Remembering Chick Corea

It is with profound sadness that we recognize the passing of
legendary jazz keyboardist, composer, and bandleader Armando Anthony “Chick”
Corea. A 23-time Grammy Award winner, Chick’s wide-ranging career is laden with
universally acclaimed solo projects, genre-defining jazz-rock explorations, and
legendary collaborations with the likes of Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Béla Fleck, and
Paco de Lucía. Mr. Corea is easily one of the most adventurous musicians who
has ever graced our planet and is indisputably among the most important jazz
keyboardists of the modern era.

Chick’s career began in the early 1960s. By the late 1960s,
he began releasing his first solo material, including the hyperkinetic acoustic
piano trio masterpiece, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. Replete with slapdash
chord clusters and ear-tickling melodic runs, this album offered an exciting
glimpse of where jazz was heading. As a part of Miles Davis’s band, Chick
played a vital role in the birth of jazz fusion, infusing landmark albums like In
a Silent Way and Bitches Brew with his eclectic, harmonically
inventive electric-piano riffs.

After a brief stint with the avant-garde jazz trio Circle,
Chick formed his own group, Return to Forever. Boasting a less experimental
style than his previous work, Return to Forever’s first two albums, Return
to Forever and Light as a Feather, were born of Chick’s desire to
form a better emotional connection with his audience. Later incarnations of RTF
headed in a more Mahavishnu-esque, jazz-rock direction, releasing such
indispensable fusion classics as the haunting yet eminently groove-fueled Hymn
of the Seventh Galaxy and the group’s top-selling album, the timeless Romantic
Warrior.

Chick’s later projects included the Chick Corea Elektric
Band, the Chick Corea Akoustic Band, Chick Corea & Origin, the Chick Corea
New Trio, and Chick Corea & The Vigil. He continued to release solo
material, which consisted of jazz fusion and contemporary classical
compositions. Throughout the latter part of his career, Chick collaborated
regularly with the industry’s top musicians. In fact, he celebrated his 75th
birthday by performing with more than 20 different groups during a 6-week stint
at New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club.

Chick passed away at his Tampa Bay home and is survived by
his wife, Gayle Moran, his son, Thaddeus, his daughter, Liane, and two
grandchildren. He was 79. This is truly a sad time — the music community has
lost one of its greatest creative pioneers.
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