Chick Corea – Sundance

I enjoy crate digging. Crate digging is a term record collectors use to refer to record shopping in search of rare finds. Most of the time, I go to a record store to buy a record; I know they have in stock – typically a new release – that is not crate digging – that is just buying a record. That is satisfying, but not as satisfying as looking through a stack of records with nothing specific in mind and discovering something that catches your eye. It might be a thrift shop, a garage sale, the used record bins at a record store, or literally crates at a record show. A record show is an event where one or more record collectors and record vendors sell records, typically used records, at a specific location on a specific date.

One of my favorite record shows is the RockNRoll Music Sale – an occasional vinyl and CD garage sale that collector Jeffery Larson hosts in his garage and yard in Maple Grove, MN (a suburb of Minneapolis). Jeffery’s sale is particularly fun because he has a diverse inventory that is fairly priced. The recent popularity of vinyl has resulted in some absurdly high prices (gouging). Jeffery has many inexpensive records (including $1 records), but he also has true collectibles. The collectibles are costly, but fairly priced.

I recently found Chick Corea’s Sundance at the RockNRoll Music Sale for $3. I was not familiar with this LP but was attracted by some of the side men listed on the back, including Jack De Johnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass), Hubert Laws (flute, piccolo), Bennie Maupin (tenor saxophone – who was actually not listed but has a prominent role), and Woody Shaw (trumpet). The album (both the cover and the wax) was in decent condition. Per Discogs, the album is worth at least twice what I paid – if not more.

Once I got the record home, I learned it was originally recorded in 1969 but not released until 1972 on Groove Merchant (GM 2202). My LP is a 1974 re-release, also on Groove Merchant (GM 530), but with a different cover from the original.

It has an impressive lineup (as mentioned above and see personnel below), some of who, including Corea, was moonlighting from the Miles Davis band.

Per my internet research, the album comes from the same sessions that produced Is (1969 on Solid State). The album Is is free jazz, whereas Sundance is more traditional jazz, although it has free jazz moments. Blue Note reissued Is and Sundance as the Complete Is Sessions in 2002 as a double CD. It also includes alternate takes from the original recording sessions.

Chick Corea is one of the most important jazz-keyboardist and composers of his generation. Is and Sundance is early in his career when he was helping Miles Davis create his electric jazz fusion and developing his more acoustic sound (although Chick plays some electric piano on Is and Sundance, he is not playing fusion). These are two parallel paths (electric and acoustic). Chick would pursue the rest of his career. I particularly enjoy the “freer” styles here as this was not typical in his catalog, and frankly, he was good at it.

Another hallmark of Chick’s career was attracting great musicians – both famous and unknown. The star of this show, besides Chick, of course, is saxophonist Bennie Maupin, who is not even listed on the album credits. My guy Woody Shaw does not get much space here despite being credited. He only gets to strut his stuff on “Converge” and “Sundance,” but even there, it is in an ensemble role vs. a soloist. Laws is a major soloist on “Song Of Wind.” Dave Holland has a nice intro on “Sundance.”

As far as a $3 record, it is “crate digger’s gold.” The album is in excellent shape, the cover is good (except for the cut-out drill hole), and it is worth more than I paid. My next mission is to find its companion, If.

Personnel: Chick Corea (piano), Horace Arnold (drums), Jack De Johnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass), Hubert Laws (flute, piccolo), Bennie Maupin (tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (trumpet). Produced by Sonny Lester; recording engineered by Malcolm Addey.

Sundance and Is are not on streaming; however, the compilation Complete Is Sessions is.