Chick Corea

Corea began his career in the early 1960s with Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, and Stan Getz. He released his debut album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966. Two years later he released a trio album, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous.

In 1968, Corea read Dianetics, science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard's most well known self-help book, and in the early-1970s developed an interest in Hubbard's science fiction novels.

Holland and Corea left to form their own group, Circle, active in 1970 and 1971. This free jazz group featured multi-reed player Anthony Braxton and drummer Barry Altschul. This band was recorded on Blue Note and ECM. Aside from soloing in an atonal style, Corea sometimes reached into the body of the piano and plucked the strings. In 1971 or 1972 Corea struck out on his own. In April 1971 he recorded the sessions that became Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 and Piano Improvisations Vol. 2 for ECM.

In 1976, he issued My Spanish Heart, influenced by Latin American music and featuring vocalist Gayle Moran (Corea's wife) and electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. The album combined jazz and flamenco, supported by Minimoog backup and a horn section.

Toward the end of the 1970s, Corea embarked on a series of concerts and two albums with Hancock. These concerts were presented in elegant settings with both pianists dressed formally and performing on Yamaha concert grand pianos. The two traded playing each other's compositions, as well as pieces by other composers such as Béla Bartók. In 1982, Corea performed The Meeting, a live duet with the classical pianist Friedrich Gulda.

Corea's other bands include the Chick Corea Elektric Band, its traditional jazz trio reduction called Akoustic Band, Origin, and its traditional jazz trio reduction called the New Trio. Corea signed a record deal with GRP Records in 1986 which led to the release of ten albums between 1986 and 1994, seven with the Elektric Band, two with the Akoustic Band, and a solo album, Expressions.

The Akoustic Band released a self-titled album in 1989 and a live follow-up, Alive in 1991, both featuring John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums. It marked a turn back toward traditional jazz in Corea's career, and the bulk of his subsequent recordings have been acoustic. The Akoustic Band has toured intermittently, internationally since 1986. They provided the music for the 1986 Pixar short Luxo Jr. with their song "The Game Maker".

In 1992, Corea started his own label, Stretch Records.

In 1993, Corea was excluded from a concert during the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart, Germany. The concert's organizers excluded Corea after the state government of Baden-Württemberg had announced it would review its subsidies for events featuring avowed members of Scientology. After Corea's complaint against this policy before the administrative court was unsuccessful in 1996, members of the United States Congress decried a violation of Corea's human rights in a letter to the German government. Corea is not banned from performing in Germany, however, and had several appearances at the government-supported International Jazz Festival in Burghausen, where he was awarded a plaque in Burghausen's "Street of Fame" in 2011.

During the latter part of his career, Corea became more interested in contemporary classical music. He composed his first piano concerto – and an adaptation of his signature piece, "Spain", for a full symphony orchestra – and performed it in 1999 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Five years later he composed his first work without keyboards: his String Quartet No. 1 was written for the Orion String Quartet and performed by them at 2004's Summerfest in Wisconsin.

In 2001, the Chick Corea New Trio, with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard on bass and drums, respectively, released the album Past, Present & Futures. The 11-song album includes only one standard composition (Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"). The rest of the tunes are Corea originals. He participated in 1998's Like Minds with Gary Burton on vibes, Pat Metheny on guitar, Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums.

In the 1970s Corea started working with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he recorded several duet albums for ECM, including 1972's Crystal Silence. They reunited in 2006 for a concert tour. A new record called The New Crystal Silence was issued in 2008 and won a Grammy Award in 2009. The package includes a disc of duets and another disc with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

In December 2007 Corea recorded a duet album, The Enchantment, with banjoist Béla Fleck. Fleck and Corea toured extensively for the album in 2007. Fleck was nominated in the Best Instrumental Composition category at the 49th Grammy Awards for the track "Spectacle".

In 2008 Corea collaborated with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara on the live album Duet (Chick Corea and Hiromi). The duo played a concert at Tokyo's Budokan arena on April 30.

In 2008, the third version of Return to Forever (Corea, keyboards; Stanley Clarke, bass; Lenny White, drums; Al Di Meola, guitar) reunited for a worldwide tour. The reunion received positive reviews from jazz and mainstream publications. Most of the group's studio recordings were re-released on the compilation Return to Forever: The Anthology to coincide with the tour. A concert DVD recorded during their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival was released in May 2009. He also worked on a collaboration CD with the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.

A new group, the Five Peace Band, began a world tour in October 2008. Corea had worked with McLaughlin in Davis's late 1960s bands, including the group that recorded Davis's album Bitches Brew. Joining Corea and McLaughlin were saxophonist Kenny Garrett and bassist Christian McBride. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta played with the band in Europe and on select North American dates; Brian Blade played all dates in Asia and Australia, and most dates in North America. The variety of Corea's music was celebrated in a 2011 retrospective with Corea playing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; a New York Times reviewer had high praise for the occasion: "Mr. Corea was masterly with the other musicians, absorbing the rhythm and feeding the soloists. It sounded like a band, and Mr. Corea had no need to dominate; his authority was clear without raising volume."

In 2015 he reprised the duet concert series with Hancock, again sticking to a dueling-piano format, though both also had synthesizers at their station. The first concert in this series was played at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and included improvised music, songs by the duo, and standards by other composers.

Corea celebrated his 75th birthday in 2016 by playing with more than 20 different groups during a six-week stand at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, New York City. "I pretty well ignore the numbers that make up 'age'. It seems to be the best way to go. I have always just concentrated on having the most fun I can with the adventure of music."

Music Memories: Happy Birthday, Chick Corea

On June 12, 1941, Chick Corea was born. Corea is a jazz pianist and composer who has worked with several different ensembles and as a soloist. He plays in a variety of styles but is best known as a major figure in the rise of jazz fusion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Corea grew up in the suburbs of Boston, where his father was a jazz trumpeter who led a Dixieland band. Corea began playing piano at four, and the drums at eight; by the time he was in high school, he was performing in local clubs.

JazzTimes - Today is Chick Corea’s 77th birthday.... | Facebook

Today is Chick Corea’s 77th birthday. Celebrate the pianist’s big day by reading our review of “The Musician,” the triple-CD epic summary of his career.

Mike Prigodich

Happy 76th birthday to Chick Corea. Here's the birthday song I wrote for him seven years ago. I hand-delivered the chart to him after one of his shows in Seattle that year, and he asked me to e-mail...

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Happy 74th Birthday, Chick CoreaBorn today in 1941, Chick Corea, jazz musician known for his solo work as well as collaborations with Miles Davis, Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin.Want more Corea? Listen back to his 2007 performance on the World Cafe with Bela Fleck below…Chick Corea & Bela Fleck on World Cafe (2007)

Happy Birthday to the great CHICK COREA

He turns 72 today and I hope he has many more. Thank you for all the great music, you truly are a master at what you do!!!!!

Chick Corea’s 75th Birthday Celebration Will Make Music for Months

The jazz pianist will preside over a marathon series covering his wide-ranging career from Oct. 19 to Dec. 12 at the Blue Note Jazz Club.

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Chick Corea's Freedom Band 06.15.10 | Denver Botanic Gardens It was fitting Chick Corea's Freedom Band, which features Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Roy Haynes, opened Monday night's Botanic Gardens show with a tune from Corea's Remembering Bud Powell album, as all four musicians were on the 1997 recording. Since...