both musicians. It's not so much how they play as individuals here, but how well they play as one. The combined, sweet sound Corea and Burton concoct is greater than the two parts. A nice mixture of Corea originals, little Bartok Bagatelles and even a little Monk thrown in, the dynamic duo explore, converse, and undertake challanges in a variety of settings. "No Mystery" and "Armando's Rhumba" are fine examples of what a couple of master musicians can do when both grace and fire are called for.

Can you find better efforts by either men? Of course. But a reunion of sorts between two old masters just playing together for the pure enjoyment of playing together still makes for a fine recording.

Having the fortune of seeing them perform live a year ago, I can attest that these gentleman still have a lot of chemistry between them. To witness a piano/vibraphone duet of this nature is to know how difficult it must be to pull off. This record (and the Origin CD's that closely followed) provides evidence that Chick is still near the top of his game.

In this album is ducted all XX century music.
Every song has' a great melody, that goes far from any melody that a simple human being can write, and it has an harmony that seems to want to go beyond any barrier of human ears.

"If you cannot say something good about a thing, don't say anything"... but, I can't resist to make some criticism on this Corea's album. What made Chick Corea so popular, (As other great musicians was a good sense of melody, passion, and a magic touch at the instrument. Neither one of these has a big part on this CD. Corea is becoming too much technical, and less musical, this syndrome began some years ago. Even on "Expressions" has too much of Bartok, and less of the man who did "Mad Hatter", or "Three Quartets". It's the less inspired album from Chick. If you compare it with "Crystal Silence", or "Duet" , or "In Zurich, 1979", which have the same formation, you have the impression that Chick was not on an ispired day when he recorded this album. Perhaps he was sick!, perhaps he hadn't slept for a week or so...If we hear the above mentioned good albuns we not only see that after all these years without playing together, the two guys not only didn't learned something NEW, as they're worst than ever. When I hear it, I have the impression that Corea was hired from the airport directly to the studio, where he met Gary Burton, coming from a tired tournee, and on a few minutes they recorded it. The best pieces are on the final, it seems that when things began to improve the CD was over... The sound of the Yamaha piano is very bad, as most Corea's albuns recorded on Yamaha pianos. Chick Corea definetelly was made to play a good, brilliant SteinWay piano, like we hear on "IN ZURICH, 1979", this Yamaha has an strange timbre, but there's some "better than nothing" tunes on this CD. Corea's Chords and ideas are vicious, it seems that he tried a lot to do something new, but he didn't accomplished on this album. If you want to hear a Corea's inspired album, listen to "PLAY" with Bobby Mcferrin.