Chick Corea, a towering jazz pianist with a staggering 23 Grammy Awards who pushed the boundaries of the genre and worked alongside Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, has died. He was 79.
Corea died on Tuesday of a rare form of cancer, his team posted on his Web site. His death was confirmed by Corea’s Web and marketing manager, Dan Muse.
On his Facebook page, Corea left a message to his fans: “I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
A prolific artist with dozens of albums, Corea in 1968 replaced Hancock in Davis’ group, playing on the landmark albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew.
He formed his own avant-garde group, Circle, and then founded Return to Forever.
He worked on many other projects, including duos with Hancock and vibraphonist Gary Burton. He recorded and performed classical music, standards, solo originals, Latin jazz and tributes to great jazz pianists.
Corea was named a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master in 2006. He was a member of the Church of Scientology and lived in Clearwater, Florida. He regularly won the title of Jazz Artist of the Year from Downbeat Magazine.
In addition to his Grammy wins, Corea also had four Latin Grammy wins.
In a tweet, the Latin Recording Academy called him “a virtuosic pianist and one of the most prominent Latin jazz musicians of all times.”
The Blue Note jazz club in New York City simply called him “irreplaceable.”
Last year, Corea released the double album Plays, which captured him solo at various concerts armed simply with his piano.
“Like a runner loves to run because it just feels good, I like to play the piano just because it feels good,” he told The Associated Press at the time. “I can just switch gears and go to another direction or go to another song or whatever I want to do. So it’s a constant experiment.”
The double album was a peek into Corea’s musical heart, containing songs he wrote about the innocence of children decades ago as well as tunes by Mozart, Thelonious Monk and Stevie Wonder, among others.
Corea is the artist with the most jazz Grammys in the show’s 63-year history, and he has a chance to posthumously win at the March 14 show, where he is nominated for best improvised jazz solo for All Blues and best jazz instrumental album for Trilogy 2.
Corea was born in Massachusetts and began piano lessons at four.
However, he bristled at formal education and dropped out of both Columbia University and the Juilliard School. He began his career as a sideman.
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