"Spain" by Return to Forever from the album Light as a Feather. 1972.
In honor of Spain's win at the World Cup today, this week's spotlight will shine on the aptly named "Spain" (though personally I was pulling for the Dutch). This jazzy samba first reached my ears when my high school jazz band performed it, and its hand-clapping "chorus," as I suppose you could call it, won me over.
It's Chick Corea's most well known composition; he first recorded it with his new band Return to Forever, but it has since been re-recorded and covered to the point of becoming a jazz standard. It kicks off with a sample of the 1939 Adagio segment of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez before blasting into the up-tempo "chorus" I mentioned that becomes the motif of the song. After that the instrumentalists takes turns creating some masterful improvisations. The original recording almost hits the ten-minute mark, but listening to it sure doesn't feel so.
I'd also like to point out Al Jarreau's 1980 cover version. While I'm not sure if he wrote the lyrics (I think he did, can't confirm it), there indeed is a singing part that rides alongside the instruments. Can't say I prefer it over Corea's original, but it adds a nice new flavor just the same.
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