Chick Corea - Inner Space (1973 Japanese Atlantic Gatefold Vinyl 2LP)

Chick Corea - Inner Space | Vinyl 2LP - 1973 Japanese Atlantic (P-5083~4A, Warner-Pioneer Corporation, gatefold)

Inner Space catches Chick Corea before almost anyone was watching. The bulk of it comes from two days at Atlantic Studios in late 1966, the sessions that produced his debut as a leader, Tones for Joan's Bones, with Woody Shaw on trumpet and Joe Farrell on tenor and flute out front and Steve Swallow and Joe Chambers underneath. Corea was 25 and already writing the pieces that would follow him for the rest of his career. "Litha" appears here in its earliest studio version, and "Straight Up And Down" runs past twelve minutes without losing its footing. The two 1968 tracks come from a different room, a Hubert Laws date with Ron Carter and Grady Tate, and include "Windows", the Corea tune that went on to become a standard. Two more pieces from 1966, "Inner Space" and "Guijira", had never been released before Atlantic assembled this set.

By the time it appeared in 1973, Corea was a different proposition. He had spent two years in Miles Davis's band, playing electric piano on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, then formed Return to Forever, and the fusion records were starting to sell. Atlantic went back to the tapes it had been sitting on, had Michael Cuscuna oversee a fresh remix, and released the early acoustic material to an audience that had arrived late. That is the quiet irony of it. The record is filed as a compilation and gathers loose ends, but it hangs together better than most, because the writing was already there.

This is the 1973 Japanese pressing on Atlantic, catalogue number P-5083~4A, made by Warner-Pioneer Corporation and housed in a gatefold sleeve.