Chick Corea
A pianist who brought the precise fingertips of classical music, the rhythms of Latin music and the velocity of bebop together on a single keyboard.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Companions ⏳🌊
- FamilyArmando Corea
A trumpeter who led Dixieland bands around Boston, he was the first to hand his son bebop records and the foundations of music.
- InfluenceBud Powell
His teenage idol, to whom he repaid a long-held reverence in 1996 with “Remembering Bud Powell.”
- MentorMiles Davis
In 1968 he called him into his band, put an electric piano in his hands, and set him at the very center of jazz's turning point.
- FamilyGayle Moran
His partner and a singer, married in 1972, she sang with Return to Forever and on several of his albums.
- ColleagueStanley Clarke
The bassist who stayed with Return to Forever from its founding to its reunion, one of the pillars of the band's sound.
- FriendshipHerbie Hancock
His predecessor in Miles's band, he shared a 1978 duo tour on two pianos.
I. The boy from Chelsea · 1941–1958 (age 0–17)
(Chelsea) He was born in June 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His given name was Armando Anthony Corea, and the name Chick is said to have come from a nickname an aunt called him as a child. His was a family of southern Italian immigrants. His father, Armando, was a trumpeter who led a Dixieland band around Boston in the 1930s and '40s; his mother was Anna. (Records) The house held the records his father had collected. Starting piano at around four, he grew up listening to the bebop records of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and learned from his father how to read music and the basics of harmony. He later recalled that his father was the first person to show him what it meant to live as a musician. (Teacher) From about the age of eight he studied with the concert pianist Salvatore Sullo, working through Beethoven and Mozart. In the same years he also played drums. He said many times that his feel for striking the piano crisply, like a percussion instrument, came from those years on the drums. (Idols) As a teenager he fell for Bud Powell's fast, solid right hand, Horace Silver's buoyant rhythms, and Thelonious Monk's twisted harmonies. From high school on he earned money playing at neighborhood functions and in clubs. The urge to hold classical precision and bebop freedom in a single hand had already taken root by then, and those two strands carried all the way to his late years, when he recorded Mozart and Bud Powell in the same period.
II. Lessons in New York · 1959–1968 (age 18–27)
(School) Around 1959 he went to New York and enrolled at Columbia University, but before long he quit; he then entered Juilliard and soon left there too. He recalled that the clubs at night, rather than the lecture hall, were the school that suited him. (Latin) The first to take him in were Latin bands. Working in the bands of conga player Mongo Santamaría and timbales player Willie Bobo, he absorbed the repeating accompaniment figures of Cuban music (montuno) and its rhythmic backbone (clave). The Latin and Spanish colors that later seeped through so much of his music were rooted in the rhythms he locked into night after night in those years. (Sideman) In the mid-1960s he passed through the bands of trumpeter Blue Mitchell and flutist Herbie Mann. In 1967 he joined Stan Getz's quartet and recorded the album “Sweet Rain.” Getz included his tunes “Litha” and “Windows” on the album, becoming an elder who recognized the young pianist's gift for composition early on. (Debut) In 1966 he recorded his first album as a leader, “Tones for Joan's Bones.” His name was slowly becoming known, but he still depended for a living on sideman fees from other people's bands. (Trio) In March 1968 he recorded the trio album “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” with Miroslav Vitouš on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. It was not a big seller, but among musicians it was talked about for years as a work that showed a new path the piano trio could take after Bill Evans. It was the first record in which the clear touch honed in classical study, the rhythm gained in Latin bands, and the vocabulary of bebop were poured into a single vessel.
The summation of his New York years, shaped by Latin bands, bebop, and classical lessons. His conversation with Vitouš and Haynes became a new grammar for the piano trio.
- “Matrix” is built on a blues form in which 12 bars make one cycle (12-bar blues), yet its angular melody and fast tempo give it an expression entirely unlike traditional blues.
- Rather than dutifully keeping the beat, Roy Haynes's drums answer the piano's statements on the spot with sharp strokes on the rim of the snare (rimshots). The three instruments cutting in on one another in a running exchange (interplay) is the heart of this album.
- Miroslav Vitouš's bass does not stay within an accompaniment that steps one note to the beat (walking bass); it weaves melodies on an equal footing with the piano.
- Corea's right hand has a percussive touch in which each note is crisply detached. Here his childhood classical lessons and his drumming can be heard together.
- It was recorded in New York over several sessions in March 1968, and the original LP held only five tracks. Later CD reissues added tracks from the same sessions.
III. Miles's electric piano · 1968–1971 (age 27–30)
(Miles) In the fall of 1968 he joined Miles Davis's band as Herbie Hancock's replacement. His first recordings were some of the tracks on “Filles de Kilimanjaro.” Miles told him to play the Fender Rhodes electric piano sitting in the studio. He recalled that at first he didn't like the sound, but he was soon drawn to the possibilities of an instrument whose tone and volume he could shape at will. (Quintet) The band of this period, with Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette, dissolved the boundaries between tunes and roamed the stages of Europe and America with unbroken improvisation. Because it left no official studio album, it later came to be called the Lost Quintet. In 1969 he took part in the recording of “In a Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew,” standing at the center of the turning point when jazz embraced rock rhythms and electric instruments. (Circle) After leaving Miles's band in 1970, he and Holland brought together Anthony Braxton on saxophone and Barry Altschul on drums to form the group Circle. It was free jazz, trading sounds without set harmonies. (Faith) Earlier, in 1968, reading L. Ron Hubbard's “Dianetics” had led him into Scientology, and he remained a believer all his life. This faith instilled in him the idea that an artist must communicate with the audience. He began to feel that Circle's music was not reaching its listeners, and in 1971 he left the group. That same year in Oslo, Norway, he recorded the solo album “Piano Improvisations” with ECM producer Manfred Eicher. It was the first record of his turn away from abstraction and back toward clear, singing melody.
A record showing that he, having first mastered the electric piano in Miles's band, was present at the very scene where jazz changed direction.
- Corea played Fender Rhodes electric piano alongside Joe Zawinul. The two electric pianos lay down hazy, ringing chords over which the other instruments drift.
- Two basses (acoustic and electric) and several drummers and percussionists repeat the same rhythmic patterns, building a solid, near-rock foundation (groove).
- Rather than set chord progressions, each piece relies on long improvisations over one or two chords or a scale (an extension of modal jazz), so that the long tracks flow as a single mass of atmosphere.
- It was recorded over three days in August 1969 at Columbia's studio in New York, and producer Teo Macero cut and spliced the tapes to complete the shape of the pieces. It is regarded as an album in which the editing itself became part of the composition.
IV. Return to Forever · 1972–1977 (age 31–36)
(Marriage) In 1972 he married the singer and pianist Gayle Moran. Moran stayed by his side for nearly half a century afterward, singing with Return to Forever and on several of his albums. (Formation) In February of the same year he assembled Return to Forever, with Stanley Clarke on bass, Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, and Flora Purim on vocals, and recorded its first album for ECM. This music, with clear melodies flowing over Brazilian rhythms, stood at the opposite pole from Circle's abstraction. That fall, with the same lineup, he recorded “Light as a Feather,” which includes “Spain,” and with vibraphonist Gary Burton he made the duo album “Crystal Silence.” He also took part, along with members of Return to Forever, in Stan Getz's “Captain Marvel.” (Transition) In 1973 the band shifted to a lineup fronted by electric guitar and synthesizers. Lenny White came in on drums, and the guitar chair passed through Bill Connors to the nineteen-year-old Al Di Meola in 1974. With a powerful sound that filled rock venues, Return to Forever joined Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra as one of the defining bands of jazz rock (fusion). (Peak) After the move to Columbia, “Romantic Warrior,” released in 1976, became the band's best-selling record. Some critics charged that he had leaned toward commercialism, but he paid little attention to questions about the boundaries of genre. The same year, with “My Spanish Heart,” he paid tribute to the Spanish music he had loved since childhood, and in 1977 he brought Return to Forever's activities to a close for the time being.
His answer, in Latin and Spanish colors, as he left Circle's abstraction behind in search of music that would reach listeners. It has since become a modern standard played by countless musicians.
- The slow introduction borrows the melody of the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo's “Concierto de Aranjuez,” opening quietly on the Fender Rhodes. The contrast as it suddenly leaps into a fast tempo creates the piece's first impression.
- In the fast theme, the electric piano and Joe Farrell's flute play the same melody together (unison), driving forward with highly intricate rhythms.
- Stanley Clarke's acoustic bass and Airto Moreira's drums push and pull over Latin rhythms, and the rhythm section serves not as mere accompaniment but as the engine that drives the piece.
- It appeared on the album “Light as a Feather,” recorded in London in the fall of 1972.
In the year he launched Return to Forever, he sat down face to face with vibraphonist Gary Burton and recorded his quietest music. The duo would endure for nearly half a century.
- There is no bass and no drums, only piano and vibraphone. Both instruments are struck like keyboards and percussive by nature, so their sounds overlap and ring out with clarity.
- Burton grips four mallets (sticks) at once to play chords, trading harmony and melody back and forth with the piano.
- At a slow tempo, the title track draws out the space between notes and the long decay of their resonance. It shows off the sonic grain of the ECM label, known for its clear, transparent recordings.
- Recorded in Oslo, Norway, in November 1972, with Manfred Eicher producing.
This is the best-selling album of the electrified Return to Forever. Within a structure borrowed from tales of medieval knights, his ambitions as a composer unfolded on their grandest scale.
- The pieces bear titles such as a medieval overture, a sorcerer, and a duel between a jester and a tyrant. Their long forms, stitched together from many sections, sound closer to chamber music than to a rock band.
- Corea uses several synthesizers to conjure a range of timbres, from wind instruments to organ. In many passages Al Di Meola's fast, precise guitar doubles his lines note for note.
- On the title track the band switches to piano, acoustic bass and acoustic guitar, striking a warm contrast within an album dominated by electric sound.
- Recorded in February 1976 at Caribou Ranch studio in Colorado.
V. Two bands · 1978–1999 (age 37–58)
(Duo) In 1978 he toured as a duo on two grand pianos with Herbie Hancock, his predecessor in Miles's band. The two were less rivals than colleagues who knew each other's sound better than anyone, and the tour survives as a live album. (Los Angeles) In the late 1970s he settled in Los Angeles and opened Mad Hatter Studios, named after his 1978 album 「The Mad Hatter」. After the success of Return to Forever, he had become a musician who could build his own recording environment. (Chamber music) In 1981 he recorded 「Three Quartets」 with Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone, Eddie Gómez on bass and Steve Gadd on drums. That November he reunited with Vitouš and Haynes to record 「Trio Music」 (released in 1982), devoting half of it to the music of Thelonious Monk. In 1984 he released on ECM 「Children's Songs」, a collection of piano miniatures he had been writing for more than a decade. (Electric) In 1986 he formed the Elektric Band with John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums, later joined by Frank Gambale on guitar and Eric Marienthal on saxophone. With the same rhythm section he also put together the Akoustic Band to play standards, moving side by side between the electric and acoustic worlds. In 1992 he founded his own label, Stretch, under the GRP umbrella, to release records by himself and his colleagues. (Homage) In the late 1990s he looked back to his roots. In 1996 he recorded Mozart piano concertos with Bobby McFerrin, and that same year paid tribute to his teenage idol with 「Remembering Bud Powell」. The Mozart he had learned as a child from Sullo and the bebop he had absorbed from records now stood side by side in a single period. In 1998 he formed the band Origin with younger players.
Returning to acoustic jazz after fusion, he wrote this work with the tight construction of a classical string quartet. It also carries a tribute to his jazz forebears.
- As the title suggests, it is built from three large pieces written with the string quartet in mind. Precomposed passages and free improvisation interlock with precision.
- The two parts of 「Quartet No. 2」 are dedicated to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane respectively. In the Coltrane part, Michael Brecker's tenor saxophone reveals that influence in fierce, dense waves of notes.
- Eddie Gómez's bass sings its way up into the high register as if bowed, while Steve Gadd's drums deliver a swing (the push and pull of dragging slightly behind the beat) that is precise yet relaxed.
VI. The unfinished performance · 2000–2021 (age 59–80)
(Reunion) He did not rest in the 2000s. In 2008 he formed the Five Peace Band with John McLaughlin, his colleague from the Miles band days, and that same year toured with Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Al Di Meola in a Return to Forever reunion. With Gary Burton he carried their long duo forward, releasing 「The New Crystal Silence」 in 2008, thirty-six years after 「Crystal Silence」. (Blue Note) In 2011, marking his seventieth birthday, he played at the Blue Note in New York for several weeks, changing lineups as he went. Old colleagues and a new generation took the stage in turn, and the recordings were later collected as 「The Musician」. (Trilogy) From around 2010 he toured the world in a piano trio with Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums. 「Trilogy」, gathering live performances from around the globe, won two Grammys. The trio path he had begun with Vitouš and Haynes in 1968 had, in effect, resumed half a century later. (Clearwater) In his final years he lived in Clearwater, in Florida's Tampa Bay area, releasing 「Antidote」 with the Spanish Heart Band in 2019 and the live solo album 「Plays」 in 2020. In 2020, when concerts came to a halt, he streamed performances and lessons online from his home. (Farewell) On February 9, 2021, he died of a rare cancer diagnosed only shortly before. He was seventy-nine. In a final message released after his death, he urged those who could play, write and perform to do so, saying the world needs more artists. At that year's Grammys he won two more awards for 「Trilogy 2」, bringing his lifetime total to well over twenty.
A live record he left from stages around the world after returning to the piano trio around the age of seventy. It shows the trio of 1968 taken up again half a century later.
- Christian McBride's bass walks the beat with weight, yet in an instant it turns into a conversational partner, trading melodies with the piano.
- Brian Blade's drums span a wide dynamic range, from the faintest whisper to explosive force, giving the same tune a different face at every concert.
- Setting well-known jazz classics (standards) alongside his own compositions, it retraces with a single trio the many paths he walked over a lifetime.
- Performances chosen from many cities were gathered onto three discs, winning Grammys for best jazz instrumental album and best improvised jazz solo.
Lesser-known stories
(Spain) The slow introduction to 「Spain」, his most famous tune, is not his own creation but a melody borrowed from the second movement of Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's 「Concierto de Aranjuez」. Miles Davis and Gil Evans had arranged the same movement on 「Sketches of Spain」 in 1960, so Corea's quotation can also be heard as a reply to his mentor's record. Because many players perform only the fast main theme, the source of the introduction has been mentioned comparatively rarely. (Germany) In 1993 the German state of Baden-Württemberg, citing his membership in Scientology, barred him from a state-sponsored concert held alongside the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart. It happened at a time when the German government was wary of Scientology, and for years afterward the U.S. State Department cited the case in its human rights reports. Music biographies usually pass over it in a line or two, yet it was a rare instance of one musician's faith reaching the diplomatic documents of nations. (Miniatures) The pieces in 「Children's Songs」 were written little by little over more than a decade before being collected on the 1984 album. The first of them was already being played around the time of 「Crystal Silence」 in 1972. He said he wanted to write music that, from simple materials, would speak to children and adults alike. In the very years he is remembered as a dazzling fusion star, he was steadily polishing piano miniatures only a few bars long.
Glossary notes 📚🔎
Fusion (jazz rock)
(Meaning) The English word fusion means melting things and joining them into one. The name came from mixing different kinds of music the way metals are melted and welded together. (In jazz) It refers to music that, from the late 1960s on, combined jazz improvisation with the driving rhythms of rock and electric instruments such as electric guitar·electric piano·synthesizer. Miles Davis's 「Bitches Brew」 is counted as the starting point, and Chick Corea's Return to Forever was one of the defining bands. Just as adding cheese to tteokbokki creates a new flavor that is neither the original dish nor a cheese dish, jazz and rock blended into a sound unlike either. (Elsewhere) In cooking, fusion means dishes that blend the cuisines of several countries; in science, it means nuclear fusion, in which atomic nuclei combine.
Free jazz
(In jazz) Jazz in which, without set chord progressions, meter or song form, the players build the music on the spot by listening and responding to one another. Ornette Coleman and others opened the way in the late 1950s, and in 1970 Chick Corea immersed himself in this approach with the group Circle. It is like making up a game on the spot with friends and a single ball, without any rules. It is fun, but onlookers may find it hard to tell what game is being played. That was precisely why Corea left Circle.
Fender Rhodes (electric piano)
(In jazz) A piano in which pressing a key makes a small hammer strike a metal tine, and that vibration is converted into electricity and sent out through a speaker. Its tone rings round and hazy like a bell, and its volume and timbre can be shaped electronically. After Miles Davis had Chick Corea play it, it became the signature sound of the fusion era. Just as the same song feels completely different sung plainly or sung into a karaoke mic with echo, the same chord takes on an entirely different mood on this instrument.
Clave
(Meaning) The Spanish word clave means key, or the keystone set at the top of an arch that holds the whole structure up. The name carries the sense of a key that holds the entire rhythm together. (In jazz) A short rhythmic pattern underlying Cuban music and Latin jazz, in which five strokes fall on specific spots within two bars. Every instrument builds its rhythm around this pattern. It is like jumping rope: the long rope must turn at a steady beat so that everyone can leap in on it. Chick Corea absorbed this feel in Latin bands as a young man. (Elsewhere) The percussion instrument of two wooden sticks used to play this rhythm is also called claves.
Rhythm section
(In jazz) The instruments that carry a band's pulse and harmonic foundation, usually the piano, bass and drums taken together. While a saxophone or trumpet solos up front, they lay down the floor from behind. In jazz, though, they do more than accompany: they also talk back to the soloist. It is like defenders and midfielders in soccer moving the ball around to set up a chance for the striker to score. Chick Corea was usually both a member of this rhythm section and the leader of the band.
Interplay
(Literal meaning) In English, inter means between or among one another, and play means play or performance. Quite literally, it is playing that passes back and forth. (In jazz) Band members shaping a performance on the spot, with nothing settled in advance, by listening to one another and answering in the moment. The piano tosses out a short phrase, the drums hit that rhythm right back, and the bass pulls in another direction. It is like playing a word-chain game with friends: you never know what the person before you will say, so you keep listening. The interplay among the three players is precisely why “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” is so highly regarded.
12-bar blues
(In jazz) A form in which twelve bars make one cycle, with three set basic chords moving in a set order. Players improvise as they go around these twelve bars again and again, and each cycle is called a chorus. Since every jazz musician knows the form, even people meeting for the first time can play together right away. It is like a running track: one lap is a fixed distance, so anyone can run together, yet each runner has a style of their own. Chick Corea's “Matrix” is built on this form as well.
Standard
(In jazz) A well-known tune that many players have performed over and over. Many began as songs from Broadway musicals or films, but a piece written by a jazz musician also becomes a standard once it is played widely enough. Chick Corea's “Spain” is one such example. Just as each class at school might arrange a song everyone knows in its own way for a choir contest, each player interprets the same tune in their own fashion. (Elsewhere) In everyday use it means a norm or benchmark, referring to a standard specification or a basic model of a product.