Secret Agent follows a by-now familiar pattern: a costume change, a re-shuffling of the cast, and a mix of songs that are individually impressive but collectively less so. The record ranges from life-some Latin jazz ("Central Park") to haunting
Vangelis-like instrumentals ("Bagatelle #4"), with
Chick Corea adding and subtracting instruments as the arrangements dictate. The steady forces behind the music include a new rhythm section (
Tom Brechtlein and fretless bassist
Bunny Brunel), familiar faces
Gayle Moran and
Joe Farrell, and a kicking horn section that gets a couple of well-deserved cameos.
Corea's keyboards are generally soft in tone here, and though that's a by-product of the instruments he chooses (Fender Rhodes, Mini-Moog), the compositions take the softness a step further by building arrangements around
Moran's airy voice (notably "Drifting") or exploring the "voices" of various instruments on a trombone/keyboard dialogue like "Mirage." Only the familiar sound of the players from song to song holds the album together; otherwise, as the aptly titled "Fickle Funk" demonstrates,
Corea isn't interested in trying the same thing twice. The good news is that this does lend itself to portable cuts -- "The Golden Dawn" (imagine a jazzier version of
Vangelis) and "Hot News Blues" (in which
Al Jarreau's voice snakes along a bittersweet melody) were made available as promotional singles, though "Glebe St. Blues" has more radio personality than either. Like
The Leprechaun and
Mad Hatter,
Secret Agent is a good sampler, but
Corea has released so much music (three records in 1978 alone, not including live dates with
Return to Forever and
Herbie Hancock issued that year) that his fans can afford to pick and choose. First investigate
My Spanish Heart,
Friends, and
RTF's
Romantic Warrior from
Corea's late-'70s catalog; then, if you're still curious, seek out
Secret Agent. ~ Dave Connolly