Chick Corea - Tones for Joan's Bones / Miroslav Vitous - Mountain in the Clouds (1999)

This compilation hits a bull's-eye by pulling together two key sessions: Chick Corea's first as a leader, a blazing, advanced hard bop set from 1966, and Miroslav Vitous' Mountain in the Clouds, recorded in 1969 just prior to the bassist joining the original Weather Report. Corea's writing on Tones for Joan's Bones has an affinity with McCoy Tyner's seminal hard bop structures from this period. Tenor player Joe Farrell and trumpeter Woody Shaw are ideal for this music. They deliver virtuoso performances that are both visceral and cerebral. Steve Swallow, while later focusing exclusively on electric bass, often with a melodic, impressionistic approach, is pure thunder here. In a blindfold test his acoustic bass could be mistaken for Buster Williams'. Drummer Joe Chambers is all relentless, propulsive energy, but subtle too. Corea is a torrent of harmonic and melodic imagination, couched in unerring rhythm. On Vitous' fusion classic, Herbie Hancock's electric piano and John McLaughlin's electric guitar merge in a rich, dense, colorful foundation that affords Vitous and drummer Jack DeJohnette considerable freedom. McLaughlin combines the dreamy state he evokes on Miles Davis' In a Silent Way with the juddering rhythm attack heard on his own Extrapolation. Like Chambers, who actually takes the drum chair for two tracks, DeJohnette is powerful, creative, and passionate. The superbly recorded Vitous has a sound, technique, and concept that consistently sustain interest. Tenor giant Joe Henderson is on four tracks, including an intense, open-ended exploration of Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance." Anybody with an interest in this vital and exciting period will find both of these sessions indispensable.