Chick Corea: an appreciation of one of jazz’s great musicians

When Chick Corea died unexpectedly from a rare form of cancer on 9 February, he left a recorded legacy whose musical breadth was greater than most creative artists might have achieved in two or even three lifetimes. More than any other musician in the western world, he had mastered such a wide range of musical genres that at times it seemed almost impossible that one man could have achieved so much.

Although the coronavirus crisis curtailed his touring in 2020, he had shown no sign or desire to slow down – after all, he had celebrated his 75th birthday in 2016 by playing every night during a six-week residency at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City with more than 20 different groups. "I pretty well ignore the numbers that make up ‘age’”, he said. “It seems to be the best way to go. I have always just concentrated on having the most fun I can with the adventure of music.”

“Post-Davis, his career was one of conspicuous overachievement”

And what an adventure it was. There is a moment on the Mike Dibb documentary The Art of Improvisation, featuring Keith Jarrett, that shows both Jarrett and Chick Corea recording Mozart’s 'Double Piano Concerto'. Jarrett is all intensity and concentration, with an assistant to turn the music manuscript pages for him. In contrast, Corea cuts a relaxed, smiling figure – the complexity of the music seems incidental to him as he acquits himself with seeming effortless skill, casually turning the manuscript pages himself while playing. Their performance together was exemplary, earning high praise from within the hallowed corridors of the classical music establishment, yet for Corea, it was one more fun experience in his remarkable odyssey through music.

So what drove him to such prodigious levels of creativity? In 2001, he reflected on what music meant to him: “You know, now that I’m older and more mature [laughs] I can easily observe a simplicity which is: music is music – doesn’t matter the form – it either communicates and touches the listener or it doesn’t. And when I say ‘music’ I mean the musicians and artists who make the music. Music and the arts are what we have as a culture here on Earth – they’re one of the only activities that can remind us all of our basic nature – our native state of being. I believe that we are all basically aesthetic beings so the music and the arts can always reach that positive and true part of any person because it’s native to him – it’s the real being – and it can bring us all together.”

A life at the piano

Chick Corea was born in 1941 and initially studied piano under his father, a Boston bandleader, who quickly realised his son was enormously gifted. When he was ready, he auditioned with Salvatore Sullo, a concert pianist with the world-renowned Boston Pops Orchestra, at the time under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. This was a big deal. Busy concert pianists do not take on students just to help them get through their grade exams. Getting through their front door is major a challenge – a student must come highly recommended and demonstrate the kind of promise worthy of the maestro’s attention. Corea studied for several years under Sullo and passed his entrance exams at Juilliard in 1960.

While he may have signed on at Juilliard, he promptly dropped out to establish his reputation in jazz, playing with Cab Calloway, Mongo Santamaria, Herbie Mann, Blue Mitchell, Stan Getz (that produced 1967’s Sweet Rain containing Corea’s ‘Windows’, now a jazz standard) and Sarah Vaughan that famously led to a call from Miles Davis (1968-70). But even playing in the ensembles of others he found time to record under his own name, including Tones for Joan’s Bones and Now He Sings Now He Sobs, both from 1968, the latter a bona fide classic with Miroslav Vitous on bass and Roy Haynes on drums, and the Is sessions on Blue Note in 1969. With Davis, he appeared on classics such as Bitches Brew, and while a member of Davis’ “Lost Quintet” of 1969-70, he developed an interest in exploring the 20th century atonal movement alongside bassist Dave Holland.

Post-Davis, his career was one of conspicuous overachievement, initially embracing the avant garde with bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul on A.R.C. that suggested he had absorbed Cecil Taylor, and with Circle, again with Holland, that showed the influence of Paul Hindemith and the Spanish composer Fredrico Mompou. His early association with the Munich based ECM label – A.R.C was the ninth album released by the label, his Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 the 14th album, while Circle was the 18th – allowed him develop a number of interests, most notably Return To Forever, the 22nd ECM release, a volte-face from free jazz and atonalism to graceful Spanish influenced melodies and samba rhythms.

The move was inspired by his Scientology beliefs that held that interactions in life are a series of 'games' in which the object is to extract joy – a maxim that served him well. To keep the core of the RTF band together – initially jobs for the group were scarce – Corea took Stanley Clarke on bass, Airto Moreira on percussion and drummer Tony Williams with him to tour with Stan Getz. This was a challenging rhythm section, but Getz loved it, recording Captain Marvel at his own expense in March 1972, allowing Corea to testbed his compositions ‘Five Hundred Miles High’ and ‘Captain Marvel’ that later appeared on RTF’s Light As A Feather.

A new direction

After seeing John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, another change in direction followed as Return to Forever embraced the jazz-rock explosion, with fleet fingered guitarist Bill Connors, followed by Al Di Meola, propelling Corea towards superstardom and stadium rock audiences. RTF’s music was inspired by parallel happenings in Prog rock – the distance from Corea’s Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy to Yes’ Tales from Topographic Oceans was not great, neither was Romantic Warrior’s ‘Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant’ from Rick Wakeman’s King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When Corea came off the road, he was out again touring with Herbie Hancock performing duets, while his collaboration with vibist Gary Burton, that began with the album Crystal Silence in 1973, announced an enduring forty year Grammy winning collaboration that saw them touring together annually most years. Also in the 1970s came a series of special, often esoteric, projects with Polydor – a unique deal since he was contracted to Columbia – that produced The Leprechaun, My Spanish Heart, the latter the best remembered of his Polydor recordings (1976), plus Mad Hatter, Secret Agent and Friends.

Corea returned to terra firma with Three Quartets in 1981. With Mike Brecker, Eddie Gomez and Steve Gadd, it numbers among the great jazz recordings, while the solo Children’s Songs (ECM) from 1984 presented a series of aphoristic reflections that evoked comparisons with Bartók’s Mikrokosmos and Kurtág’s Játékok series. Interestingly, song ‘No 3’ had originally appeared on RTF’s Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy as ‘Space Circus (Part 1)’. In 1982 Corea reunited his successful Now He Sings trio with Vitous and Haynes on Trio Music in 1982, with Trio Music: Live in Europe coming in 1984. A recording contract with GRP in 1986 saw Corea focus on two bands, his Akoustic Trio, with John Patitucci and Dave Weckl, and his Elektric band with the addition of Frank Gambale on guitar and Eric Marienthal on saxes. Those who form their jazz aesthetic from the pages of the Penguin Guide and the All Music guides, rather than making their own minds up, will find the response to these bands was somewhat uneven. The Elektric Band operated at a high level of musicianship, with breathtaking, discursive ensemble passages and killer solos, but were somewhat one dimensional in their relentlessness, while the Akoustic Band (a trio) only made two albums for GRP, but landed a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Chick Corea Akoustic Band which contained sublime moments but was later eclipsed by Alive.

Non-stop creativity

Corea’s musical trajectory continued its breathless pace with as he headed towards the new millennium – the Remembering Bud Powell group produced an eponymous album, followed by the group Origin using several members of bassist Avishai Cohen’s band, documented on Change and Live at the Blue Note. The Elektric Band’s To The Stars (2004) and The Ultimate Adventure (2006) were dedicated to L Ron Hubbard, an association that caused minor controversy but failed to diminish his standing in music. In 2008 came the Five Peace Band with John McLaughlin that toured extensively and produced a Grammy winning live album. Various permutations of all star trios toured in the millennium years, his most recent with Christian McBride and Brian Blade that produced the acclaimed Trilogy series.

His exhausting schedule continued year after year, in more recent years adding touring with banjo player Béla Fleck to his itinerary, but one of his final recordings, the solo Plays, a live double CD set released last year, Corea gracefully elides Mozart into Gershwin, plays Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Minor, doffs his cap to Bill Evans, moves from Scriabin to Monk, plays Stevie Wonder, spontaneously improvises two portraits of members of his audience, plays two improvised duets with different pianists and winds-up playing eight of his Children’s Songs. Nowhere else on record is the breadth of Corea’s musical horizon been better illustrated, and perhaps this album provides a suitable epitaph for one of jazz’s great musicians.

This article originally appeared in the April 2021 issue of Jazzwise. Never miss an issue - subscribe today