Guest ArtistsChick Corea

Chick Corea has attained iconic status in music. The keyboardist, composer and bandleader is a DownBeat Hall of Famer and NEA Jazz Master, as well as the fourth-most nominated artist in Grammy® Awards history with 63 nods – and 22 wins – in addition to a number of Latin Grammys®. From straight-ahead to avant-garde, bebop to jazz-rock fusion, children’s songs to chamber and symphonic works, Chick has touched an astonishing number of musical bases in his career since playing with the genre-shattering bands of Miles Davis in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Yet Chick has never been more productive than in the 21st century, whether playing acoustic piano or electric keyboards, leading multiple bands, performing solo or collaborating with a who’s who of music. Underscoring this, he has been named Artist of the Year three times this decade in the DownBeat Readers Poll. Born in 1941 in Massachusetts, Chick remains a tireless creative spirit, continually reinventing himself through his art. As The New York Times has said, he is “a luminary, ebullient and eternally youthful.”

Chick’s classic albums as a leader or co-leader include Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes), Paris Concert (with Circle: Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland and Barry Altschul) and Return to Forever (with Return to Forever: Joe Farrell, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim), as well as Crystal Silence (with Gary Burton), My Spanish Heart, Remembering Bud Powell and Further Explorations (with Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian).

A venturesome collaborator, Chick has teamed with artists from jazz legend Lionel Hampton to new-generation pianist Stefano Bollani, from banjoist Béla Fleck to vocal superstar Bobby McFerrin. Chick’s duo partnerships with Gary Burton and Herbie Hancock have endured for decades.

Chick's album Trilogy from 2014, a live triple-disc set with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, won two Grammys®. The album documents this trio interpreting classic Chick compositions (such as “Spain”), plus previously unreleased pieces by the pianist (“Piano Sonata: The Moon”), an array of jazz standards and even a Prelude by Alexander Scriabin. All About Jazz noted: “This one certainly ranks among his most memorable trios…[Corea] has never been more active – and with albums as superb as Trilogy…clearly at the top of his game.”

His latest release, Chinese Butterfly, is the culmination of 50 years of musical kinship with the legendary drummer Steve Gadd. Chick and Steve went into the studio with Lionel Loueke, Steve Wilson, Carlitos Del Puerto and Luisito Quintero. What they came out with is a nonstop musical rush, full of joy and beauty.