Chick Corea
I got into my car yesterday morning to drive to South Yarra as I do most mornings. After the gallery closed down I really never thought that I would be doing that anymore but I must say it’s a lot easier without a hangover!
As I normally do, I stopped down the road a few metres and pulled over to find a podcast to listen to.
At the top of my YouTube list was a heading “Chick Corea 1941-2021” This normally means that a person is dead but my first response wasn’t to go into instant mourning as it hadn’t really entered my mind that this would or could be possible. The podcast was by a fabulous musician and teacher that I follow named Rick Beato so I started it up and there he was looking very serious, announcing how shocked he was that he had just found out that Chick had passed away from cancer on Tuesday 9/2.
Holy shit!
He was 79 years old. Not a bad innings but for such a highly talented creative musician not nearly enough years.
I was surprised that I experienced real grief. I had just been thinking a few days earlier how tragic it had been that Prince had died in 2016. He was also one of the huge musical influences in my life. Not so much his hit songs but in his huge body of work there were amazing “experiments” that still to this day make me feel theses moments of magic that are the reason that I love music so much.
I digress.
Back to Chick.
I didn’t know who he was when I first heard him play on Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” and the live Fillmore albums. I first became aware of his name and who he was in early 1973 when I purchased the Return To Forever album “Hymn To The 7th Galaxy”. This new music appealed to me on many levels. Firstly it was loud, frenetic, explosive and strongly featured electric guitar. Secondly, the name of the band and album appealed to my science fiction and spiritual sensibilities. Here was a group of 4 young musicians melding the best of jazz and rock into a new form of music that had evolved in the very early 70s as part of Miles Davis’ quest to be accepted and listened to by the young rock fans who loved Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone.
It was called Jazz Rock Fusion and was to define my direction in music for the next few decades. Still does.
“Return To Forever” was made up of Chick Corea on keyboards, Bill Connors on electric guitar, Stanley Clarke on Bass and Lenny White on drums. I think I bought every album that they put out after this as well as searching out anything I could that the band and individuals made before. Al Di Meola replaced Bill Connors on guitar soon after.
My record collection is full of records by these musicians.
The other profound effect that Chick Corea had on my life was that he was a Scientologist.
The music became synonymous with the philosophy and made it “hip”. John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana we’re into Sri Chinmoy but this didn’t appeal to me.
Somewhat by chance, around 1973 I met a person who not only knew who Chick Corea was but also he knew a bit about Scientology. I met others who were not only into good music but who had come out of the hippy, drug culture of the late 60s and early 70s. The point is that for me anyone who played music like this must have had something going for them.
By early 1975 I had joined a band made up of people who were either involved or interested in Scientology.
So that in itself had a huge impact on my life.
He continued to evolve as a musician and composer both technically and creatively throughout his life and never stopped playing with the cream of the world’s musicians right up to his departure.
Comments
Great interview with Chick! Invaluable piece of musical history. I can see why you were so hooked on these guy!