Chick Corea - keyboards John McLaughlin - guitar Kenny Garrett - sax Christian McBride - bass Vinnie Colaiuta - drums *(U.S. dates March 19-25 2008)
Brian Blade - drums
*(Asia, Australia and U.S. dates March 26-May 2008)
Influences
Bela Bartok; Igor Stravinsky; Alexander Scriabin; Duke Ellington; Miles Davis; John Coltrane; Cannonball Adderley; Art Tatum; Horace Silver; Keith Jarrett; Gonzalo Rubalcaba; Herbie Hancock; Paco de Lucia; McCoy Tyner; Kenny Garrett; Ornette Coleman; Christian McBride; Brian Blade; Wayne Shorter; Roy Haynes; Sonny Rollins; Bobby McFerrin; Sarah Vaughan; Ella Fitzgerald; Vladimir Horowitz; Glenn Gould; Eddie Gomez; Miroslav Vitous; Santana; Prince; Stevie Wonder; Sting; Art Blakey; Freddie Hubbard; Joe Henderson; Johann Sebastian Bach; Giacomo Puccini and L. Ron Hubbard
Return to Forever: Live at Montreux now available on DVD at ChickCorea.com
Grammy Win Caps Chick's Stellar 2008!
On Sunday, February 8th, Chick Corea and Gary Burton, who have played and recorded as a duo, off and on, for 37 years, brought home the Grammy award in the category of Best Jazz Instrumental Album for The New Crystal Silence. This marks Corea’s 15th Grammy win, and the fourth Grammy award as a duet for the Corea and Burton duo. Previously the duo won Grammys for the albums Duet (1978), Chick Corea and Gary Burton in Concert, Zurich, October 28, 1979 (1980), and for the track “Rhumbata” off Native Sense: The New Duets (1998).
Concord Records released The New Crystal Silence in celebration of Corea-Burton duo’s 35th anniversary. Their 1972 serendipitous debut, Crystal Silence, not only forged the alchemic partnership, but also brought to notoriety the deep and insightful collaboration of the two virtuosic improvisers. After that first release, the pair recorded four more albums and have never skipped a year performing together.
The New Crystal Silence is a double disc CD that features the pair performing with the Sydney Symphony and as a duet captured in a sublime performance at the Molde Jazz Festival in Molde, Norway.
2008 Recap
A spring show at Carnegie Hall with Bobby McFerrin and Jack DeJohnette kicked things off right, and summer brought on the global success of the Return to Forever Returns World Tour. Chick and bandmates Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Al Di Meola earned unprecedented critical and popular praise for the storming power of their live shows.
By the fall, Chick was on the road again, this time pairing with guitar legend John McLaughlin for the first time in decades. Their Five Peace Band, with Kenny Garrett on saxophone, Christian McBride on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, filled halls across Europe with the most eclectic and satisfying performances of the season.
Along the way, Chick picked up Jazz Times’ Jazz Artist of the Year Award, Swing Journal’s International Jazzman of the Year and Best Piano Player, as well as top honors in Down Beat’s 73rd Annual Readers' Poll for Electric Keyboardist/Synthesizer. In addition, he won a Latin Grammy for his collaboration with Béla Fleck on The Enchantment, and was part of a BBC Life Time Achievement Award to Return To Forever.
“Creating music is my lifeblood. There's nothing that pleases me more than to create and be part of new music projects to bring to the public. I'm very fortunate to have the friendship, confidence and good will from so many people in my life — my family, old and new friends, my Church, my musician friends, and the public who enjoy the music." — Chick
What to Look for in 2009
The Five Peace Band is now touring Asia, with Australia and the United States to follow. Dynamic drummer Brian Blade has joined the band for the rest of the tour, and Vinnie Colaiuta will fill the drum chair for US dates between March 19 and 25.
The next few months will see the release of the two-CD Return to Forever Returns, the ultimate document of a virtuosic band. Also look for Duet, a two-CD live performance with Japanese phenom pianist Hiromi, recorded in Tokyo.
During the summer Chick plans to fit in some solo piano dates. “I'm looking forward to playing some solo again,” he says. “I’ve been listening to Art Tatum these past months. What an inspiration that man is!”
Biography
One of the most creatively restless and indefatigably imaginative artists in jazz, Chick Corea defies categorization. He is equally at home in acoustic settings as in electric formats. He performs sublime solo concerts and welcomes richly arranged collaborations with orchestras. In recent years, he has explored new collaborations (for example, with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck on their duo album The Enchantment), revisited old bands (including an extensive tour with a quartet featuring Hubert Laws, Eddie Gomez and Airto Moreira) and celebrated the 35th anniversary of his chamber jazz duo partnership with Gary Burton that resulted in 2007’s remarkable two-CD set, The New Crystal Silence.
Corea broke onto the jazz scene in the early ‘60s, working with bands led by such stars as Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann and Stan Getz. One of his most significant sideman gigs was with Miles Davis’ seminal electric fusion bands, from 1968-70, when he participated in the classic album, Bitches Brew. It was there that Corea first met and worked with John McLaughlin.
As a solo artist, Corea recorded his debut in 1966, Tones for Joan’s Bones, followed by what’s come to be known as a classic jazz recording, 1968’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes.
While Corea’s musical career teems with significant explorations and advances, one of his highlight moments came in 1971 when he created Return to Forever, the legendary jazz-rock fusion band. While it lasted just seven years in three different editions, RTF is heralded as one of the most important and forward-looking bands in jazz history.
In 2008, Corea assembled a reunion of the quartet version of the band. It swept the world with a tour that was easily the most anticipated event of the year for jazz fans. The tour was a celebration of four partners in fusion, revisiting their past material and playing in the present tense. Leading the multitude of national press on the event - including articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Newsweek - was a cover story on RTF in DownBeat Magazine. Before the band’s first date of the successful extended tour, Corea beamed: “I can’t wait to see what happens. So many people have waited so long for this. Playing the music again with the guys in rehearsals has been so much fun, but doing this for our fans is almost too good to be true.”
He is now on tour with John McLaughlin and the Five Peace Band.
Chick can also be found to be giving Cheap Advice on his blog, Notes from the Road.
Hello Chick, I recently got the DVD Akoustic band at Montreal jazz festival. Thanks for your explanation on how you envision jazz, it simplifies me a little how to grasp it. Thanks for the music too. BTW: I am sure you know I like Dave playing this DVD is an oportunity for me to learn from him in a jazz setting! Thanks also for that!!!! Fred.
Hallo People! Let's start life afresh on Kazhargan! I believe that music can unite people from the most remote corners of our planet. Even if we don’t know our native languages, we can understand each other with the help of our music and send our messages to the whole world. I would like to offer to create live music via Internet together. You can record your instrument via computer and send this record to me via Internet so I can play together with you. Also, together we can find the other musicians for our music created and played together.
Chick, Thanks allot for the add, it's an honor to have you among our friends!! If you could, Please take a moment to check out our improvisations and let us know what you think, it would mean a great deal to us!! Thanks again for the add, and all the years of inspiration!! Peace, ..
I'm living in San Diego, CA producing Jingles! I still remember when you went to México in 1981 and my brother Isaac was your translator. Still admiring all your music and playing!!
