I don’t know how this
record got into the collection.
I don’t think I’ve ever
listened to it before.
When I pulled it out, at first,
even though I was familiar with
this famous name, I couldn’t even
be sure what instrument Chick
Corea played. Was he a horn guy?
I say to myself as I place the album
onto the spindle of the turntable,
No, he was a piano guy, dummy,
and you probably bought this
album used somewhere, thinking,
this guy is famous, and I need
a jazz infusion into the collection.
Consider: I’ve listened over the
last few months to maybe 100
records, and this is only the second
jazz album I’ve pulled from the stacks.
Yes, I needed a jazz infusion,
not out of some obligation to listen
to jazz, or some liberal need
to diversify the collection, but
because I like it. Yes, I do. I like it.
And I have always been turned on
by virtuosic musicianship, it’s true.
And as I’m looking at the liner
notes, holy crap, Steve Gadd is
here, and Stanley Clarke is here,
Jean Luc-Ponty is here, Don Alias;
it’s like a who’s who of jazz fusion.
And as it plays, it absolutely smokes.
Every tune on this album cooks,
and the mid 70’s Moog synthesizer
stuff is pretty mind-blowing. Way
ahead of it’s time. Chick sounds like
a kid in a candy store with his new
keyboards, absolutely going to town.
Some of it is silly, that synthesizer
whistling as if it were a flute, but it’s
still smoking. In fact, this record
smokes so hard, I may need a cigarette.
I think everyone needs a Chick Corea
album in their collection.
Notes on the vinyl edition: My Spanish Heart, Polydor Records, 1976, black vinyl, used, mint condition.
FYI: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response for each artist. These things look like a duck, but they don’t quack like a duck. Hence: “poem-like-thing.”
michael jarmer 
Reminds me of the Herbie Hancock album I had in my now-jettisoned vinyl collection. Big name, big talent, I oughta have some of his stuff, rarely listened to it but was always blown away by it when I did.
And now an internet rabbit hole search finds a collaboration album between Corea and Hancock. Funny!
Oh, the rabbit hole. Both glorious and terrifying. But it does not surprise me that these two cats collaborated on something. Most jazz and jazz fusion is like that for me, too. I don’t reach for it often, but when I do, I thoroughly enjoy myself!