Spain, Chick Corea, solo jazz guitar
Welcome to my 475th solo guitar video on YouTube, Spain, by Chick Corea. I am really conflicted about this “arrangement“. There used to be a time when I put a lot of effort into creating sophisticated arrangements, each with its own unique voicings, fingerings and passages, sometimes reflecting their original, other times changing it completely but whatever the case, there was real time and effort involved.
Those days are pretty much gone, as I am older, caring for a family and too busy. Specifically, as it relates to Spain, this tune has been on my list for a good 20 years to try and make something special out of it, I started several times over the years only to get distracted. So on the positive side, I have a developing style, if you want to call it that, whereby I can tackle pretty much any tune end it will sound half decent. This performance is a reflection of that, it is pretty much thrown together from memory and I made no effort to make this into something unique. I'm also pretty sure I'm playing it somewhat wrong, lol. Oh well, I hope one day I will once again find the time to sit down and create meaningful arrangements. In the meantime, I hope you will somewhat enjoy this. As for why I chose to post it now: As I approach my landmark 500th arrangement video, I just wanted to get this tune on the record as “posted“, for better or worse. OK, see you next week! From Wikipedia: Spain is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is likely Corea's most recognized piece, and is considered a jazz standard.[1] Spain was composed in 1971 and appeared in its original (and most well-known) rendition on the album Light as a Feather, with performances by Corea (Rhodes electric piano), Airto Moreira (drums), Flora Purim (vocals and percussion), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Joe Farrell (flute). It has been recorded in several versions, by Corea himself as well as by other artists, including a flamenco version by Paco de Lucia, Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin in the 1980s, and a progressive bluegrass version by Bela Fleck in 1979. More recently, Corea has performed it as a duo with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara. Version by Stevie Wonder in 2008 Concert in London. The Light as a Feather version of Spain received two Grammy nominations, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Group. In 2001, Corea was awarded the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for "Spain for Sextet and Orchestra". Kindly subscribe, share, comment and please consider supporting me by purchasing my video lessons so I can continue to post weekly videos of the guitar arrangements we all love. Thanks, Jake