The Genius of Chick Corea

 by Gareth Hemmings

Chick Corea, 2018 (image by Tore Sætre)

Music is an essential ingredient in what makes us human.  This has always been true and always will be true, but has been even more pertinent over the last 12 months when enforced separation and isolation has meant that there has never been a greater need to feel the things that make us feel part of something greater.  Music does this. Music has been an essential part of my every waking second since before I can remember. My heroes have always been those who create music either in performance or through composition. Time at home has allowed the revisiting and retrospectivisation of favourite music, musicians and performances; these have formed an even greater significance as they have helped ease the passage through challenging times. Thus the loss of a performer and composer who has been such a creative influence is felt more keenly and the feeling that we have been unfairly robbed is more acute.  I would like to mark the passing (taken by cancer) of the subtle genius that is Chick Corea, on 9 February 2021.

Jazz, and indeed any improvised form of music, for me, has been the purest form of artistic expression with the performer and creator being one and the same. There are three musicians who have shaped modern jazz piano, and indeed contemporary jazz.  Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, all born between 1940 and 1945, have defined and redefined jazz throughout their careers.  As composers, performers, improvisers and artists they have transcended boundaries between musical genres and left a legacy of the most inventive and inspiring music.  All three were proteges of jazz giant Miles Davis, performing in his legendary ensembles before forging their own paths.  In October 2020 the news that Keith Jarrett, who had not played a public concert since 2018, would be unlikely ever to perform again due to two strokes leaving him paralysed on his left side, was released.  This followed shortly after the death of his long standing bass player, Gary Peacock, in September 2020, meaning that the last note from this seminal jazz trio (with drummer Jack DeJonette) has been played. The voices of two legendary musicians have been permanently muted during this global pandemic and leave a jagged hole.

I commend to you the article that Mr Mark Richardson wrote on Keith Jarrett and the legendary Koln Concert in Portsmouth Point as an introduction to his music. I would like to focus on Chick Corea and encourage you to explore some of his music.

Born near Boston in 1941 Corea (real name Armando Anthony Corea; Chick was a nickname from his aunt) showed talent at an early age and studied for a time at Columbia University and the Julliard School of Music, although professional engagements called and he left formal education for a life of learning on the road.  His breakthrough trio album, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968) brought him to the attention of Miles Davis for obvious reasons.  The energy, synergy between the three musicians on this album and shere creativity combining hard bop jazz with modality, Spanish folk influence, quartal harmony and musical virtuosity is still breathtaking some 53 years later. His collaboration with Miles Davis brought the world the amazing sounds of Bitches Brew and it is clear that this creative partnership was to shape Corea’s future music making.  Return to Forever, the band formed by Corea in 1972, picked up on the jazz-rock vibe of Bitches Brew and continued to explore this prog-rock, pyrotechnic sound world mixed with Brazilian percussive rhythms.  A founder member of the jazz-rock fusion movement, use of keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes and other synthesisers have always featured in his work and two of his smaller ensembles (the Elektrik Band and Akoustic Band) have run concurrently throughout his career.

Duo collaborations have also been an important part of Chick Corea’s work and there are three key collaborations.  With vibes player, Gary Burton, he recorded Crystal Silence 

(1972). This album, full of creative spontaneity, was recorded in the studio in just three-hours; every track but one a first take.  The life-long two-piano partnership with Herbie Hancock brought together two musicians of phenomenal virtuosity and creativity, and rather than becoming a battle ground for superiority, these concerts and recordings showed two highly sensitive artists creating exciting and fresh improvised music. 

Chick Corea’s recordings with vocalist Bobby McFerrin have, for me, been one of the most interesting aspects of his work.  The Mozart Sessions, recorded in 1996, feature Corea as piano soloist in two great Mozart Piano Concertos (K466 in D minor and K488 in A major).  Performed with the Orchestra of St Luke’, conducted by McFerrin, Corea improvises his own cadenzas subtly weaving in a fusion of various musical influences.  McFerrin and Corea also improvise their own introductions to link the works together and the album finishes with an achingly beautiful improvisation and vocalise on the slow movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata no 2 in F (K480).  It is this recording I would like to leave you with on YouTube as a 2 ½ minute distillation of Chick Corea featuring a wonderful mix of classical music with hints of Spanish (Phrygian) modality with gospel and jazz tinges.

Chick Corea’s final message, posted by his family on FaceBook shortly after his death reads:

It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself, then for the rest of us. It's not only that the world needs more artists; it's also just a lot of fun.

https://youtu.be/XvYtYZIXeno

If you would like to explore his music further, here are a few key recordings (also available on the following iTunes playlist: https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/get-to-know-chick-corea/pl.u-3BAzetNejM6 )

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (Blue Note 1968)

Bitches Brew - (as keyboard player) Miles Davis (Columbia 1970)

Return To Forever (ECM 1972)

Crystal Silence - with Gary Burton (ECM 1972)

An Evening with Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea: In Concert

Eye of the Beholder - Chick Corea Elektrik Band (GRP 1988) - not available on iTunes.

Alive - Chick Corea Akoustic Band (GRP 1991) - not available on iTunes

The Mozart Sessions (1996)- Chick Corea & Bobby McFerrin