REGISTER NEW USERLOST PASSWORD? WELCOME, Logout

Chick Corea

Featured Music — 27 July 2012

By

Chick Corea

This month, I will attempt to serve up a Chick Corea “jazz sandwich”, with thinly sliced commentary “bread” and a healthy portion of musical “meat” (or assorted vegetables for those so inclined) and tasty condiments.

Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea is one of my favorite jazz pianists, keyboardists and composers. Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of trumpet legend Miles Davis’ band in the 1960’s, he was a key ingredient in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970’s, he went on to form Return to Forever (Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and Lenny White), who in this writer’s humble opinion, is the greatest band ever assembled! Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.

Let’s stuff our mouths, shall we?

(A jazz standard to say the least!)

(Notice how Chick reaches into the piano while playing. When I saw him do this during a concert, I was stunned because that was my first time seeing this!)

(One of my favorite RTF tunes. As you can imagine, not a popular cover band favorite!)

(Another favorite! These guys are all virtuosos-period!)

Here is The Chick Corea Elektric Band (Chick Corea (keys), John Patitucci (bass), Dave Weckl (drums) and Scott Henderson (guitar) with chops on full display:

There you have it. Hopefully, you enjoyed every morsel and are licking your plate clean! Whether it’s jazz, fusion, rock, funk or classical, Chick Corea is a master chef and can serve it any way you want it!

email Chick Corea Forward to a friend and help us engage more readers

Get new and fresh stories like this each morning by joining the folks reading Paul's Posts. Click here

Related Articles

Pat Metheney Best of Winter 2013 Bobby Lyle Andy Narell and Steelpans

Share

About Author

Keith Copeland

Keith Copeland lives in the Central Valley area of California with his wife and two sons. He has a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry and is a primarily self-taught musician. When he is not working as a forensic scientist for the Department of Justice, Keith spends his time listening to music, serving as a member of the church music ministry playing bass with his church choir (with his wife as the choir director) and with the MFC Jazz Ensemble, assisting as a member of the church audio/video ministry as a mixing console operator and having fun enjoying life with his wife and sons. “Music and audio have been passions of mine for a long time and I feel very blessed to have enough knowledge of both to make a difference, even though I am not an expert.”

(3) Readers Comments

  1. laridave

    July 31, 2012 at 8:45 am

    Its always a pleasure to hear Chick again, one of my favorite musicians. Thanks for the clips.

    Thanks especially for the “Windows” clip which I hadn’t heard before. It was recorded at the 1968 trio sessions Chick did with Miroslav Vitous , bass and Roy Haynes, drums. Several cuts from these sessions were originally issued on LP as “Now He sings, Now He Sobs” (Blue Note), which I’ve listened to since 1969 and is still probably my favorite Chick. It turns out the CD reissue under the same title includes MORE cuts from the 1968 sessions. Terrific to find that there’s more now available from these sessions. Highly recommended to all Chick Corea fans. Here’s a link to the reissue:

    http://www.amazon.com/Now-He-Sings-Sobs/dp/B0000691U2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343742713&sr=8-1&keywords=Chick+Corea+Now+he+Sings

    There’s an even earlier album, “Tones for Joan’s Bones” with Woody Shaw, Joe Farrell, Joe Chambers, Steve Swallow and Stuart Blumberg released in 1966 (Atlantic). This was Chick’s first recording under his own name. Amazing. By his mid twenties Chick was already a monster. Look for this one too. Its reissued on CD.

    Thanks again

  2. Keith Copeland

    July 31, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    Thank you very much for taking the time to check out the article and for your comments! Until I found the You Tube clip of “Windows”, I had not even heard this tune before! Thanks for the information regarding the musicians playing on that track. I know that there are more Chick “gems” that I haven’t discovered yet and I am looking forward to doing so. Mr. Corea is indeed an incredible musician ( he plays drums as well) and a very underrated composer in my opinion.

    Thanks again!

  3. laridave

    August 2, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    You’re welcome Keith and thank you.

    I wanted to correct one bit of info. about the “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” album. The original LP release was on Solid State (United Artists). Sometime after it was released United Artists bought Blue Note and for some reason the CD re-release appears as a Blue Note release (now via EMI). I thought Blue Note wasn’t right so i checked my old LP. Just got the CD re-release which i’m looking froward to hearing.

    There’s a Chick Corea website which perhaps you aren’t aware of here:

    http://www.chickcorea.com/

    Lots of information including a complete discography. Also some free downloads from time to time. AND a complete concert schedule. Think you’ll enjoy taking a look.

    Keep listening to Chick. its always worth it!

    Best,
    David

Leave a Reply