Chick Corea Dead: Jazz-Fusion Pioneer was 79

Keyboardist-songwriter Chick Corea, who rose to fame as a fusion pioneer and distinguished himself as an all-knowing player in the jazz spectrum and beyond, died Tuesday of rare form cancer, its Facebook page announced. He was 79 years old.

He left a message on his page to his fans: “I want to thank everyone who, throughout my journey, has helped keep the fires of music alight. I hope those who have an idea to play, write, play or otherwise will. If it’s not for you, then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also a lot of fun.

Gaining prominence as a sideman in Miles Davis’ revolutionary power groups of the late 1960s, Corea co-founded the vanguard Circle unit before becoming a full-fledged sales force with the fusion group. stormy 70s Return to Forever.

He has also distinguished himself in duet performances with pianist Herbie Hancock and vibraphonist Gary Burton; conducted his own Elektric Band and Akoustic Band; and ventured into contemporary classical music at the turn of the millennium. He founded the All-Star Unit 5 Peace Band with another Davis sideman, guitarist John McLaughlin, in 2008.

A prolific record maker with nearly 90 albums as a leader or co-leader to his credit, Corea has won 22 Grammy Awards (and a total of 63 nominations) and three Latin Grammys. He was named National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master in 2006.

Born Armando Corea in Chelsea, Mass., Corea was encouraged to play the piano by his father, and began his studies at 4. His early influences were bop keyboardists Horace Silver and Bud Powell, but he also favored classical works. by Beethoven and Mozart.

Playing professionally since his high school years, Corea had little patience for formal music education, dropping out of both Columbia University and The Juilliard School. However, he remained in New York and performed in Cab Calloway’s band.

As a sideman, Corea made an impression by supporting trumpeter Blue Mitchell and flautist Herbie Mann. Of Spanish origin, he also worked in the Latin jazz units of percussionists Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria. One of his most significant early appearances was on tenor saxophonist Stan Getz’s album “Sweet Rain” in 1967.

Corea was a frontman from 1966, recording for Atlantic and Blue Note. However, his work in the trumpeter group Davis – a virtual finishing school for musicians who went on to lead the 70s rock-infused jazz-fusion movement – really propelled him into the top of jazz musicians.

Succeeding Herbie Hancock in Davis’ longtime quintet, he appeared on the unit’s 1969 album “Girls of Kilimanjaro”. He also played an important role in the expanded electric ranges that cut “In a Silent Way” (1969) and the two LPs “Bitches Brew” (1970), the platinum collection that codifies the sound of fusion. He also featured prominently on Davis’ live albums recorded at the Fillmore East and Fillmore West rock ballrooms.

Although Corea flirted with more distorted electronic sound in the Davis band, he entered a full-fledged dissonance with the highly experimental unit Circle, which he co-founded with bassist Dave Holland, another sideman from Davis. The group, which also included multi-instrumental musician and composer Anthony Braxton, released several free swing albums for the European label ECM, for which Corea also recorded two exploratory solo albums in 1971.

On ECM, Corea also released “Crystal Silence” (1972), the first of several lyrical duet recordings with Burton. But another band he debuted on the label, Return to Forever, would become the keyboardist’s real ticket to fame and commercial success.

The group bowed with an eponymous 1971 set that featured bassist Stanley Clarke and the husband-and-wife team of singer Flora Purim and percussionist Airto Moreira (another Davis vet). Another former Davis sideman, drummer Lenny White, joined the 1973 album “Light as a Feather”, which debuted with Corea’s best known and most recorded composition “Spain”.

However, it is the quartet of Corea, Clarke, White and guitarist Al Di Meola that has proven to be Return to Forever’s most enduring and popular lineup. The group’s big hits “Where Have I Known You Before” (1974), “No Mystery” (1975) and “Romantic Warrior” (1976) all climbed to the top 40 of the pop charts. “No Mystery” won Corea its first Grammy, for best jazz instrumental performance.

After “Musicmagic” (1977), which featured only Corea and Clarke in an expanded lineup, and a live album from 1978, the pianist removed the band’s neck; the Corea-Clarke-White-Di Meola iteration reunited for a world tour and a live album in 2008.

In the wake of her commercial rise with Return to Forever, Corea embarked on a successful solo career. His 1976 Polydor album “The Leprechaun” garnered two Grammys (for performance and arrangement) and climbed to No. 42 on the pop album charts; Latinized “My Spanish Heart” (1976) and “The Mad Hatter” (1978) also climbed the charts.

Among the players on the latter album was pianist Hancock, with whom Corea was paired with profit on two duet albums in 1978-79. He increasingly worked in intimate duo and trio formats for much of the next decade. He teamed up with Burton for a pair of albums (one of which, “In Concert Zurich” from the 1980s, received a Grammy); performed alongside classically trained pianists Friedrich Gulda and Nicolas Economou; in partnership with flautist Steve Kujala; and formed Trio Music with bassist Miroslav Vitous of Weather Report and veteran drummer Roy Haynes.

His more direct early 1980s efforts include “The Griffith Park Collection” (1982), on which he was joined by saxophonist Joe Henderson and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and Return to Forever’s Clarke and White, and “Echoes of an Era” (1982), on which this unit supported Rufus’ singer Chaka Khan on a selection of standards.

In 1986, Corea launched their new Elektric Band with guitarists Scott Henderson and Carlos Rios, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl. The rhythm section would carry over into the band’s’ 90s incarnations and also support Corea on two albums by the unplugged trio the Chick Corea Akoustic Band.

Corea teamed up with virtuoso jazz singer Bobby McFerrin on “Play” (1992) and the classic improvisation work “The Mozart Sessions” (1996). He definitely moved into the classical realm with “Corea Concerto” (1999), on which a sextet and the London Philharmonic Orchestra tried out a piano concerto composed of himself and a Grammy orchestral arrangement of “Spain”. (Another classical ensemble for quartet and chamber orchestra, “The Continents”, was released in 2012.)

In total, Corea has collected 14 Grammys over the new millennium, winning multiple awards in 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2015. His award-winning trophies work in duet with Burton; a 2011 reunion with Clarke and White; an album with 5 Piece Band, a unit with guitarist John McLaughlin, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta; and a trio session in 2014 with McBride and drummer Brian Blade.

The past decade has also seen a pair of retrospective projects: Corea participated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a career-long music retrospective, and celebrated his 75th birthday in 2016 by performing with over 20 different bands at the a six-week residency course at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.

A member of the Church of Scientology since 1968, Corea has appeared on “Space Jazz: The Soundtrack to the Battlefield Earth Book,” a 1982 album attributed to church founder L. Ron Hubbard. In 1993, Corea was banned from performing at a concert in Stuttgart, Germany, due to the country’s official opposition to Scientology; the government subsequently relaxed its stance after objections from members of the US Congress.

Corea is survived by his second wife Gayle Moran and son Thaddeus.