Chick Corea
Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis was at the top of his game in the late 1960s, inching the genre forward into new, unchartered territory with groundbreaking music. With the 1970 release of Bitches Brew, Davis blew the roof off, literally inventing the notion of “jazz fusion,” and nothing has been the same since. Davis had help launching his musical revolution from a roster of highly talented young players, including keyboardists Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea. For Corea, that time with Davis helped him develop his protean view of music in general and jazz in particular.
The Spanish-Italian son of a Dixieland bandleader from Massachusetts, Corea, 77, learned his musical appreciation early. He played professional gigs in high school, dropped in and out of The Juilliard School and performed with a variety of jazz players, including Mongo Santamaria, Herbie Mann and Stan Getz. He replaced Hancock in Davis’ band just in time for the album Filles de Kilimanjaro, and his career took off from there.
Corea, who can count 22 Grammy Award wins throughout his varied career, will bring his Akoustic Band featuring bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl to the Pabst Theater on Friday, Aug. 24. The veteran pianist took a few moments on his tour bus recently to respond to questions about his life and career.
What led you to a career in music, specifically one in jazz?
I grew up around music. There was my dad and all the musicians in his band, plus my dad’s record collection, which consisted of the great jazz music of the early ‘40s I loved it all and felt a part of this group from the very beginning.
What attracted you to keyboards?
I think the creative imagination knows no bounds. I just happened to choose the piano from the very beginning. I just liked it. A combination of percussion and melody and harmony all wrapped into the same instrument.
You performed with Miles Davis during several of his most influential periods. What did you learn from him, both as a musician and as a person?
Miles was unrestrained creatively. He had an independent attitude toward music and life and held to it with integrity. This artistic integrity he demonstrated his whole musical life and is what really inspired me so greatly.
I once saw you perform as guest soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with Bobby McFerrin conducting. I believe you played something by Wolfgang Mozart. Can you compare and contrast performing classical music with performing jazz?
This is a very interesting subject and one in which I’m highly interested. It’s the bringing together of what has become two almost separate worlds of music—the world of improvisation and the world of written music. The only answer for me is to continue to play any music that I play with the same aesthetic approach, which is to make it beautiful and have it communicate to the listener the best I can. I’ve grown up with improvisation as my main musical approach, so the rendering of classical music scores and even my own fully-written music scores is another technique and discipline which I’m learning more and more about, the results of which I’m very excited to pursue.
Who were your main musical influences?
Really, the list is quite long, although you can put at the top of the list the pianists that came through Miles Davis’ band just before me, including Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland and Horace Silver. Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk were the first pianist-composers that really inspired me and whose music I transcribed to better learn their techniques. Duke Ellington also is a favorite pianist of mine and of course a very inspiring composer. But the man is and always will be Art Tatum!
Tell me about the Akoustic Band. What can listeners expect musically from this group?
Dave, John and I are having a big blast playing together as an acoustic trio again. We’ve made a new live recording which we’re offering on tour and playing a relatively new repertoire including some old chestnuts as well.
You’ve collaborated with a wide variety of master musicians over your career. What collaborations came most easily? Which were the most challenging?
My first duet collaborations were with Gary Burton and then with Herbie Hancock. These associations were like stepping into old, comfortable shoes—old friendships, mutual admiration, a shared musical language and an easy rapport.
I've continued my duet with Bobby McFerrin for a long time as well. This was the more unusual one for me because of Bobby’s specialness as a vocalist and musician. Playing with a singer usually means I’m an accompanist. But with Bobby, it was always a real duet, a musical relationship.
Another unusual duet, but one that I love, is making music with Béla Fleck. A slightly unlikely combination—piano and banjo—but with a musician like Béla, really an adventure and a lot of fun. Shorter-term but very fruitful and adventurous piano duets I’ve had with Makoto Ozone, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Stefano Bollani, Hiromi, and more recently, Brad Mehldau.
I also very much enjoyed playing the Mozart double piano concerto with Keith Jarrett many years ago. It was the one memorable time we played two pianos together.
What do you want most for your audiences when you play?
I’m happy when I see my audiences smiling and enjoying the music or in some way experiencing pleasure from it. I’m sure each individual in the audience experiences the music in his own personal way, but the live performance of music is one of those archetypical experiences where I see the results in front of my eyes while I’m playing. Music and art are a kind of antidote to the dark side of life, so it’s a pleasure to be able to deliver this every time I play.
The Chick Corea Akoustic Band with John Patitucci and Dave Weckl plays the Pabst Theater on Friday, Aug. 24 at 8 p.m.
