Chick Corea: Hear 12 essential performances

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Chick Corea, the trailblazing keyboardist and bandleader who died Tuesday at the age of 79, will forever be considered a pivotal architect of jazz-rock fusion.

It’s a fitting tribute in one line. Whether alone leading the Return to Forever collective or accompanying giants like Miles Davis (on well-known albums such as ‘In a Silent Way’ and ‘Bitches Brew’), Corea helped enrich the lexicon of jazz – bringing the harmonic language together. to add up with the heaviness (and amplification) of rock and funk. But no description, even so broad, can encompass such a boundless vision.

“After all, formal styles are just an afterthought – an outgrowth of the creative impulse,” Corea told The New York Times in 1983. “No one sits down and decides to write specifically in a predetermined style. that you synthesize. Musicians don’t care if a particular composition is jazz, pop or classical music. All they care about is whether it’s good music – whether it’s challenging and exciting. “

For over five decades, Corea has adapted its sound to follow that simple maxim – on the hunt for whims from bebop and free jazz to fusion to contemporary classical. He recorded nearly 90 albums as a band leader or co-leader. And he always prioritized melody and musicality over empty calorie showmanship (though few could match his raw skill on the Fender Rhodes).

Here are 12 of his elite studios and live performances.

Corea and Joe Zawinul form a wall of Rhodes on this devious, funky cut from Miles Davis ” Bitches Brew ‘, punctuated by John McLaughlin’s ice pick guitars and Davis’ sighing trumpet. The rhythm section is so compact that it is difficult to enjoy everything: two electric basses (Dave Holland and Harvey Brooks), two drum sets (Don Alias ​​and Jack DeJohnette) and the congas from Juma Santos. Good thing it takes 14 minutes. The keyboardists switch from question marks to exclamation marks – one moment pricking the groove, the next soloing in colorful bursts of noise. “Trust yourself,” said Corea in 2020, was Davis’s philosophy. When he says, ‘Play what you don’t hear,’ he means trust your imagination. Trust you to say, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but I’m just going to do it because it’s fun. Because I love it. “”

Corea splashes electric piano over this nine-minute monster of guitarist Larry Coryell’s “Spaces”, a pillar of early fusion. The arrangement seems to waver between structure and improvisation, straight groove and cosmic freedom. The line-up defines a supergroup: Corea and Coryell, plus John McLaughlin on guitar, Miroslav Vitouš (later from Weather Report) on upright bass and Billy Cobham on drums.

The rare fusion melody with a shelf life as a jazz standard, “Spain” remains Corea’s signature composition – covered by artists as different as Stevie Wonder and Béla Fleck. The original, from Return to Forever’s “Light as a Feather”, is untouchable: for almost 10 minutes the keyboardist’s hands wave happily across the Rhodes, its sweet melodies are matched by Flora Purim’s quiet coo and Joe Farrell’s fluttering flute. The chorus, with its clipped keyboard phrases and enthusiastic clapping hands, ranks alongside Weather Report’s main theme ‘Birdland’ as one of the most gripping moments in fusion history.

In its infancy, Return to Forever rivaled the intensity of most 70s rock bands. But it sounded positively massive on the third album, with two new recruits (the powerhouse drummer Lenny White and the guitarist Bill Connors) and Stanley Clarke switching to electric bass. The group showed their full dynamic range on this two-part part of Return to Forever’s “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy,” which started with Corea’s dreamy Rhodes theme before bursting into tightly clenched funk. Connors’ bruised guitar and Clarke’s distorted bass stray into psych rock territory – but even when the keyboardist lays back a bit, his steady chords remain the heartbeat of the ensemble.

Corea’s acoustic piano slips into lavish New Age territory on the first half of these tracks from Stanley Clarke’s “Journey to Love,” which trades fanfare with Clarke’s bowing bass and John McLaughlin’s acoustic guitar. The group nails an intense Latin groove in the second half, with McLaughlin and Corea fireworks. In the liner notes, Clarke dedicated the two-part piece to John Coltrane – and it lives up to the billing.

The definitive Return to Forever line-up – Corea, Clarke, White and the guitarist Al Di Meola – splintered after the 1976 album ‘Romantic Warrior’. But as this funky odyssey proves, they ended at a near peak. White is credited as a composer here, and his troubled drum groove certainly keeps the engine running. But “Sorceress” also finds Corea on perhaps its most versatile, keyboard-wise – weave in atmospheric pads, twisting synth leads and Latin themes on acoustic piano.

Corea has always been influenced by Latin American music and explained to Billboard in 2019 “I think that taste is mainly in everything I do”. “It’s part of me. I don’t know how to tell it apart.” But he never went deeper than on his 10th solo LP, “My Spanish Heart.” The record peaks with this four-part whiplash suite, which spans from elegant strings and brass to acoustic piano interludes to the most delicious jazz-rock rave-ups this side of Steely Dan’s “Aja”.

This mini-epic, composed by Corea for his Forever bandmate Di Meola’s debut solo album, “Land of the Midnight Sun”, makes good use of its virtuoso flash – both players sound like they could float off their instruments into the air. But there are plenty of graceful melodies packed into these five and a half minutes. Halfway through Corea slides in soft chord comping while Di Meola moves up and down the scales. Corea even gets to demonstrate his marimba skills and add extra drama to a climax.

Corea and Herbie Hancock, two of fusion’s elite keyboardists, embarked on an acoustic duo tour in 1978, and the pair, both veterans of the Miles Davis bands, surprisingly intertwine on the two live LPs that come out. those dates emerged. A highlight is a 19-minute version of “Homecoming” by “CoreaHancock”, in which their instruments were expertly combined into one organism. They go from beauty to ugliness on a dime – halfway through the piece turns into a section of guttural, percussive pounding and prepared piano madness.

Like most of the fusion giants who survived the mid-80s, Corea embraced the colors and contours of the time and formed his Elektric Band with the drummer Dave Weckl, the bassist John Patitucci and the alternating guitarists Scott Henderson and Carlos Rios. The rhythm section runs free on this neon-coated track from “The Chick Corea Electric Band”, defined by its winding, Zappa-esque rhythms and Corea’s comically clear synthesizers.

Corea stretched across “Spain” as taffy over the decades, retaining interest by reworking it for different settings and band configurations. (“By 1976 or so, I was getting tired of the song,” he told The Atlantic in 2011. “I started playing really perverse versions of it – I’d refer to it for a second, then I’d leave on an improvisation.”) of his most stunning later renditions is this live acoustic duet of “Play” with vocalist Bobby McFerrin, who breathes new life into the piece with his divine falsetto, booming bass lines and body percussion. Despite all the sublime technique, the greatest revelation is hearing these two giants in perfect symmetry on the main theme.

Corea teamed up again with vibraphonist Gary Burton for the Grammy-winning two-disc live LP “The New Crystal Silence,” built largely on reworked pieces from Corea’s old catalog. The duo worked together for decades, and the music here feels very natural and lived-in – even full Zen, as with the extended take on “Crystal Silence”. Captured in crisp, studio quality, Corea and Burton trade phrases and counterpoint patterns, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra surrounding that light-hearted conversation.

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