Chick Corea - The Leprechaun (1981 Japanese Polydor Vinyl LP)

Chick Corea - The Leprechaun | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese Polydor Reissue (18MJ 9004, Chick Corea & Friends Special Edition series, Polydor K.K.)

The Leprechaun is Chick Corea's most ambitious writing project of the mid-seventies, made while Return to Forever was still going and reaching well past what that band would attempt. Corea builds the record around a full ensemble: Steve Gadd on drums, Eddie Gomez and Anthony Jackson on bass, Joe Farrell on reeds, a five-piece brass section, a string quartet and the voice of his wife Gayle Moran. The music moves between fusion, chamber writing and something close to Broadway, held together by a fairy-tale theme that Corea plays entirely straight. "Nite Sprite" has become the favourite, a bright, fast fusion piece with Gadd turning in some of his most quoted drumming. "Lenore" is a lovely stretch of acoustic piano, and the thirteen-minute "Leprechaun's Dream" closes the record on a long, unhurried arc.

The record divides people, and it is worth being upfront about why. Corea's fairy-tale conceit and Gayle Moran's sung passages are either a charming risk or a step too far into whimsy depending on the listener, and the short interludes can feel slight next to the longer pieces. What is not in doubt is the playing and the writing at their best, which is why "Nite Sprite" still turns up on fusion compilations. It was also an early entry in a run of concept records that ran on through The Mad Hatter in 1978. This copy is the 1981 Japanese reissue on Polydor, part of the Chick Corea & Friends Special Edition series, catalogue number 18MJ 9004, with OBI.