Legendary jazz star Chick Corea: Two NZ Concerts

Legendary jazz star
Chick Corea
In two unforgettable NZ concerts

TEN-TIMES Grammy-award winning jazz star Chick Corea is set to play in two unforgettable New Zealand concerts.

The pianist, described as a master by his fans and peers, will perform at Auckland's Aotea Centre on May 15 and Wellington's Town Hall on May 17.

“No musician has used the fusion concept with more variety, intelligence and unimpeachable taste than Chick Corea.”
– Len Lyons, jazz author and critic

Corea is one of the major pioneers of fusion, and his far-ranging influence since the 1960s includes post-bop, Latin, free-form and avant-garde jazz, as well as classical. He is a rarity in his proficiency and distinctiveness on both piano and synthesizers, and is one of the first players to fully exploit the potential of electronic instruments.

“No musician has used the fusion concept with more variety, intelligence and unimpeachable taste than Chick Corea,” wrote Len Lyons, a longtime jazz author and critic, in his book “The 101 Best Jazz Albums.” Downbeat magazine calls him “jazz's most protean and unpredictable character.”

Players influencing Corea include Mozart, Beethoven, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and, most of all, Bud Powell. He ranks with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as the most influential keyboardists of the modern era, extending beyond countless pianists to unexpected performers such as banjo fusion pioneer Bela Fleck and even rapper D.J. Jazzy Jeff (Will Smith's partner when the actor was known as the Fresh Prince).

Career highlights include collaborating with Miles Davis on “Bitches Brew,” considered the first successful rock-fusion album, and forming the landmark 1970s fusion band Return To Forever. “Spain,” ”La Fiesta” and “Now He Sings Now He Sobs” are among his many well-known compositions.

His trademark style is a colorful lyricism filled with dominant chords, chromatic and diminished scale runs, and rapid-fire phrasing. He's also renowned for unique electronic voicings, experimental techniques such as plucking the strings of his piano and a percussion-like approach to many pieces.

WHERE & WHEN
15th May, Auckland, Aotea Centre. Bookings: Ticketek.
17th May, Wellington, Town Hall. Bookings: Ticketek.

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CHICK COREA
Considering the staggering volume of his recorded output over the past 40 years, it is no overstatement to call Chick Corea one of the most prolific composers of the second half of the 20th century. From avantgarde to bebop, from children’s songs to straight ahead, from hardhitting fusion to heady forays into classical, Chick has touched an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career while maintaining a standard of excellence that is simply uncanny. A restlessly creative spirit, he continues to explore and generate new material for a number of different vehicles, including his dynamic Elektric Band and his flamenco flavored Touchstone band. Other recent projects include The Ultimate Adventure, the second in a series of evocative recordings based on the writings of his favorite author and longtime inspiration, L. Ron Hubbard, and a new piano concerto which he will premiere in Austria on July 1, 2006 (shortly after his 65th birthday) as part of the gala Mozart Year Vienna festivities being held in the birthplace of the immortal composer.

“I decided when I was a young man to make it as my primary policy to always keep myself interested and challenged with music," says the Grammy Award winning pianist-composer-bandleader. "I've managed to avoid falling into the habit of doing the same thing over and over again, and it’s really proved to be a good thing for me. I don’t care about the other things, I care that I’m having a lot of fun and creating. So I feel honored or lucky to be able to continue to do that and be able to make a living doing it."

Born Armando Anthony Corea in Chelsea, Massachusetts on June 12, 1941, he began studying piano at age four. Early on in his development, Horace Silver and Bud Powell were important piano influences while access to the music of Beethoven and Mozart inspired his compositional instincts. An interesting, little known fact is that Chick’s first major professional gig was with Cab Calloway, which came before early stints in Latin bands led by Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo (1962-63).

There followed important tenures with trumpeter Blue Mitchell (1964- 66), flutist Herbie Mann and saxophonist Stan Getz before Chick made his recording debut as a leader in 1966 with “Tones for Joan’s Bones” (which featured trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist and flutist Joe Farrell, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joe Chambers). During these formative years, Chick also recorded sessions with Cal Tjader (1966's Soul Burst, on Verve), Stan Getz (1966's What The World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays Bacharach, on Verve), Donald Byrd (1967'sCreeper, on Blue Note), and Dizzy Gillespie (1967's Live at the Village Vanguard, on Blue Note).

After accompanying Sarah Vaughan in 1967, Corea went into the studio in March of 1968 and recorded Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes. That trio album is now considered a jazz classic. In the fall of 1968, Chick replaced Herbie Hancock in Miles Davis' band. In September of that year, he played Fender Rhodes electric piano on Miles' important and transitional recording Filles de Kilimanjaro, which pointed to a fresh new direction in jazz. Between 1968 and 1970, Corea also appeared on such groundbreaking Davis recordings as In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live- Evil and Live at the Fillmore East. He is also a key player in Davis' electrified ensemble that appeared before 600,000 people on August 29, 1970 at the Isle of Wight Festival in England (captured on Murray Lerner's excellent documentary, Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue).

Shortly after that historic concert, both Chick and bassist Dave Holland left Miles' group to form the cooperative avant-garde quartet Circle with drummer Barry Altschul and saxophonist Anthony Braxton. Though its tenure was short-lived, Circle recorded three adventurous albums, culminating in the arresting live double LP Paris-Concert (recorded on February 21, 1971 for the ECM label before Corea changed directions again. His excellent Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1 and 2, recorded over two days in April 1971 for ECM, was the first indication that solo piano performance would become fashionable.

Toward the end of 1971, Chick formed his first edition of Return To Forever with Stanley Clarke on acoustic bass, Joe Farrell on soprano sax and flute, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion and his wife Flora Purim on vocals. On February 2 and 3, 1972, they recorded their selftitled debut for ECM, which included the popular Corea composition "La Fiesta." A month later, on March 3, 1972, Chick, Stanley, Airto and drummer Tony Williams teamed together as the rhythm section for Stan Getz's Columbia recording Captain Marvel, which featured five Corea compositions including "500 Miles High," "La Fiesta" and the title track.

By September of that year, Corea was back in the studio with Return To Forever to record the classic Light As A Feather (Polydor), a collection of melodic Brazilian flavored jazz tunes including new versions of "500 Miles High" and "Captain Marvel" along with Chick's best-known composition, "Spain." In November of 1972, Chick also recorded the sublime Crystal Silence (ECM), his initial duet encounter with vibraphonist and kindred spirit Gary Burton.

By early 1973, Return To Forever had taken a different course. Following the addition of electric guitarist Bill Connors and thunderous drummer Lenny White, the group was fully fortified to embrace the emerging fusion movement with a vengeance. Their August, 1973 recording, “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy” (Polydor), instantly elevated them to the status of other fiery fusion bands of the day like John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Larry Coryell's Eleventh House and the Joe Zawinul-Wayne Shorter-led juggernaut, Weather Report. By the summer of 1974, with the 19-year-old speed demon guitarist Al Di Meola replacing Connors in the RTF lineup, the transformation to a bona fide high-energy jazz-rock concert attraction was complete. Hordes of rock fans embraced the group and were able to enter into the world of jazz through such important albums as 1974's Where Have I Known You Before (Polydor), 1975's No Mystery (Polydor) and 1976's GRAMMY® Award-winning Romantic Warrior (Columbia). During this same period, Chick also turned out two highly personal recordings in 1975's jazzy showcase The Leprechaun (Polydor) and 1976's flamenco flavored My Spanish Heart.

A third edition of RTF featured a four-piece brass section along with bassist Clarke, charter RTF member Joe Farrell, drummer Gerry Brown and Chick's future wife Gayle Moran on vocals. Together they recorded 1977's Music Magic (Columbia) and the four-LP boxed set R.T.F. Live (Columbia), which captured the sheer energy and excitement of the full ensemble on tour. Shortly after disbanding RTF, Chick and Herbie Hancock teamed up in early 1978 for a tour playing duets exclusively on acoustic pianos. Their chemistry was documented on two separate recordings -- 1978’s Homecoming (Polydor) and 1980's An Evening With Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea (Columbia), a two-LP set which featured renditions of Chick's "La Fiesta" and Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" along with expressive takes on Bela Bartok's "Mikrokosmos" and the Disney staple, "Someday My Prince Will Come." Also in 1978, a year marked by a flurry of activity, Chick released The Mad Hatter (ECM), with original RTF saxophonist Joe Farrell, drummer Steve Gadd and former Bill Evans Trio bassist Eddie Gomez, and followed up with the wide open blowing dateFriends (Polydor), featuring the same stellar crew. Before the year was out he also managed to record the provocative Delphi I: Solo Piano Improvisations.

Secret Agent introduced a fresh new rhythm section of drummer Tom Brechtlein (currently a member of the Touchstone band) and France's fretless electric bass wonder, Bunny Brunel. Vocalist Gayle Moran and saxophonist Joe Farrell were also featured on this solid 1979 outing. At the beginning of 1981, Chick recorded Three Quartets, a swinging encounter with tenor sax great Michael Brecker, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Steve Gadd that included a piece dedicated to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Later that year he toured in an all-star quartet with saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Roy Haynes. Their near-telepathic post-bop chemistry was documented on the exhilarating Live in Montreux. That same year, Chick also had a reunion with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes for the double LP Trio Music (ECM), which came 13 years after their landmark recording of Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.

The year 1982 was again marked by a flurry of creative activity that yielded such gems as the Spanish-tinged Touchstone (featuring flamenco guitar great Paco de Lucia and a reunion of Chick's RTF bandmates Al Di Meola, Lenny White and Stanley Clarke on the aptly-titled "Compadres"), the adventurous Again and Again (a quintet date featuring the remarkable flutist Steve Kujala), Chick's ambitious Lyric Suite for Sextet (a collaboration with vibraphonist Gary Burton augmented by string quartet) and The Meeting (a duet encounter with renowned classical pianist Friedrich Gulda). 1982 also marked the formation of the Echoes of an Era band (essentially an all-star backing band for R&B singer Chaka Khan's first foray into jazz). This stellar group, featuring Corea on piano with his former RTF band mates Stanley Clarke on upright bass and Lenny White on drums, augmented by jazz greats Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Joe Henderson on tenor sax, recorded Echoes of an Era with Chaka and followed up with the all-instrument studio recording Griffith Park Collection and the live double-LP, Griffith Park Collection, Vol. 2, all for the Elektra/Musician label. Chick followed up with a string of eclectic offerings in 1983's solo piano project Children Songs (ECM), 1984's Voyage (a duet project with flutist Kujala for ECM), 1985's Septet (an ambitious five movement suite for piano, flute, French horn and string quartet) and 1985's Trio Music: Live in Europe (another ECM outing with Vitous and Haynes).

Through the remainder of the '80s and into the early '90s, Corea returned to the fusion arena with a vengeance with his Elektric Band, featuring drummer Dave Weckl, saxophonist Eric Marienthal, bassist John Pattitucci and guitarist Frank Gambale. Together they recorded a string of five hard-hitting offerings for the GRP label that ranked with the best fusion of the latter half of the '80s, including 1986's Elektric Band, 1987's Light Years, 1988's excellent Eye of the Beholder, 1990's Inside Out and 1991's Beneath the Mask. To balance out his forays into electric music, Chick also formed his Akoustic Band, a highly interactive trio with Elektric Band members Pattitucci on upright bass and Weckl on drums.

They recorded 1989's Akoustic Band and 1990's Alive, both on GRP. The second edition of Chick's Elektric Band, featuring bassist Jimmy Earl, guitarist Mike Miller, drummer Gary Novak and original EB member Eric Marienthal on saxophone, released 1993's Paint the World on GRP. That same year, Chick also recorded a set of solo piano jazz standards, Expressions (GRP), which he dedicated to jazz piano legend Art Tatum.

By 1992, Corea had realized a lifelong goal in forming Stretch Records, a label committed to stretching musical boundaries and focusing more on freshness and creativity than on musical style. Among its early releases were projects by Bob Berg, John Patitucci, Eddie Gomez and Robben Ford. After Chick’s ten-year relationship with GRP ended in 1996, following the release of Time Warp, his swinging acoustic jazz quartet recording with saxophonist Bob Berg, drummer Gary Novak and Patitucci on upright bass, Stretch Records became a subsidiary of Concord Records and Corea decided to be part of Stretch's artist roster. His first release for his new label, which he had formed with manager Ron Moss, was 1997’s Remembering Bud Powell, an all-star outing that featured young talent like tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman, trumpeter Wallace Roney, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and bassist Christian McBride along with jazz drumming legend Roy Haynes (who had performed on the bandstand beside Powell in the early ‘60s). Also in 1997, Chick released a recording with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Bobby McFerrin as conductor. Their second collaboration, entitled The Mozart Sessions (Sony Classical) followed on the heels of their first duet Grammy Award winning recording, 1991's Play (Blue Note). That same incredibly productive year (1977), Corea unveiled his acoustic sextet Origin (the band’s self-titled debut release was a live recording at the Blue Note club in New York) and also teamed up with old partner Gary Burton, rekindling their chemistry from the ‘70s on Native Sense–The New Duets, which earned Chick his ninth GRAMMY® Award.

In 1998, Corea released the six-disc set A Week At The Blue Note, documenting the high-flying Origin sextet in full stride in all its spontaneously combustible glory over the course of three nights. He followed that up in 1999 Origin’s third outing, Change, which was recorded within the relaxed confines of the home Chick shares with his wife and singer Gayle Moran in Florida. As he explained at the time, “The first record was a mishmash of all kinds of stuff--old tunes, standards, jam-session tunes and new written music--whereas Change is focused on music specifically written for a known group that has become an entity.

With this record, I wanted to try more thorough writing with the band.

Everyone responded to it very well.” Also in 1999, Corea recorded two solo piano gems, Piano Originals and Piano Standards, both on Stretch.

Chick ushered in the new millennium with 2000's Corea Concerto (Sony Classical), a grand encounter with the London Philharmonic Orchestra which featured a new symphonic arrangement of “Spain” as well as the premiere of his “Piano Concerto No. 1.” At the time he said of this mammoth undertaking, “For my concerto I chose almost the exact same instrumentation as the Mozart piano concerto orchestrations. I figured that I could perform the Mozart and my own piece with the same size orchestra, and that would be a good practical start for me. So, with the spirit and sound of Mozart’s piano concerto music, I wrote this piece and dedicated it to the spirit of religious freedom which, for me, is on the same level as the creative freedom that is the basic right of all people."

Chick also explained why he chose to do a new version of “Spain.” “If there is any one song that listeners seem to know me best by, I guess that song is “Spain,” as I get the most requests for it and hear it mentioned more than any of the others. I wrote the song in 1971 and played it frequently with RTF and many other bands of mine. I reharmonized the theme and made a brand new arrangement of it for the Akoustic Band trio in 1988, and have generally turned the song inside out through the years. This is a final visit to ‘Spain’ in grand fashion and a tip of the hat to the art cultures of Spain, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and New York."

In 2001, Corea unveiled his New Trio, featuring drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Avishai Cohen, on Past, Present & Futures (Stretch). By the end of that year, Chick was engaged with his ambitious three-week career retrospective at the Blue Note, which yielded the two-CD set Rendezvous in New York and the 10-DVD set documenting nearly eight hours of performances with Origin, the Akoustic Band, New Trio, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs Trio, Remembering Bud Powell Band and Three Quartets Band, as well as duets with Bobby McFerrin, Gary Burton and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

In 2004, Chick reunited his high-powered Elektric Band for a tour and subsequent recording based on L. Ron Hubbard’s science fiction novel To The Stars. And in 2005, he returned to Hubbard for musical inspiration, this time interpreting The Ultimate Adventure. An exotic blend of passionate flamenco melodies, North African and Middle Eastern grooves and adventurous improvisation, Corea’s latest score was inspired by Hubbard’s romantic novel set against a backdrop of scenes and characters from the ancient tales The Arabian Nights. This scintillating suite of world-jazz reunites Chick with key colleagues from the past, including flutist Hubert Laws (who played on 1969’s Is and 1978’s Tap Step), Brazilian percussionist Airto Moriera (drummer on 1972’s Light As A Feather and percussionist on 1978’s Tap Step and Secret Agent) and drummer Steve Gadd (whose precision playing fueled 1975’s Leprechaun, 1976’s My Spanish Heart and 1978’s Mad Hatter and who also provided the swinging momentum on 1978’s Friends and 1981’s Three Quartets). Together with more recent Corea collaborators like Elektric Band guitarist Frank Gambale, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, Origin saxophonist Tim Garland and Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, they join members of Chick’s current Touchstone band -- drummer and longtime collaborator Tom Brechtlein, percussionist Ruben Dantas, saxophonist-flutist Jorge Pardo and bassist Carles Benavent -- for some high-spirited, tightly-crafted ensemble playing that blends electric and acoustic instruments into one seamless, cinematic and organic whole.

Flutist Steve Kujala, a frequent collaborator in the early ‘80s (Again and Again, Touchstone, Voyage, Septet), also appears on a rendition of Corea’s classic “Captain Marvel” (a bonus track which appears on the Japanese release only).

“A force that has come to the fore for these last two projects was my lifelong connection with L. Ron Hubbard’s works,” explains the celebrated pianist-composer-bandleader. “I had such an inspiring time doing the To The Stars project. There was a synergy created with me writing musical portraits of his fiction work that I didn’t want it to stop. So one project followed on the heels of the other.” Corea’s richly appointed music on The Ultimate Adventure provides a kind of sonic landscape for Hubbard’s compelling story, continuing the creative streak he established with last year’s To The Stars.

ENDS

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