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RIP Chick Corea


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At a shockingly sad moment like this, I'm eternally grateful that recording was invented so the music artists make can live on. He left a major body of work that will continue to be enjoyed by anyone who loves music.
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I"m very sad yet thankful for all that Chick has given to us. Every note I play is influenced by Chick. His ability to connect with listeners through recorded medium and live performances was elite. Such a large reach psychically, emotionally, and musically from the same piano keys that we play. His ability to connect through albums was striking to me until I saw him live and learned how powerfully he connected with the audience. It"s hard for me to understand that he"s gone.

RIP

Chris

Main gear: Yamaha C7, Kronos 2 88, Moog Sub 37, CK61,  Kurzweil PC2x, Pearl epro, Mac/Logic/AUs

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Oh no !

 

That´s a unexpected big loss !

 

Chick is still one of my idols beneath Joe Z and Herbie,- and will ever be !

 

Tunes like "Song to he Pharoah Kings" from "Return to Forever", "Lenore" and "Looking at the world" from "The Leprechaun" and "King Cockroach" from "Electric Band" albums are what I use to keep my fingers and brain busy in my age.

I always loved Chick´s creative output, precise timing and phrasing.

 

R.I.P. my hero

 

:cry:

 

A.C.

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I once spoke to a pianist who had a long-term solo gig at the Las Vegas airport, which he said was every bad cliché of the lame corporate gig. He once got called onto the carpet for violating their very strict policy of not letting anyone else play the piano on his watch. The pianist he had allowed to sit in for a tune? Chick.
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Oh man. So sorry to hear this. While he was popular long before my time, he influenced much of the music I know and love.

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Oddly, I'd been watching his recent flurry of albums wondering if he was in failing health and trying to get as many things done at the last minute as possible. I saw today that he had cancer, discovered "recently," but that's a relative term, so perhaps my suspicions were correct.

 

That said, I saw Chick twice, the first time being entirely accidental in that I was desperate for something to entice a young lady out on a date. It turned out that it was Return to Forever on their Romantic Warrior tour, and that evening shook my world (though sadly, not with the young lady in question...I, like a cad, ignored her the entire evening, totally riveted by the music). RTF was a completely shattering experience for me. Prior to that I'd only been dimly aware of fusion jazz. Post RTF...big fan.

 

Damn, this hit me hard. Even though I'd been wondering about his health, getting a text from my oldest step-daughter about it completely took the wind out of my sails.

 

All I can say is that the man was a giant in my estimation, and I'll miss him. He was the sort of guy I've always said should receive special dispensation to live, like, I don't know...maybe two or three hundred years? At least? We need more like him around and they need to stay around longer. Seventy-nine years sure isn't long enough.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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Rick Beato did a nice livestream today if you guys want to commiserate a little bit and listen to some of the hits we all know and love. I found it cathartic and watched with my wife.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

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Many years ago I was called in to tech a Chick performance in Sacramento. The instrument was a Yamaha concert grand and I was told Chick would be in a few hours before the concert to check it out. Once he arrived we had a chance to visit and discuss what he wanted out of the piano, he was so sweet and genuine, a true gentle-man. I tried not to act as though I was his biggest fan, but it was difficult not to be totally awestruck by the physical presence of such an important musical hero of mine.

 

I'm heart broken, thanks for everything Chick.

Peace

 

 

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This is absolutely devastating. And very unexpected, he seemed to be in such good health and great spirits. :( :(

 

The LEGACY is just incredible, though. Almost 60 years of incredible jazz music - including his sideman appearances! Incredibly, you can almost immediately tell that it's Chick even on those early Blue Mitchell Blue Notes. Or the title tune and "Litha" on Tones For Joan's Bones only a couple of years later.

 

- -

 

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. The solo on "Matrix". The interplay with Vitous and Haynes. Unbelievable.

 

Miles' electric group with Wayne, Dave Holland and DeJohnette.

 

Return To Forever (the Airto / Flora group). Light As A Feather, with "500 Miles High", "Spain" - those Rhodes solos on those albums are just masterclasses.

 

The Gary Burton Duo. The tune "Crystal Silence".

 

The Stanley Clarke collab RTF group. All those fusion albums, like Where Have I Known You Before or especially No Mystery with the title tune.

 

The 70's solo albums: The Leprechaun, Mad Hatter, My Spanish Fantasy, even Secret Agent is superb. The writing and arrangements on those albums, man!

 

Three Quartets with Brecker etc.

 

Freakin' FRIENDS from 1978. With Gadd, Joe Farrell etc. "Samba Song", "Cappucino", "The One Step", "Waltse For Dave", the title tune, "Sicily" - they're all masterpieces!

 

The Elektric Band. All those albums are great, if you get past the DX7 madness. Tunes like "King Cockroach" or "Eternal Child" on Eye Of The Beholder.

 

The solo acoustic piano album Expressions from 1994 on GRP.

 

The New Trio with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard. Love tunes like "Fingerprints"!

 

The Origin Sextet, with the album Change (1999). Love the tunes and arrangements here, like "Wigwam"!

 

Gary Burton's album Like Minds (1998) is incredible! With Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland. I think they won a Grammy for this one.

 

 

Oddly, I'd been watching his recent flurry of albums wondering if he was in failing health and trying to get as many things done at the last minute as possible. I saw today that he had cancer, discovered "recently," but that's a relative term, so perhaps my suspicions were correct.

 

 

That might be, but I'm not sure if that's entirely the case - he seemed to also have an incredible creative power, and was constantly recording AND touring. He was also still composing, I think his last new album, Antidote (an unfortunately ironic title...) came out in 2019. I think that's just how he was.

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I was fortunate to have seen Chick several times in recent years with McBride & Blade and with the Corea/Gadd band. Ever time, he radiated an incandescent joy. You couldn"t help but feel lifted.

 

Looking back through iPhone photos and video, this might be my favorite. It"s from June 2016 at the Rochester jazz fest. Joey Alexander, then 13, opened for Chick with his own trio. For Chick"s encore, he brought Joey out to share the piano for Spain. It was a wonderful moment of generations together.

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We lost Chick .... RIP Conquistador, my friend and mentor Larry Bluth and Chick were at Berklee Music College in Boston at the same time, same classes, recitals, same years, both hung out in the lounge ...both exactly the same age .. both gone now.. both left a great legacy and very different players. ðð Jazz lives on... with sadness and joy and is as 'American As It Gets' ...Politics ain't got nothin on it! Nothin! ZIP! A sad day, be thankful we had him! Larry had said in the 60's, when they were both their and acquaintances, Chick was steeped in Bud Powell!

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That might be, but I'm not sure if that's entirely the case - he seemed to also have an incredible creative power, and was constantly recording AND touring. He was also still composing, I think his last new album, Antidote (an unfortunately ironic title...) came out in 2019. I think that's just how he was.

And teaching. He was one of the first to get into online teaching and really seemed to jump into it with the pandemic. I was getting ads for his online courses late last year, and I get the impression he had no idea he was ill at that point.

 

My first introduction to him was probably the Elektric Band in the late 80s or early 90s. As I moved away from fusion into more traditional acoustic jazz, I didn't listen to Chick as much. But right now I'm spinning Now He Sings and going, "why didn't I 'get this' sooner?" Duh. Amazing record.

 

I only saw him live once. It was him solo piano, and it was amazing. There was a point in those shows where he'd get an audience member to join him up on stage and play with him. Who gets up there? Bobby Lyle. Talk about a ringer! :laugh: I don't think Chick realized who it was at first and was like, "this dude can play!"

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Chick Corea is a legend, but not someone I'd call one of my great musical influences... so I was surprised just how hard the news hit me yesterday. Part of it is just the time we're living in, but also, I had some very crucial, formative experiences learning and listening to his music (especially the Light as a Feather record) during my high school jazz band years. We're all lucky to have been alive at the same time as such a creative force.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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I never got to see Chick in person ): Back in the early 80s I had tickets to see RTF for a Sunday show. I was playing with a club band, three to six nights a week. The next gig was to start on a Tuesday, so I had that Sunday off. On Saturday the band leader told us last minute that we lost next week's gig but he was able to get another gig they needed us to start next day, Sunday. I was so upset, I went behind his back and called hotel, why we needed to start on a Sunday. Once my band leader heard what I did, I almost lost my gig, but I was beside myself.

 

I ended up giving tickets to a friend who recorded the concert on cassette. Hearing it just made me madder. Damn :taz:

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Many, Many Tributes pouring in. I particularly like this Beautiful one from Joey Calderazzo.

 

I first met Chick in 1987 while touring with Michael Brecker. He was so supportive and encouraging when we met. Over the years it was always the same. Supportive and encouraging! I can see from looking at posts from other fellow pianists he was the same with them as well.

 

I remember Chick calling me personally when he wanted to sign me to his label (stretch records). I was 24 years old and Chick was on the phone with me..My career could have ended that day and would have been a huge success in my eyes!

 

Over the years I would see him on the road.We would sit at the piano and trade ideas.I always liked his more!. He taught me a few fingerings that I still use to this day. Fingerings for chromatic scales and playing a scale with two hands.

 

He always had time for me and that meant the world to me. If I emailed him, he would normally respond in under 15 minutes. I was always amazed by this. He wanted me to send him pictures of my son. He wanted to hear my new songs or my new records.

 

He did this with many. We were all special to him. I could go on and on but the most important thing about Chick is this.

 

This was fun for him. He was like a child with a toy.Music was his toy. He loved playing more than anyone I ever met. He was one of the most creative guys with incredible skill, but it was fun for him.

 

He would write to me all the time while we were on the road. he would say can you believe we get paid for doing this. The last time he wrote that was last year before Covid.

 

I will miss him. He has meant so much to all of us. I love you Chick,thanks for being so kind to me all these years.

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Heartbroken. Such a genius and yet humble. I heard him several times and met him in the 1980's in Atlanta when I was in college. He played his usual brilliant self, and at the end of the show I met him and noticed he had a splint on his left hand. I asked him what happened and he said he jammed his finger playing basketball that afternoon. I scolded him appropriately!
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Besides of course being a genius virtuoso, I have been always amazed how Chick could change stylistic gears so seamlessly . Acoustic piano, Rhodes, synth, straight ahead jazz, Latin jazz, rock/funk fusion, he could do it all! To me it never felt like he was changing styles just to be current, I always could hear the pure joy in his music.
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Besides of course being a genius virtuoso, I have been always amazed how Chick could change stylistic gears so seamlessly . Acoustic piano, Rhodes, synth, straight ahead jazz, Latin jazz, rock/funk fusion, he could do it all! To me it never felt like he was changing styles just to be current, I always could hear the pure joy in his music.

 

Exactly - and also to do all this at, like, 75. He was always juggling multiple tours with all kinds of different groups. Pretty much up until COVID hit. A week with the Akoustic Band, then a new trio, then the Elektric Band, a duo with Bela Fleck, then a duo with Gary Burton, then recording a new album with Steve Gadd or someone like that etc etc.

 

Please share more tributes if you can, for us not on any social media (anymore).

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How sad. My first time seeing Chick Corea live was in the early eighties with the original Return to Forever. It was an ear opening experience. Such a talented musician and what seemed like a down to earth, nice person. He will be missed. R.I.P. Chick Corea.

Wm. David McMahan

I Play, Therefore I Am

 

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The first time I saw him live was with the first incarnation of the Elecktric band as a trio.

Silver Temple just blew the doors off the tiny club with the Iowa Pubic Television recording truck outside capturing it all.

 

The last time I saw him was 25 years later at Yoshi's with Eric, Dave, Frank and Victor Wooten who nailed those famous unison lines.

Such a sudden loss! RIP Chick.

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

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