Chick Corea / Roy Haynes / Joe Henderson / Gary Peacock Live In Montreux CD

Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland in 1981. Includes liner notes by Tony Cohan.

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Nietzche's words grace the liner notes of LIVE IN MONTREUX, a collaboration of post-bop heavies who play as if they exist to prevent such an error. Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes and Gary Peacock present a program infused with an intense rapport, and enough energy to summon from beyond the spirit of Nietzche himself.

The playing on this date is outstanding; Corea, in particular, glides over and attacks the keys with his typical, almost machine-like precision. The set opens with "Hairy Canary," a bent blues on which which he comps as if he were supporting a moving car by stepping out and pushing whenever the engine pauses to shift gears. His choices of chords and clusters are filled with tension and grace.

The strength of LIVE IN MONTREUX is its atmosphere of pure communication which allows the unfettered expression of coherent ideas and emotions. Everyone's tone and style complements everyone else's. "Psalm," an extended groove introduced by Chick's angular ruminations, exemplifies this, as Henderson unfurls flurries of energy while Corea and Haynes punctuate, respond and react. There are several spots where they demonstrate such an uncanny awareness of the voices around them, that it seems like these guys are in each other's minds.

/Joe Henderson/Roy Haynes/Gary Peacock.

Personnel: Chick Corea (piano); Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone); Gary Peacock (bass); Roy Haynes (drums)Entertainment Weekly (11/25/94, p.78) - "...subtler and more challenging than much of what he recorded with others..." - Rating: B+
Down Beat (12/94, p.60) - 4 Stars - Very Good - "...a bright, engaging, and, at moments, powerful program....Exposure to unrelenting ability may persuade us that facility is an enemy--but Joe and Chick each love what the other is doing and so do the deep, quick rhythmists..."
JazzTimes (12/94, p.135) - "...lives up to its potential....a very solid session showing off some of the finest players anywhere. All have an abstract bent, and each is idiosyncratic in his own way....truly a marvel....the essence of live jazz..."