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Nothing beats the awesome cheese factor of this albums from cover, yet it speaks volumes. It's exactly how I would imagen what the music would sound like when I look at this album cover. I remember buying this album because of the samples I had heard from this very website. The opening track, Imp's Welcome, got me hooked. I love that synth so much and yes it may sound a bit too fairy like for most people but this is the 70's. It was all about experimentation with new sounds in jazz. After the awesome opening track we get a more standard stylized track with Lenore. It has some very beautiful piano melodies and it's groovy as ever! It's probably my favourite track on the album. The thing that keeps my rating from going up is the vocals. I'm never to much of a fan of singing mixed with fusion jazz like this. It just makes it sound too scripted and less improv sounding. So tracks like Looking at the World make me just want to skip it. Thankfully not the whole album has singing in it. As for funk, Nite Sprite is one of the funkiest tracks I ever heard. The fade in at the start with the quick keys is awesome. The quick paced drums and shuffled bass makes this track very fast and there is a comment from user 'dial35' about Steve Gadd using all 8 of his arms for the drumming on this track. It's true. He has 8 arms...or at least it sounds like it.
Side B is just as good as the other side. Even though there's vocals on Soft and Gentle it's fairly good with the violin and viola breaks. It's a strong track and I could see this one being a favourite among many that own this album. Pixiland Rag is a short 1 minute piece and it's no surprise Chick would title ragtime track as such. It does have a ragtime sound to it but it's gentle and nothing too special. Almost laughable. The final track, Leprchaun's Dream, is over 13 minutes and tells a tale for sure. It sounds like it came from some sci-fi movie as well. This is the track where the horns are most prevalent. The song cascades from shimmering tones to uplifting notes. It's an awesome track and a great way to end this odd tale of short green men.
I haven't rated this album too high but I've listened to it a lot because it's fairly different, even for fusion, and it tells a story pretty well. I may not be on the same planet this story was told from but it still a nice tale. This is probably one of the weirdest jazz albums I own and I often try and duplicate the funny poses Chick is doing on the back cover....just too crazy funny.
Credits:
Producer, Piano, Keyboards, Organ, Synthesizer, Percussion - Chick Corea
Reeds - Joe Farrell
Trombone - Bill Watrous, Wayne Andre
Trumpet - Danny Cahn, John Gatchell, Bob Milikan
Viola - Louise Shulman
Violin - Annie Kavafian, Ida Kavafian
Vocals - Gayle Moran
Bass - Anthony Jackson, Eddie Gomez
Cello - Fred Sherry
Drums - Steve Gadd
7/10
