Got a Match? No, but I've got 2 arms, 2 necks, 2 sticks and 88 keys

March 14, 2013 8:15 PM

Chick Corea Elektric Band's Got a Match? played by one person
posted by klausman (10 comments total)

Here is the original version of the tune, and a great live version, for comparison.
posted by klausman at 8:22 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

The pro-cloning lobby should be all over this.
posted by R. Schlock at 8:26 PM on March 14, 2013

It's pretty rare to see someone who has such seriously legit advanced technique on that many instruments. What a prick.
posted by TheRedArmy at 8:36 PM on March 14, 2013 [12 favorites]

that is impressive as heck but I really just never understood the appeal of this type of jazz. What does it mean? What about it do people enjoy? What is it a response to; that is, in what context was it interpreted?
posted by rebent at 8:48 PM on March 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

that is impressive as heck but I really just never understood the appeal of this type of jazz. What does it mean? What about it do people enjoy? What is it a response to; that is, in what context was it interpreted?

Well, in the 70s there was a pretty broad movement to combine rock and jazz elements. I suppose it really started with Miles Davis and his Bitches Brew sessions in '69. Most of the leading pioneers of the fusion movement came from Davis' band (including Chick Corea). The best known were probably Weather Report and Return to Forever (more Latin-inspired) and Herbie Hancock and Headhunters (more funk-inspired). Meanwhile, you get rock bands that are also moving in a Jazz direction (too many to list, but think Santana, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull). Eventually bands like Corea's Return to Forever got increasingly rock-jazz and Hancock got more funk-jazz (I guess sparking the smooth jazz stuff, which I mostly hate and know less about).

By 1980 or so, the fusion scene had more or less imploded. All of the major fusion groups had moved on (Weather Report blew up a bit more slowly, but really Night Passages wasn't even really fusion anyhow). When Miles came back from his self-imposed hiatus, he took up playing with young guys and carried the mantle of fusion again. Chick Corea formed Elektric Band in 1985 and Tribal Tech started at about the same time. Most of the bands that have endured in the "fusion" genre have focused more on "world beat" and jazz fusion. The rock-jazz fusion thing, to the extent it still exsists seems to me to be found more in prog-rock than fusion.

This particular track from the landmark self-titled album reflects the start of a move by Corea back to a more pure jazz approach. Its probably the most technique-centric, each guy do a solo kind of track on the disk. He's taking more traditional jazz riffs and sensibilities and tweaking them with all kinds of synth and sequencing. Although this band really dominated the electric jazz scene of the late 80's, he pretty quickly moved away from the more rock-like elements with the reductionist Akoustic Band and turned more towards traditional jazz arrangements. He stayed more in that vein until his more recent fascination with modern classical stuff.

Maybe you'd do better to hear about the whole scene from Chick Corea directly. He traces the roots back much deeper than I do. I really agree with this intro to the third segment of the interview:

Jazz-rock fusion isn't easy music. For one, there isn't much space for your ear to catch its breath. For another, unless you were in your teens in the late '60s and early '70s, the music will likely sound like noise. But for those who heard this music with peers just as their sensibilities were being formed and think back to this period with fondness, fusion has a robust, explosive feel that was in sync with its time. At the forefront of this movement was Chick Corea.

posted by Lame_username at 2:25 AM on March 15, 2013 [14 favorites]

Here is the original version of the tune

Wow that keyboard synth sounds terrible, I could not get through the whole song. I am not enough of an expert to know what exactly is going on with it, but it just seems off to me. The one in the live version sounds more like a normal old-school electric piano synth.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:49 AM on March 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow that keyboard synth sounds terrible

Maybe, but have you seen it?
posted by klausman at 6:12 AM on March 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maybe, but have you seen it?
That's a midi controller, it has no sounds. It could have been plugged into a $99 Casio or a $10,000 Synclavier.
posted by keys at 6:56 AM on March 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

The guy doing this is doing ALL the instruments himself? Unbelievable. He's a bitch. Give him a contract.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 8:57 AM on March 15, 2013

Corea live version: free rock-climbing at its finest.
posted by Twang at 4:25 PM on March 15, 2013