Chick Corea

[Joseph K]

Just seen the news on facebook. He's passed away from a rare form of cancer.

[Bryn]

Just seen the news on facebook. He's passed away from a rare form of cancer.

Sad loss, and not only to jazz. One of my favourite Mozart albums:

[Tenor Freak]

Just seen this on the Twitter as well. RIP Chick.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Rolling Stone ...

"Chick Corea, the virtuosic keyboardist who broadened the scope of jazz during a career spanning more than five decades, died on Tuesday from a rare form of cancer. A post on his Facebook page confirmed the news. Corea was 79.

In the early Sixties, Corea established himself as an A-list pianist, working with Stan Getz, Herbie Mann, and others. Later in the decade, he joined Miles Davis’ band and played a key role in helping the trumpeter make the transition to a more contemporary, plugged-in sound on albums like Bitches Brew. Following his work with Davis, he formed his own groundbreaking electric band, Return to Forever, which played some of the most vibrant and dynamic music of the fusion era. In the ensuing decades, Corea threw himself into countless projects, showing off his limitless range — from a duo with vibraphonist Gary Burton to his trendsetting Elektric Band. His most recent album, the 2020 live solo disc Plays, showed off his wildly diverse skill set and body of influences, touching on classical pieces, bebop, and more.

“What making music for people does, I’ve observed, is it stimulates what’s natural in all of us,” Corea told Jazz Times in 2020. “It’s native sense, in every person. You don’t have to be a professional anything — all you need to do is be a living human being, and open to the play of imagination.”

RIP.

[Stunsworth]

Really sad news. I’ll be playing some music of his tomorrow.

[oddoneout]

His music was played on a lunchtime concert this week - Tuesday

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000g4bn

[Dave2002]

Very sad. I first heard of him in a record shop a very long while ago - and was quite smitten with what I heard.

A sad loss.

[richardfinegold]

I saw him in Concert with Gary Burton. They played most of their Crystal Silence lp. Very memorable, probably around 1978. My roommate brother was a jazz pianist who was called in to sub for him at the last minute before a gig with a quartet that featured Burton. I got to meet Burton backstage. RIP

[burning dog]

Great and versatile musician RIP

Its a shame, but not totally unexpected that the Rolling Stone magazine doesn't mention the band Circle, which recorded between his stint with Davis and Return to Forever

Possibly my favourite piano trio with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes

[frankbridge]

Very sad news. I shall play the recording on Decca Argo "First and Foremost" with Chick Corea's 'Children's Songs' in his memory. (443 903-2ZH)

RIP Chick

[Jazzrook]

Very sad news.
Will be playing his great 1981 'Live in Montreux' album with Joe Henderson, Gary Peacock & Roy Haynes:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=SZ5L_Ykl9ks

JR

[Joseph K]

Very sad news.
Will be playing his great 1981 'Live in Montreux' album with Joe Henderson, Gary Peacock & Roy Haynes:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=SZ5L_Ykl9ks

JR

I vaguely remember coming across this album ... thanks for the reminder.

As for me, I've been spinning cuts from Light as a Feather, as well as this incredible double-album:

[cloughie]

Another jazz talent gone!
RIP Chick

[eighthobstruction]

....returning to forever....

[Serial_Apologist]

....returning to forever....

I love it!

Burning Dog is right to mention Circle - in my view Chick's most creatively adventurous unit in which he and Dave Holland were able to extend beyond the appropriate for Miles's unit while at the same time re-affirming a non-electric context for the purpose - which was and is interesting - joined first by Barry Altschul - l/t associate of Paul Bley (the trio rehearsed in Annette Peacock's kitchen!) and then Anthony Braxton.

The open road of Circle led musically from a Neffertiti that progressively severed the bonds of its already loose changes, taking some of us by the hand into that free territory that had seemed up to then a personal barrier, and finally into musical terrain closer to the worlds of Boulez and Stockhausen. That double LP, the one with the yellow gatefold cover of the Paris concert in 1971, is the one for me: where (one wonders) will one find an audience of what must have been that size, so up there and insatiable for this music, today? The European connection was there: Corea as part of a larger aggregation at that time, led by John Surman, with John Taylor on another keyboard. And there were those two LPs of solo improvisations for ECM. contemporary with Jarrett's "Facing You", and offering another, different way forward - or several. The eventual option, soon taken, was a step back into more limited idiomatic means, with Return To Forever, Chick's quest to re-connect his Latin roots in a contemporary guise. I never personally felt Corea's work on electronic keyboards as a progression in terms of exploring sonority and new combinations the way Herbie's was and Jarrett's might have been; it has been said that Miles had told his new protégé "Acoustic piano is Beethoven" whenever the temptation presented in the presence of onstage grand when on tour, and it was the finesse of classical technique that Chick best manifest his innermost gifts, as recalled in that extraordinary solo concert at the Royal Festival Hall in March '93, introduced on Radio 3 by Brian Morton, and including an interview with the latter. Chick played magnificently, influenza notwithstanding, drawing together all those influences past and present, far and wide, and it was the one time I enjoyed the one tune of his I had never taken to, "Spain", as Chick, at his most playful, led that audience through a teasing closer of calls and responses and, yes, handclaps.