Piano Standards

This collection of 13 unaccompanied piano pieces is the companion disc to Corea's simultaneously released Solo Piano: Originals. Like its sibling, Standards was recorded at concerts in Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan in November 1999. Here, though, Corea chooses an array of mostly well-known tunes by jazz greats Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell and Tin Pan Alley wizards Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter. The pianist evokes alternately brilliant-then-darker touch, clear-as-a-bell articulation, and often-astounding imagination as he weaves in and out of these timeless melodies, keeping thematic phrases close at hand and never allowing the improvisation to totally take over. It's impressive, alluring stuff. Monk is represented by four pieces, from the wondrous "'Round Midnight" to the less-heard "Monk's Dream." Corea uses thickly textured Monklike chords, leaping statements, and clanging intervals to both sound Monkish and be himself. Powell's "Dusk in Sandi" is a delicate, introspective piece, rendered with telling tenderness, while Bud's "Oblivion" is in contrast to its title: upbeat and peppy. "But Beautiful" is one ballad where Corea sways between the theme and delicious asides full of sumptuous melody; "Thinking of You" is another. Kern's poignant "Yesterdays" has a few moments of classical feeling, Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean" has even more and is rather abstract at points. "It Could Happen to You" is a medium-tempo tale told with prancing single-note lines, descending chords, and gushed passages, and the closing "Brazil" is happily straightforward. --Zan Stewart