Chick Corea

Chick Corea was an American jazz composer, arranger, keyboardist, percussionist, bandleader and recording artist of southern Italian descent, born June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, Boston, Massachusetts. This very prolific musician played anything from Bebob, Post Bop, Free Jazz, Latin Jazz and Crossover to Circle (5). He acquired his nickname from an aunt who liked to address him as “Cheeky”.

In his youth, he marched as a lead soprano bugle soloist in a drum and bugle corps: Miles Davis 1968-70, before making 3 albums with Free Jazz and Fusion quartet Circle, as well as 2 solo piano improvisation albums in 1971-72. In 1971 he released the first Return to Forever album, and the band went from making Latin American acoustic and electronc music to a more Jazz Rock oriented approach during the decade. At the same time, Corea continued to explore Latin American and classical music, fusion and jazz, using mainly piano, electric piano and Minimoog. For the rest of his life, he kept on touring, recording and collaborating with numerous musicians, and was awarded 25 Emmys.

Chick Corea died from cancer on February 9, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. He was married to vocalist Gayle Moran.