Our Chick Corea Elektric Band Albums Ranked list looks back at one of our favorite time periods of the career of the legendary jazz artist Chick Corea. While we have already published a 10 essential Chick Corea albums list written by the renowned jazz historian Scott Yanow, this list presents only the Chick Corea albums he released with his fabulous Elektric Band. Chick Corea had already been well known for his fusion work with Miles Davis and of course his famed fusion band Return To Forever. However Chick Corea took what he had done with Return To Forever and modernized the sound with the use of all the technology that had just become available in the mid 1980s.
The group also took advantage of the new CD format to turn out some incredible sounding recordings that just blew us all away. Chick Corea and GRP Records were really at the forefront of the new technology. Of course a jazz fusion band is only as good as the musicians within. The Elektric Band featured some of the best young players on the scenes with Dave Weckl on drums, Scott Henderson on guitar who would be replaced by Frank Gambale on the second album, John Patitucci on bass and Eric Marienthal on saxophone.
Our Chick Corea Elektric Band Albums Ranked list presents all of the albums in ranked order with lineups, song listings and album cover art also presented below.
# 7 – Inside Out
Released 1990
The band’s fourth album was released in 1990. The album featured the core lineup of Chick Corea on keyboards,Frank Gambale on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Dave Weckl on drums. After three out of this world albums, the group’s fourth was a little bit of a letdown, but it still stands as a great modern day jazz fusion recording.
CD Track Listings:
1. Inside Out (5:13)
2. Make A Wish, Part I (1:39)
3. Make A Wish, Part II (6:19)
4. Stretch It – Part 1 (0:51)
5. Stretch It – Part 2 (7:53)
6. Kicker (5:20)
7. Child’s Play (3:30)
8. Tale of Daring – Chapter 1 (2:01)
9. Tale of Daring – Chapter 2 (3:39)
10. Tale of Daring – Chapter 3 (5:48)
11. Tale of Daring – Chapter 4 (4:21)
# 6 – To the Stars
Released 2004
The album To The Stars was the The Chick Corea Elektric Band’s seventh album. It featured a reunion of the original band after Chick Corea had released and album with the new lineup called the The Chick Corea Elektric Band II. It was nice to hear a new album with the original members almost thirty years after the release of their first. The album featured Chick Corea on keyboards,Frank Gambale on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Dave Weckl on drums.
CD Track Listings:
1. Check Blast (3:38)
2. Port View 1 (0:54)
3. Mistress Luck-A Portrait (5:31)
4. Mistress Luck-The Party (3:23)
5. Port View 2 (1:10)
6. Johnny’s Landing (10:39)
7. Port View 3 (2:30)
8. Alan Corday (7:08)
9. Port View 4 (1:38)
10. Hound of Heaven (6:15)
11. Port View 5 (1:14)
12. The Long Passage (10:46)
13. Port View 6 (1:35)
14. Jocelyn-The Commander (5:01)
15. Port View 7 (2:32)
16. Captain Jocelyn-Tribute by His Crew (2:02)
17. Captain Jocelyn-The Pianist (2:12)
# 5 – Elektric Band II: Paint the World
Released 1993
Paint The World was an outlier in the history of the Elektric Band because it featured a very different group on the record. Along with Chick Corea, only Eric Marienthal remained from the original group. The album featured Jimmy Earl on bass, Mike Miller on guitar and Gary Novak on drums. It would be the only Elektric Band studio album
to feature the Elektric Band II lineup. Still it was great record as Chick Corea always made fantastic albums.
CD Track Listings:
1. Paint The World (3:56)
2. Blue Miles (5:30)
3. Tone Poem (6:47)
4. CTA (5:47)
5. Silhouette (1:43)
6. Space (6:03)
7. The Ant & The Elephant (7:31)
8. Tumba Island (5:57)
9. Ritual (7:34)
10. Ished (7:14)
11. Spanish Sketch (8:06)
12. Reprise (2:50)
# 4 – Beneath the Mask
Released 1991
Beneath The Mask was the band’s fifth album and final recording of the original lineup before the reunion album thirteen years later. It was a much stronger effort than the group’s fourth album. Chick Corea would move on and form other groups in between as his creative talents would never let him stick with one format for too long. The album featured Chick Corea on keyboards,Frank Gambale on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Dave Weckl on drums.
CD Track Listings:
# 3 – The Chick Corea Elektric Band
Released 1986
The Chick Corea Elektric Band album stands as the group’s debut album. This one really blew jazz fusion fans away as Chick Corea had put together another great fusion band after his work with Return To Forever. The Chick Corea Elektric Band core lineup had not yet been established on this album. The debut album featured Chick Corea on keyboards, Scott Henderson played guitar on three tracks while legendary session player Carlos Rios played on another three. John Patitucci played bass and Dave Weckl played drums. Eric Marienthal had not yet joined the band and did not appear on the debut album.
CD Track Listings:
# 2 – Eye of the Beholder
Released 1988
Out of all of the Elektric Band albums, Eye of The Beholder is the most acoustic. It’s also the most traditional. Many jazz purist believe this is the best Elektric Band album as it does contain the best written compositions of the band’s career. The sound is also exceptional. The album featured Chick Corea on keyboards, Frank Gambale on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Dave Weckl on drums.
CD Track Listings:
1 Home Universe 2:46
2 Eternal Child 4:50
3 Forgotten Past 3:00
4 Passage 4:53
5 Beauty 7:48
6 Cascade-Part I 2:00
7 Cascade-Part II 5:08
8 Trance Dance 5:50
9 Eye Of The Beholder 6:32
10 Ezinda 6:54
11 Amnesia 3:30
# 1 – Light Years
Released 1987
Our favorite Chick Corea Elektric Band album remains the band’s second release entitled Light Years. The group took the new recording technology including new keyboards, mics, recording gear and the cd format and made a album that just exploded out of music lover’s speakers unveiling a sonic sound that listeners had never heard before. It was a phenomenal experience hearing this album for the first time. The band’s debut album had already blown us away both sonically and musically, but this one took it took it to the next level. It was the first album to feature the core Elektric Band lineup of Chick Corea on keyboards, Frank Gambale on guitar, John Patitucci on bass, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Dave Weckl on drums.
CD Track Listings:
1. Light Years 3:54
2. Second Sight 4:24
3. Flamingo 4:10
4. Prism 3:30
5.Time Track 5:03
6. Starlight 3:52
7. Your Eyes 3:56
8. The Dragon 5:30
9. View From The Outside 6:30
10. Smokescreen 4:13
11. Hymn Of The Heart 6:39
12. Kaleidoscope 8:04
Feature Photo: Jesse Merz, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons
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