The virtuoso pianist who pioneered jazz fusion

Chick Corea 1941–2021

For Chick Corea, jazz was all about freedom. On more than 90 albums recorded with scores of groups and collaborators, the piano virtuoso and 23-time Grammy winner ranged joyfully across genres, playing free jazz, bebop, Latin jazz, and classical concertos. Most notably, he was an integral figure in the 1970s jazz fusion movement, both as the keyboardist in Miles Davis’ first electric band— performing on groundbreaking albums including In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970)—and from 1971 as the leader of the group Return to Forever. With a driving, progressive rock–influenced sound and a roster that included bassist Stanley Clarke and guitarist Al Di Meola, Return to Forever was among the most successful fusion bands of all time, filling arenas and cracking the Billboard Top 40 with albums such as 1976’s Romantic Warrior. “Great art is made when the artist is free to try whatever techniques he wants and combine things any way he wants,” Corea said. “I try to live that way as best I can.” Armando Corea grew up outside Boston in a musical family, said the Los Angeles Times. “His trumpet-playing dad led a Dixieland band,” and

Corea—nicknamed “Cheeky” by a cheek-pinching aunt, a name that morphed into Chick—began studying piano at age 4. After high school he moved to New York City to study at Columbia University and the Juilliard School. But Corea “quickly found himself lured out of the classroom and into the clubs,” said The New York Times. He gigged with Latin percussionists Mongo Santamaría and Willie Bobo and top jazz artists including Stan Getz and Hubert Laws. His first two albums as a leader “earned rave reviews,” and in 1968 he joined Davis’ band, experimenting with the Fender Rhodes piano and other electronic keyboards. In the decades that followed, “Corea remained a musical chameleon, adapting to almost any musical setting with ease,” said The Washington Post. A tireless touring artist who relished collaboration, “he often had three or four working groups going at a time.” He performed into his late 70s, until sidelined by a rare form of cancer. “My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could,” he wrote in a final message to fans. “To have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has been the richness of my life.”