Chick Corea, the virtuoso 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 years old.
In the early 1960s, Corea established himself as a first-rate 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 transition to a more contemporary sound and plugged into albums like Bitches Brew. Following his work with Davis, he formed his own innovative electric band, Return to Forever, which played some of the most vibrant and dynamic music of the fusion era. In the following decades, Corea devoted himself to numerous projects, showing his unlimited range – from a duo with vibraphonist Gary Burton to his innovative Elektric Band. Her most recent album, the 2020 live solo disc Play, showed his diverse set of skills and his body of influences, playing classical pieces, bebop and much more.
“I want to thank all those along my journey who helped keep the music going,” said a message from the pianist on Facebook. “It is my hope that those who have a vague idea of playing, writing, acting or not, will do so. If not for you, then for the rest of us. The world not only needs more artists, but also a lot of fun.
“And for my incredible musician friends, who have been my family since I met them: it was a blessing and an honor to learn and play with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done it with all the artists that I admire so much – this has been the richness of my life. “
Born in 1941, Corea grew up near Boston. His father, a Dixieland-style jazz trumpeter, introduced him to the piano. Corea also played drums at an early age. He was going to study briefly at Columbia and Juilliard, but soon left school and started playing with established bandleaders like Getz, Mann and Blue Mitchell. By the late 1960s, he was already making strong statements as a band leader, including 1968 Now he sings, now he sobs, an album with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes who set a new benchmark for the modern jazz piano trio.
His work with Davis started with a transition band known as the Lost Quintet, since he never made a suitable studio album. “It was a really bad son of a bitch,” Davis once said of the group, which merged Davis ‘daring postbop and Davis’ bold and free improvisation on the electric piano, an instrument of which he was initially skeptical. Corea would continue to appear on key Davis albums, such as In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and In the corner.
Corea formed Return to Forever in 1972, and the band’s second version – with bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors, later replaced by Al Di Meola – became a leading group in the jazz-rock movement of the time, along with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Weather Report. The group would be extremely influential not only in the world of jazz, but also among rock artists, including members of Bad Brains and Vernon Reid of Living Color.
“The hair on my arm stood on end,” Corea recalled when he wrote an article for the 1973 classic for Return to Forever Anthem of the Seventh Galaxy. “It was so exciting and it worked so well and everyone was very excited about it. It really established a new direction and developed from there. The places where we played were bigger and the audience got the vibe. There was a synergy between what we were creating and how the audience was enjoying it. “
Although he established himself early in his career as a virtuosic musician, Corea was also a tirelessly inventive lead singer-songwriter who never shied away from new ideas. He explored avant-garde jazz with the collective group Circle; upbeat material with Latin influence on the album My Spanish Heart; the songbook Thelonious Monk with the Now he sings trio; and dancing and informed pop sounds with the Elektric Band; along with tributes to his musical heroes, from Mozart to the bebop legend Bud Powell.
“Corea changed the landscape,” Reid wrote on Twitter while news of Corea’s death circulated. “Many levels. He (and Herbie Hancock) did Fender Rhodes LEGIT in Jazz. He literally dominated ALL schools. He went there. Just an AMAZING musician. “
“What making music for people does, I have observed, is to encourage what is natural in all of us,” said Corea Jazz Times in 2020. “It is native, in each person. You don’t have to be professional at all – all you have to do is be a human being alive and open to the game of the imagination. “