''My Spanish Heart'' is the tenth solo album by

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

, recorded and released in 1976. Prominent guest musicians include Corea’s

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

bandmate

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jaz ...

on basses, violinist

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitt ...

, drummers

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern D ...

and Narada Michael Walden, and Corea’s wife

Gayle Moran Gayle Moran (born 1943) is a vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter. She is from Spring Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Spring Arbor High School (now Spring Arbor University) in 1961. She was a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the ...

on vocals. The album combines

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

pieces and more traditional Latin music pieces. The album includes use of full

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

and string sections on some tracks. "El Bozo" suite relies heavily on the use of

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s while "Spanish Fantasy" suite is mostly acoustic. The first four tracks form a suite as well. “Armando’s Rhumba” is now widely considered a jazz standard.

Critical reception

''My Spanish Heart'' received a five-star review from ''

DownBeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' magazine.

Track listing

All tracks composed by

(except "The Hilltop" w/

)

Side one

# "Love Castle" – 4:45 # "The Gardens" – 3:12 # "Day Danse" – 4:27 # "My Spanish Heart" – 1:37 # "Night Streets" – 6:08

Side two

# "The Hilltop" – 6:16 # "The Sky (Children Song No. 8 / Portrait of Children Song No. 8)" – 4:57 # "Wind Danse" – 5:00

Side three

# "Armando's Rhumba" – 5:19 * El Bozo – 12:02 # "Prelude to El Bozo" – 1:34 # "El Bozo, Part 1 – 2:52 # "El Bozo, Part 2" – 2:03 # "El Bozo, Part 3" – 5:03

Side four

* Spanish Fantasy – 20:42 # "Spanish Fantasy, Part 1" – 6:06 # "Spanish Fantasy, Part 2" – 5:14 # "Spanish Fantasy, Part 3" – 3:06 # "Spanish Fantasy, Part 4" – 5:16

Bonus track

# "The Clouds" – 4:33 Note: "The Sky" was omitted in CD editions released during the 1980s and 1990s due to efforts to make the whole double-LP to fit to one CD. This track is included in recent CD editions (the absolute length of audio CDs has increased over the years due to more efficient designing systems) along with the previously unreleased track "The Clouds". Due to consolidation in the record industry over the later part of the 20th century, recent issues of the album are now on

Verve Records Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, ...

, a label that specializes in jazz.

Personnel

–

acoustic piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Yamaha electric organ,

s (

ARP Odyssey The ARP Odyssey is an analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972. History ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, and less complicated "perf ...

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphony (instrument), polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on Frequency divider, divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs an ...

, Moog Model 15 modular synthesizer),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Narada Michael Walden – drums,

handclaps A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...

Don Alias Charles "Don" Alias (December 25, 1939 in New York City – March 28, 2006 in New York City) was an American jazz percussionist. Alias was best known for playing congas and other hand drums. He was, however, a capable drum kit performer: for e ...

– percussion *

–

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

– vocals * String quartet: **Connie Kupka – violin **Barry Socher – violin **Carole Mukogawa –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

**David Speltz –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Brass section: **Stuart Blumberg –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

**John Rosenburg – trumpet **John Thomas – trumpet **Ron Moss –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

Charts

References

External links

Chick Corea - ''My Spanish Heart'' (1976) album review by Thom Jurek, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Chick Corea - ''My Spanish Heart'' (1976) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Chick Corea - ''My Spanish Heart'' (1976, Remastered 2000 with Bonus Track) album to be listened
as stream on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

{{Authority control 1976 albums Chick Corea albums Polydor Records albums