"Chick" Corea

Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea, a Massachusetts born jazz pianist and composer, has worked with popular names such as Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis.  His musical style has been compared to artists such as Karlheinz Stockhausen because of the electric elements of his music.

Over his long-lived career, Corea has made several transitions within the jazz genre.  His first album, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, has been classified as classical jazz.  He then entered an avant-garde period and began his work with Miles Davis; under who’s guidance Corea began playing the electric piano.  Much of Corea’s later work is defined by fusion elements of jazz and other genres such as classical and electric.

One of Chick Corea’s most popular recordings is a piece entitled Matrix and is highlighted on The Best of Chick Corea album.  This song was originally release on Corea’s first album and is considered to be a classic jazz piece by many critics.  The pieces utilizes many of the elements of classic jazz including atonal piano melodies, the syncopation of background percussion, and a sense of improvisation that can be heard in the rushing and lagging of notes of the melody in comparison to the remainder of the orchestra.  Within this piece, calming, fixed melodies are quickly interrupted with atonal chords and intrusions of the percussion but then fall back and continue the original melody, causing a very involved listening experience since the listener is almost forced to guess when the next key change or percussion interruption is to take place.  Furthermore, an entire stop to the flow of the melody is provided in the bass solo, performed by Miroslav Vitous, until the original melody resumes again.

Key elements of Corea’s style are seen in Matrix, namely the quick progression of a chord and then a quick change to a different key or even the introduction of another instrument to the forefront of the listening experience.  This style is quite similar to that of Corea’s first main mentor, Miles Davis.

Corea is the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, being nominated for 59 awards and has won 18 of these.  Corea has also earned five nominations for the upcoming 2013 Grammys.