You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Did Chick Corea Perfect Midi Jazz?

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Stack a DX7, a keytar, and enough rack-mount synths to power a small city, and you get one of the most iconic – and polarizing – jazz fusion albums of the ’80s. This week, we dive into The Chick Corea Elektric Band (1986), the record that inspired a thousand copycats and split the jazz world. From the jaw-dropping virtuosity of “Got a Match?” to the neon-lit grooves of “Rumble,” we ask: does the tech overshadow the music? Is there too much production polish and not enough stank? Peak fusion or synthmania gone overboard? Join us as we unpack one of the best fusion bands ever assembled.🟠 Open Studio Members:Nerd nook → https://www.openstudiojazz.com/community/c/as-seen-on/yhi-nerd-nook-fingering-got-a-matchABOUT OPEN STUDIO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the premier online jazz education platform, with an ever-expanding course library and 20,000+ members, Open Studio (OS) has everything you need to excel and thrive on your jazz journey.Featuring everything from beginner to advanced lessons, engaging courses from A-list instructors, step-by-step curriculum, real-time classes and a thriving and incredibly supportive community, OS is the perfect platform to level up your jazz playing, whether you’re a total beginner, or an advanced pro-level improvisor.Try OS Membership today! → https://osjazz.link/aboutAll about YHIhttps://lnk.to/youllhearitYB

Yo, Adam, you seem to be quite the mood today. Yeah, Peter, we're talking about Chick Korea today, so, you know, I prefer chick on a synthesizer. Really? Yeah. I like them on the acoustic. Yeah, but what about like... I'm Adam Manus.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at Podcast. Music Explored. Explored. Today, Peter, brought to you by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio.Jazz.com for, Wow. Your jazz lesson needs.

Hold on. I want to write that down. Open studio. Actually, I do want to go there because you have a little thing called harmony games over there. I'm going to write that down to... Harmony games unlimited. Unlimited. Sorry, I wanted to add that.

That's an important bit of it. New lesson every week. New lesson, yeah, every single Monday we release a brand new harmony game. Not unlike your jazz piano method, which is a new lesson every Friday. Sue us. We like to do things once a week. Yeah, don't sue us. But yeah, we're having a great time over there at the Harmony Games.

It's a guide of practice session with our trio, and we're just working on like simple triadic pop songs. A lot of fun. Nice, nice. Fun fact, totally unrelated to what you just said or what we're about to talk about. Are you okay with that? Yeah. I thought this was turmeric tea. It's not.

What is it? Turmeric. I was just told by my friend the barista down the street. Turmeric. Huh. So Chick-Correa, Peter, has a long and storied history with different trees. Trio. Yes.

We're talking about one of the most story trios. That was really fun to play a little got a match. Give it up for Caleb Kirby and Bob Dubu

on the place today. That was super fun. I hit about 98% of the notes on that hit. I might have hit 90%. There's a lot of notes. It's a lot of notes.

So we're going to get into that. I hadn't played that since the 80s since I had hair. A lot of hair since I used to go to the hair parlor. Cool. Caleb,

can we put a picture of Peter with some hair up there, please. Thank you. So, man, so this episode, we're going to be working on listening to, talking about breaking down the Chick-Korea electric band.

You know, this is kind of out of what we usually do, Peter. We haven't done any sort of like real fusion-y. I mean, we've done all the Herbie stuff in the 70s and weather report. We got to get to some weather. Yeah, I mean, years ago, I think we listened to heavy weather once. We could definitely get back to that album. But we haven't done some like straight-up 80s fusion ever. Right.

And I know there's a lot of electric band heads out there. Yeah. Weckle heads and Chick-Hex. who are probably going to be excited about this. But it's funny because this really, this album is so different. It was such a departure at the time. And we'll talk about how dated or undated it seems.

I feel like I know where we're going to go with that. So just to set the stage a little bit with Chick himself. So Chick started his career, of course, playing more straight ahead music. And when he was young, he was recording with a bunch of different musicians in 1962, 1962, 1964, 1964. Here's a little bit of Chick with Sunny Stitt on Sunny Stitt goes Latin. This is Autumn Leaves from 1963.

Three years old here. I mean, I can hear Chick killing all the comments. But you can, he's so sublimated in the mix. Dang. He doesn't. He didn't tip the mixing engineer, did he? No, he did not. This was, yeah, he's very subtle in the first couple albums that I could find on him.

Now, of course, he starts gaining some recognition. and he really comes to sort of the national and international jazz stage playing with Miles Davis in Miles' late 60s groups and early 70s group famously like bitches brew on the corner and stuff like that but this and I believe excuse me for for interloping but I believe a little earlier than that even now I could be thinking of Keith here I'd ever heard of him but I think it was Chickaria first played with Miles subbing for Herbie Hancock when Herbie got married and was on his honeymoon in Brazil. I feel like that's correct. Which would have been, I don't know, like 65, 66, I don't know.

64. I mean, that would have been right when Chick was sort of coming up and making a real name for himself. So he's on all of those, like in a silent way, and like I said, Bitches Brew. But this is, I love this album. We should cover this period of miles at some point. You know, we really should hit in a silent way in Bitches Brew and Feastee Kilimanjaro. And this is Freelin Brun. Chick is only on a couple tracks on this.

And he's playing the RMI. which I think is Rocky Mountain Instruments Electra piano so this is like it's not a Fender Rhodes it's not a Whirlitzer it's an RMI

Electra piano and again we're getting into some leading up to some fusion thing he's doing straight ahead stuff this whole time as well so this is 1968

this is the year before now he sings now he sobs he's a great record Feisty Kilimanjaro So that's 1968 Feast di Kilimanjaro Feist I think it's

You're saying it was such confidence. I'm feeling like I should, I always thought it was fee. Filet? Phyllis. I mean, I would say Phyllis de. I don't know if that's the proverb. Kili Manjaro. Phyllis Day, Kilimanjaro.

Okay, Kilimanjaro. Okay, Kilimanjaro. Duh, we know. Fis. De. Fies, or D. D. Dillamajaro.

Feles. Yeah, let's move on. Okay, next up, we've got light as a feather. This is Chickree with Return to Forever. Woo. And this is. You're everything. Yeah.

We're straight up in the fusion. 70s fusion. This is just five years later. Yeah. You have a volume pedal on that roads? He's got to. I think he's using it. Oh, man, it's so effective. Man, it's so effective. Okay, Chick on the roads. Come on, man. It doesn't get any better. Well, you haven't heard the DX-7 yet. Well, we're going to talk. I mean, Chick is a master of the fender. He was already then. And I mean, I got to hear him.

play a live like he really like the nuances of that instrument you know about jozamo george duke herbie of course stevie wonder but i mean chick had a special agree special relationship i agree i mean like and he was a great accompanist of vocalist great arranger like that rubato stuff like i got to hear him live a number of times with with bobby mcfarin duo like such a chikerea par excellence company is for vocalists in a ribado situation with, oh, man, stretching out harmonically, come on.

Come on. Come on. Well, let's stay with this. I love the 70s, and we... Can we stop in the 70s? We cover so much music at the 70s, Peter, that I wanted to go to the 80s today. We haven't touched on a lot of stuff on the 80s.

We've talked about Black Coats from the Underground, but I think that's about it. Honestly, I think that's the only 80s album we've ever talked about. I know a good one we got to do. I'm writing it down. I got a great one. And it's, you know what?

by a little gentleman we've already listened to you today named Miles Davis Miles Dewee Davis from the 80s You're talking about 2-2? No, that's not, don't sleep on 2-2. It's not that.

Anyway, we'll come back to that. Okay. But this is, you're right. Like, this is an important, like if we're going to have five most important jazz records of the 80s or even three most important, it's got to be in the college.

It's got to be in there. And that's why we're doing it. Yeah, so he spends the rest of the 70s. Here's what I love about the 70s though. Like, Chick, Herbie, Keith, they're all making all of these weird albums and then straight ahead, albums and beautiful solo piano albums, McCoy too. And then they'll make like, you know, Chick makes

like the Mad Hatter, this like concept album with strings and all this great stuff. And then in 1986, he hooks up with two younger musicians, Dave Wechel and John Patutucci. And they do a bit of much younger. Much younger. I think they're about 25, 24, 25 when they first start playing with Chick. And they go on a world tour in an acoustic band setting, but it's the, it's the birth of this electric band album. And, you know, Chick was always so on the cutting edge of technology. You mentioned the roads, but throughout the 70s and the 80s, Chick and Herbie were always experimenting with different new technologies that were occurring in music. Synthesizers. Yeah, and I don't know if you remember the mid-80s, Peter, but synthesizers were a big deal. Specifically,

you know, FM synthesizers, the DX-7 sort of dominates that mid-80s time period. Can I get my cartridge? Can I get my cartridge. You want that E cartridge. It's important. And I think he's got some compatriots here with Patatucci and Weckle, because on this album, Weckle's playing some electronic drums. He's doing some drum programming. Yeah. And I mean, Chicks on the electric band album, his synthesizer lineup is just incredible. He, I mean, he must have been made a deal with Yamaha. So a Fender Rhodes, electric piano that's middied to a Yamaha TX-816 rack-mount synthesizer on some tracks. The Yamaha KX-88 MIDI keyboard, the Yamaha TX-816 rack-mount synthesizer. It's like they have the model numbers for every one. The Fairlight CMI, the Sin

Clavier, the Lin-9,000, which is a drum machine. Sin Clavir was a hip. Like, I remember playing on one of those one time. That was a hip situation. George Duke used to play it. Speaking of hip. Yeah. He's playing the Yamaha KX-5, Keyes. guitar synthesizer. Oh, the cat's fine. The Yamaha TX-816 rack-mount synthesizers on that. A mini-mogue, a Yamaha G-S-1,

a Yamaha D-X-7, Yamaha T-X-816, rack-mount synthesizers for that. And the gong. This is what old-school with the gong. If all this fails, if the electricity goes out, he can just be like, gung.

Isn't that crazy? And there's no piano on this record, is there? Acoustic. I don't believe there is. I don't think there is. Yeah. Sure. There's some piano-adjacent sounds on the DX-7.

I want you to picture it. Yes. It's 1986. Yes, I was 15. Top Gun. Yeah. Is in the ether. Yeah.

There's a lot of earnest synthesizer music happening. That's right. Tika Ler Sunrise, one of my favorite movies, is about to come out. It hadn't come out yet. You got soundtracks for like Miami Vice for Blade Runner. Yeah. Incredible stuff. And we're really getting into that.

really crystal DX-7-ish period. Oh, I thought you were to say crystal something else. I'm like, no, that was later. Yeah, it was like. And I'm just, I have one question, Peter, after setting the stage, which is, are you ready to rumble? Oh, 1986.

The St. Axel Foley. Well, kind of. Lind drums there, right? Yep. Oh. Sloppa. Hey. It's so killing, man.

Yeah. There's a lot of harmony being suggested by these lines. No, based on this one. Oh, right. That's right. What's the... I think it's program. Oh, well.

What would you call this groove? What would you call this groove? What do I call this? I would call this... It's got to start with neon. Whatever the name of the group is, right? Neon. Neon pentatonic, uh, uh, blue scale.

Oh, that's the harmony. Neon Miami Knights. Swayon. Swapping neon. Okay. This is the first track, right? Yeah, so this is the first track of the original release. So on Spotify now there's another short track before him, yeah, that came out later.

Now that's chick. Whoa. Okay. I'm tired. Can I have a cigarette, please? Imagine that you're just chilling with your girl. No. Light a candle, romantic candle, put on a little rumble.

Let's get ready to rumble. It is not the most romantic music in the world. It is not the... I mean, it's really like... It's a vibe, but... And if you're trying to think about... Although, if you got a girl that's into that, maybe keep her. Yeah, I mean, it's a musician.

It's a musician. I mean, it's such a tour to force to start out the record. It is a little bit like, where does it go from here? But, I mean, Wackle just... You know, it's an understatement to say he has great technique, but he has great imagination within that, too. And it's like... I mean, to me, the Lind drums, the Simmons drums, like, of that period,

like, it takes a little bit away from, like, the humanity of, and I don't just mean because it's just so early in that kind of game. I think Wackle had a great concept on it though. I mean, it's amazing what he's playing. I love hearing him just playing on drums on a little bit, but I mean, it's like they're really exploring the possibilities

on this for sure. Totally agree. Yeah, totally agree. Next up is sidewalk, which I believe is also just duo. Can't be wrong about that. There might be some guitar on this, actually. I mean, that's a lot right there. Oh yeah, this will feature Carlos Rios on guitar.

There he is. It's a lot, man. This album is a lot. And it is, it's not even, for me, it's not even like the sense, but the style of playing that Chick and Dave Wechel are doing to set up this album is very, very maximalist. There's a lot happening. Maximilus.

I like that. Every beat is filled with something. It's intense. It's dense. And then I think what Dave Wechel adds to any situation, that he's ever played in is this like incredibly crisp, bright drum sound.

And like these fills that just like... Precision, precision fields. Yeah, the fills that pop at the end of phrases really didn't hear a lot before him. I mean, another thing you listen to this is like, you know, if you're thinking like that sounds dated or this is how everything sounds whatever,

like not much sounded like this at the time. Yes. You know what I mean? Like this was kind of a revolutionary kind of like thing. I mean, I think in L.A., there was definitely a great thing. group of musicians playing kind of like this.

I mean, Chick was in L.A. I was living in L.A. Then, I mean, it did evolve from something it didn't just come from nowhere. 100%.

In terms of, like, everybody else kind of hearing it. New York, too, there was a scene of this. But Chick putting his chick thing on it. Exactly. And like organizing it. Yeah.

Totifying it. Yeah. It's been, this particular, like, I think this record and the follow-up albums have been just copied to hell. Yes.

And stage banded out. Totally. Stage banded out. Every, you know, every fusion guitarist can play like, you know, 450 BVVN. What if this ever been played at Berkeley College of Music? I don't think so.

I don't think so. We should introduce it. Okay, you brought up an important point, and I'd already written that word down. We have to, it's a little bit the elephant in the room. Yeah. Dated. Is this a dated album?

Is this a dated sound? Because at first, that was my first thing in listening to this again, and it took me back to it. I remember when this record came out, obviously didn't feel dated at the time. But how has it aged? Do you want to do this now?

Sorry. Oh, gee, was this in the notes for later? I have some quibble bits about this, but yeah, we could do this now. Okay, well, sorry. Then your quibble bit later can be me preempting your... No, no, no, let's talk about it. Because obviously it's a very 80-s song. Like, I love records that sound like they're from the place, the city, the time that they're from. I mean, like, I don't need some hipsters playing like French guitar, gypsy jazz from the 30s today

and trying to make it sound, you know, kind of. you know, bad fidelity and like, you know what I mean? That's fine, no problem. But I mean, like this is very authentic to me. So, yes, it's dated in the sense of like, oh, that's 80s. But there, I don't, I mean, why would we say, why is stuff from the 80s more dated than from the 90s or 70s? Because we do have a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction. I think, and I've got my, some ideas on it.

Do you think that Headhunters is dated? No. I mean, dated, yes, good, good dated. But you know that it's, that's an album from the 1970s. Yes. Or do you? No, totally. Because it could be ripped off from the 90s and from today.

Well, yeah, and it's hard because any of these records, we know them so well. Somebody could make stuff that sounds like that. Somebody is. Yeah, there are plenty of. I mean, producer Caleb was like, yeah, some of this sounds kind of like Thundercat when you hear them live, you know? And that's like legit, you know? That's what I think musically and stuff, there was a lot of innovation here. There was a lot of cutting edge stuff.

I think the dated part of it is that, like, so there's that freshness, even in here and again, like the way Wechkel plays stuff, because he's probably, like, from a technical standpoint, I'm not even a technical, just, like, he's one of the most influential drummers of that generation for, like,

the next, I mean, every drummer at this time. For kids out there, you have no idea how much. The posters on the wall. Yeah, he was such a drum hero. Yeah. In the late 80s, early 90s,

all the way up to the 2000s. Still today. I mean, people that came up under him, love him. But that, when he was young, and he was coming out of the chicks, expands. I mean, everybody was trying to play like him in the early 90s. But I do think there's certain periods where the technology is pushing ahead of like our ability as musicians to really harness it into like the organic flow of how we organize our output.

I think sometimes hits in different periods where it ends up sounding data because like those Lynn drums, those Simmons drums, there was another one. Like they were so new. Like we get excited as musicians like, oh, we're going to use them on everything. and we haven't quite figured it out. Yeah. Outside of a few things. And I mean, not that that didn't happen in the 70s with synthesizers,

but those synthesizers, like all of a sudden, it's like you've got the guitar, you've got the DX, it's like there's so many different sounds and stuff. And look, Chick is killing it on these instruments. But to me, I love his stuff. Even in the 70s, like his acoustic piano playing,

his roads playing, these instruments where there's more guardrail. It's like when you take off all the guardrails, it takes us a little bit of a time maybe to catch up, so you end up falling into this, like, a little bit of a day to that. sound perhaps. I don't know. I'm going to push back a little bit. So why is a Fender Rhodes in the 70s

more timeless than a DX7 in the 80s, right? I think that because the the acceleration of the technology in the 80s with all these other keyboards was so much faster than the roads. Like the roads like this was more revolutionary

whereas the Rhodes is more evolutionary coming out of the warlitzer coming out of the acoustic piano. It's still like it's kind of still an acoustic instrument in a way. You know and so like once you able to have synthesizes, which of course they had before we had all the great discussion about Tonto on the Stevie stuff, Stevie Wonder. And I mean, certain people are just able to like put those guardrails up themselves. I would say this is a record. And look, records without guard rails are really

fun and awesome. And to me, that's the celebration. It's like you meet the record at where it is. If you're going into this to try to hear Chick's most swinging lines, although he actually does do them. But it's going to be on a keytard. That's the thing. But you're not going to hear it in the same way is you hear it on Matrix. You know what I mean? You're not going to hear it the same way as, which was not that far before this when he did the two piano double album,

I mean, the two piano record with Herbie Hancock, which I think is some of his most amazing playing. And so it's like, you meet this record where it is, and it's like kind of chick goes crazy at guitar center with Dave Wechle, like egging him on. And it's an amazing thing to hear. I think what you're hinting at, which I think is probably a legitimate point,

is that does the technology sort of take over the album rather than the music. And I think you could make a case that with all the programming and the kind of technology, and like you said, it's a very specific zone of new digital music technology. And we talk about that too, because that's a big part of this GRP records, the digital master, the whole thing. Yeah. It's a digital sound.

It might just be a little too heavy-handed in retrospect. It might just be like a little too much of like sometimes we'll hear. Nirvana from the 90s and you're like, oh my gosh, This sounds incredible, always. It's just this classic sound. But then you hear some bands that were like in that grun scene, you're like, oh, boy, that sounds really 90s. Like, they don't make music like that anymore.

You know what I mean? And so I see what you're saying, where, like, the production might have taken over. And I wouldn't say it's taken over. It's just very, like, you use the word maximalist. That's what I was like, they're pushing everything. They're pushing the number of instruments, the editing on this, the digital editing.

Like, you can just hear, like, they've got everything lined up, the programming and stuff. And it's not a bad thing. It's just, it does, like, dated in a certain way. And to me, I mean, look, Chick-Karia is such, was such an amazing musician, such a big influence on us. I know our whole generation of not only piano, it's just musicians.

I mean, I can't overstate that. So it's like, it's not every one of his records should be the same. Like, this is not my favorite record of Chick-Korea, but, like, this is still, this is not like a throwaway thing of Chick-Rae. Like, and for me going back into this, because, like, I was so, the other thing is, like, how do we experience a record? Because when this record came out, it was like, you know, you know, it was like, year after Black Codes from the Underground, which I was really into, because I love Kenny Kirkland.

I mean, I love Brantford and that whole thing. And then this was like so different. And then Jay Moved from Whitmer Sous came out the same year. And so I was very much into that like, like, I'm Mike Gardwells or I'm a neoclassical, neoclassicist. That's how you used to talk back in the day, too. Yeah. That's how Peter would talk in 1986. Yeah. Because I was young and I was like dogmatic and stuff. But I listened to this and I liked it. And I, you know, I mean, I met Dave welcome I was in high school. He came in my high school to do a clinic, you know? But can I just say?

I think all of what we were just talking about is true. And I really like it. I know. I really like it. It's a vibe that takes me to the mid-80s, and I like it. And I think there's nothing wrong with that. So that is dated. Yeah.

But dated is not a bad thing. So I would say the same thing for the headhunters. It's like, yes, that's dated. But good. Sumi, I love the 70s. Sue me. I love the 80s. It's just the 80s musically and with the instruments and stuff

had a certain kind of thing happening. Let's move on to the next track. What you're born in the 80s, though? You barely knew the 80s. I barely knew the 70s. No, I knew the 80s. I was around. That was around.

This is cool weasel. You were born in the 70s? 1978, we've talked about it before. How do you not know? Hey, my name's Peter. You're supposed to be my friend. Know my birthday. Here's cool weasel.

78? Damn, you're old. Okay, let's go. Cool weasel. What is it called? Yeah, there's some good names on this. Cool Weasel boogie. Oh, this could totally be Eddie Murphy, like, looking around.

I know. I know. I know. This is, again, Carlos Rios on this. And John Patattucci. Patachucci. On the Pullman acoustic double bass. They even have the brand name for the...

Pullman. There's a couple tracks with acoustic bass on this record. I forgot. That's the road, right? It's got to be... Patatucci is laying it down. And Weckle, too, man. It's great, dude.

Man, Chikorea's harmonic mind is so, like... Oh, so interesting. I think Dave Wecklenose how to make a correct hit off of a chart or not on a chart. Not a problem for him. Crispy. Crispy hits. But accurate, too. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I do. Yeah. Like, you can trust him. Wow. That's a DX7, right there. I mean, just chick had so much available to him during this time. It's like, and his musical mind, like, he couldn't help himself. It's counterlines.

Again, Carlos Rios. John Patatucci on the Pullman acoustic double bass and Dave Wechle. I mean, Wechel and Patatucci are like, that obviously is more than just a solid rhythm section, but what you hear on there, and I'm sure there was some editing, whatever, but it wouldn't have mattered if they hadn't had to edited anything like they can lay that down. Like Patatucci, like everything, I dare say everything was perfect that he played, but I think it was on that. And it's simple, it seems simple.

Do do, do, do. but to just play that and then anything he adds in is right and Wackle it's just like very high level playing very very high level execution 10 out of 10

yeah that's right yeah both Dave Weckle and John Patatucci at this time are just man they were young monsters too just really good I just actually this morning was telling yeah they're mid 20s there's a bunch of Dave Wackle lore around here in the St. Louis region where we are

because he's from this area And I was just... Shout out Parkway West High school. I was just talking with someone who's I think about his age or maybe a little bit older today. And he was like, yeah, I remember him in high school. And he was just like that.

Like then. He just sounds just like he just kind of came out. He had it. He had it. Fully formed like that. Okay. Well, this leads us to now what is kind of the track probably people think about. The P.S.

How is this long? Well, if you say so. But this has got a match. And this is featuring Dave Wekel and John Petitucci. Most as clean as ours. This is a minor blues, my friend. Did you know that? 616 bars?

She's early on every one of those lines. I remember seeing them play this live, this trio. But later, I think, like, early 90s? Yeah. Damn, chick. It's relentless. All single lines, too, right? Ascending whole steps, chromatically.

I love a single line. Yeah. So it frees up so much for the drums. Chick was great at. Herbie was great at. How do you like the swing? Well, we're going to talk about the swing. Things are about to pop off right now, though.

You've got to know that, right? Things are about to get wild. Really? Obviously, Jock inspired, but very, like, already patatucci's stuff. That is a bass, ladies' gentlemen. Yeah. Look at the forest. Countdown, Chin.

Yeah. I was just like, wah! Dean have like, no, not been used. No, I'm saying, I've never done that, but would that have heightened this or would that push you over the egg? Tell us more about your drag. I've been around people that were partaking. I don't think that, that would be a combustible combination, this and cocaine. I have another question.

Was this track produced for this very scenario of just two musicians, just making faces? Well, it's just so... It's so adventurous and clean and, like, you know, like, well. It's just... I don't know. It's so well executed. Oh, this is my faith. This was the influential solo.

Crazy. Hey. Police section. Some Billy Copham influence stuff there. I mean... Yeah. That's crazy. This doesn't sound like it was edited.

I might have been. That's crazy. But they've got this, like... This whole track... I got to go practice. Yeah, no, part of the success for this is... It just sounds like they just... They may have edited a bunch of stuff, who knows.

But I saw them do this live, so they didn't need to. It is music that makes you want to go practice, right? But it makes you pissed off a little bit. Is that a good feeling that? Tell me more about being pissed off. Well, no, it just... I could make... It's relentless.

It's relentlessly well-executed. Yeah, yeah. But it does... It doesn't feel... Automating as well, actually. It's actually not perfect. No, it's not. Which makes it great.

I mean, it's a damn close. Damn close as you're going to get. They went back and they did the opposite of like editing the fix. They edited it to make it not perfect. So people get to make it believable. Come on now. That's David Sonny that ending. So it was a fade out.

Okay, so is that too clean? What? Okay, we're going to get to that. No, no, I mean, that's damn. It's just a lot. though. It was definitely made. I think...

It's a lot. When they were in the studio, they were like, you know, because they were technologists. And I think they were like, you know, seeing you in the future, I feel like there's going to be a medium where just people talk about...

They sit around and they just talk about the music we're going to make. Let's make something for those people. They're going to speak out on. They're going to see sitting in a pod. Broadcasting. I don't know. We'll come up with the name later.

Yeah, it is. Now, is that like just an awesome meal where there's too much, too many calories in it, though? You know what I mean? Like, oh my God, this dish is so great. You're at the restaurant. Same more.

I'm full. Like, it's almost like you get too full listening to that. It's a bit of a, it's not a big slice of chocolate cake, but it's like a... It's like a beautiful, like, caschui pepe, but it's like a huge bowl of it. It might be a family-sized bowl of Skittles. You know what I mean? Well, no, but it's got substance to it. It's got protein.

It's got, well, not pro. You know what I'm saying? It's not just candy, I don't think. It's a steak with skittles on it. Maybe so. I don't know. It's great, but I mean, yeah, we're going to get to that. All right, what else you got?

We got Electric City. Can I take any more? It doesn't let up. Oh, this is hard, but I know. It doesn't let up. This is my jam, though. I love this one. It's great.

Now, this is Axel Foley going to check out the warehouse with the coffee grounds. How did they not get the goods for that? You know, Beverly Hills Cop 2 or something? Even the last one that just came out? That was older. I love Supreme. Love Supreme. I love Supreme.

Hey. What would you call this group? This is hard to qualify some of these gruge. I don't know, but it's good. That's a killing sign. It's a great solo. It's Maximus. There's really not a 16th note unaccounted for it.

Carlos Rios again. They're probably like, I want you to play in this section. He's like, where? Man, chick's mine for like the hundred, architecture of these phrases. It's very melodic, but it's like, it's got the next level. Take another one. Come on. True out.

Trade, other trait. Man, LA in the 80s must have been fun. Yeah, I'm looking like, this track is only like four minutes long. The whole track. It feels like it's like 17 minutes of music in there, though. Like they're like compressive. Digally compress it. Put it on a floppy drift disc.

Compress it. That didn't feel like three minutes and 45 seconds so far, but this one feels a little dated. Oh, now you say so. That's a very chick. Yeah, great chit. It is the Simmons that dates it a little bit. So good. Oh, man.

All right, I've got one more track, and then we can check out some categories. This is King Cockroach. This features Scott Henderson on the guitar. Scott Henderson. This has some serious, like, Domi and J.D. Beck. Yes. This one. Very much influence, though.

Tucci. Stanley Pata Tucci. He'll kill her. See what? Tucci. I got it. Got it. Good joke.

Clean. It's so ridiculously clean. Bann. Come on now. I love these sounds and the chick hits because remember watching Chick live? And sometimes you would get into the zone. Yeah. And just sort of, like, stare as...

musicians down. Yeah. With like a little grin. Right. And you just feel that like... Less yours on the Qatah. Yeah, yeah. God, there's killing.

I love that. Let's get to some categories here. Yes. Peter, you got a desert island track? Well, okay, I think this is one of the add-on ones, but it's been there for a while, which is all love. Like, I love this. Like, I actually, I think they recorded this on something else.

Might even be one of those bootleg live ones. Okay. But to me, like, this is, yeah, this is the one. Do you have it there on there? I do. I have it right here. This is great. It's a real, that might be Sinclair there.

I think that's the road with the MIDI. Really? Going to the rack mount, it's like putting this string pad. Yeah, maybe. Pad it too. Gorgeous. I mean, it's, you know, of course, this harmonies off the tracks. And then we can, when we get to the apex moment.

Off the rails? Off the, what did you say? Harmony's off the rails Harmony's off the tracks On the tracks Off the rails My Desert Island track

has definitely got a match This is too much fun What about your Apex moment? So if you go to about Three Minutes on here Before you started though This like Chicks solo on this tune

The same thing all of Is amazing And Patutucci Shout out John Patetucci Oh my gosh Come on the show John Padetucci No friend

I saw John recently One of the sweetest guys in music, one of the best bass players, obviously. I'm not coming up with any genius right there. Great insight there. But I mean, you. Of course.

Lester Holt called, news alert, NBC. Yeah, newsflash. John Patatucci's good at the pace. No, but I mean, he's just the consummate professional, but just so much solo on the instrument. I love him, on the electric, on the acoustic. But I love this solo on here, and I think it's interesting placement on this record

where it's just everybody's going, I mean, it's such a weckle and career. driven record, obviously. But this solo, to me, he wins the record. This is right after a great solo from Chick. Yeah. I mean, go listen to it, check out. I'll see what you think of it.

But it's just a lot of humanity and, like, pushing and pulling. It's very different than a lot of the rest of this record. My Apex moment was that Dave Wreckle's solo on God a match that we just did it, too. I think that's the highlight of the album for me. What about a bespoke Spotify playlist title? Okay, I'm going with the Michelle Pfeiffer 80s vibe

That's the name of the playlist Yes And I'm assuming there's a picture of Michelle Pfeiffer Yeah, but Scarface Well maybe even a little, I'm thinking like Tequila Sunrise Oh great Which is right around this time I don't know, just the way this sounds

It really makes me think of like Her in this period, those movies You know, maybe Mel Gibson I don't think we can talk about him anymore though Is he now? Anyway, Michelle Pfeiffer Say more 80s vibe Yeah, so I don't know

Yeah, yeah. I have a few here. Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry. On that playlist would be a little sandborn. Of course. You know, a little bit of, you know, a little axel-up. A little Bob James, probably. Yeah, of course. You got it.

I have three. I have Midibop. Midi-Bop. Midi-Bop. Yeah. Guitar Hero. Yeah. Kitar hero.

Guitar hero. Got it. And I have Yamaha Swing. Right. So many Yamaha's on this album. Oh, my God. It's like a, I got one more. Cocaine Cowboy.

No, I can't do that. edit that out okay up next what other albums pair with this album okay I've got I don't even know if it was on a whole album I think it was just a track but he had some good stuff Jan Hammer Hamer Jan Hammer

Miami Vice I had that tape killing yeah also right around this time maybe a year before yeah I think it was the year before Dream of Blue Turtles Yeah sting you know very much

I like I would put that record stylistically. Some of that stuff close with this with Omar, Hakeem, Gerald Jones, of course, Kenny Kirkland. Yeah, interesting.

And it's got a lot of connections for me during that time. And also went Marcellus J-Mood, same year. I have anything by dream theater, especially early dream theater, because this has a rock flare to it, and they certainly have

that sort of rock fusion vibe. I'm going to push back a little on, well, explain just a little bit of this because I heard people talk about this record and researching this where they're like, yeah, this is really a, This is not a fusion album. This is a rock jazz album.

People say that. But what makes it rock? Well, you know, some of those guitar tones that Carlos Rios, excuse me, is playing on some of those melodies. Maybe, you know, it's definitely not like rock, it's definitely jazz tinged rock. You know what I mean?

Right, right. But I don't know. I mean, if you listen to like, you listen to Rumble. But what kind of, I mean, rock at the time, I don't know. I agree. Maybe it's aggressive?

I don't know. I agree with you. This is not ACD. Back in black! I also have, which I've alluded to before, the Beverly Hills cop soundtrack. Oh, okay. Beverly Hills Hillbill bits.

We already talked about not exactly timeless. It's not exactly timeless. It's very timeful in that it is very 80s sounding. Yeah. But when was it made? I have another quibble bit, and this is with sort of the style of composition and playing itself, which is just like, is it,

and we alluded to this too. Like, the vibes are very bro-y. You know what I mean? It's very... Well, go ahead and say the word you have here. I have brosif. It feels very jockish.

Yeah. It's aggressive. It's aggressive. It won't be associated with pro-culture at the time, which is not, I mean, not a bad thing, but it's... Yeah. Many a collar was popped. Yes, is this a little bit of an aggressive preppy?

Like, that's what I'm thinking. A Duke lacrosse player with like a walkman on listening to this. Get out of my way with his lacrosse. We love you, Duke University. Shout out Duke. My mom went to Duke. Christian Leitner. My mom literally, my grandfather taught a Duke, so don't flame me.

No, but you know what I'm saying? I do. There's a little bit of that. Yeah, there's, there's, you know, everything is always the balance of. the masculine and the feminine. And this one might be a bit of a house. Yeah, a little bit. My only quibble bits on this is, is it too clean?

Is there not, is it like too perfectly executed? Like, you can't say that's, because this style needs that. And these were the masters of that. I don't think so. I mean, when we listen to God a match there, there were some, like, that was not, yeah. And that really makes it, like, it takes it away from me. But that's the only track that's like that.

And maybe that's because they're swinging on it. But it's like, is there enough stank? Like, there's not a lot of back beats on. It's not that you need that. And when they go to it, it's not like, it's weird because it's like in the pocket, but it's not, it's fusion pocket, I guess. I don't know. It is a little bit of the opposite of the sort of Herbie run that we talked about. Yeah.

Where you just feel that earthiness. And it's just different. It's like personal preference. So this is not like a knock on this because I think the way they're playing fits this music. It fits Chicks conception. And like he got everybody to buy, he got the right cats to do it. But to me, there's maybe not quite enough stank on it. Yeah.

Yeah. But that's a quibble bit. That is a quibble bit. You could quibble, too, with, I think, some of the, just, was he, was, why did he go all in on the Yamaha sounds? Right, he was so brand. There were other options back then. He was not brand agnostic. But, um, there's some brands around.

I kind of dig it, actually. Yeah. Okay. So, snobometer. How snobes is this? He pulled up to the session at a Yamaha motorcycle with like a Yamaha receiver. He was all in on the Yamaha. He was not a big mosaic.

Yeah. And he's like, you know, guys, it's just kind of interesting. chainsaw. Yamaha, TX86. I'm in. Yeah. Okay. Snobometer.

What do you got? I got a six. I feel like it is because it's got some, I mean, it could be a nine, honestly. I mean, it's either a, I don't know. I put seven, but now that I'm thinking,

it's either a one or a ten, maybe though, right? It could be a ten. It's definitely not a one. This is a snobby album. It is a snobby album. It is a snobby album. My aunt, my aunt, my auntland is not liking this.

She's not like it. So it's not a rock album. That's what I'm saying. this is not like a pop sell-out kind of rock, rock, I mean not the rock is I don't know. Not at all. Okay. Is it better than K-O-B? Well, no. No.

Accouturement. I got 10 out of 10. Buddy, this cover. It's a great cover. It looks like how the music sounds. But this is what I'm going to say. They crushed this cover. Look what I put on here. I put either one or 10. That's a 10.

Well, I've got 10. Out of your mind. I could make an argument for one. It's just a, it's literally a neon sign. Like, in a, dive bar in 1986. Like, down on Le Cleeds Landing. You're telling me. Shout out LaClead's Landing.

And I know I've seen people with this t-shirt of this album. You got a black t-shirt like that with this logo on it. I'm wearing it every day of the week. It looks great. Depending on the day of the week, I'll give you a one or a ten. Okay. All right. That's really all we got.

Hey, listen, folks, we read your comments here on the air. So please leave us a comment either on Spotify, on YouTube. You could also leave us a rating and review over on your Your podcast app. It's so political. Well, yeah, here's a rating and review. Five stars, and this is on the podcast up, five stars, the best jazz content on the internet.

Adam and Peter are preeminent players, teachers, and dare I say, jazz musicologists? Wait, I'm going to change my business card, Caleb. Don't say that. As of late, the Open Studio team has really stepped up the quality and production value of their video content, highlighting tightly shot explainers, detailed transcriptions, and slick how-toes.

Yeah, thank you. Hohman or Fulman. Was that a sandwich complimented there? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. And so please leave us a rating and review. Leave us a comment on YouTube. We will read your comment. Yeah. Yeah. And the NERD NUH. Is there going to be a nerd nook for this one? We don't know. Oh, a nerd nook for our open studio members? Yeah. Thank you for asking, Peter. I'm so glad you brought that up. Yes. We will be going over the melody to got a match for our open studio members. If you want to check out the nerd nook and see us explaining how that melody works, you can

become an open studio member today, click the link in the description or the bio. Yeah, let's play out with some full version of got a match. Full version of, until next time. You'll hear it.