"The more I play in different situations, the more possibilities I discover for what I can do. Rather than think in terms of my music developing, I choose to bask in the glow of one thing for a few minutes, then let it go." --Chick Corea

Photo by Howard A. Gitelson

One of the most heralded performers of modern jazz, Chick Corea makes a rare Twin Cities appearance this week at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis (June 21st). Performing as part of the Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, Corea will introduce Minnesotans to his latest project, the Latin ensemble Touchstone. And needing no introduction, Cuban transplant—himself a keyboard wizard-- Nachito Herrera will provide an opening set that likely will go far beyond a “warm-up.”

Twelve-time Grammy Award winner Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea has enjoyed a fairy-tale career for over four decades. Growing up in Chelsea, MA, his home was filled with jazz—the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Lester Young and Horace Silver, as well as the inspirational music of Mozart and Beethoven. His father was a trumpeter who played around Boston with a Dixieland band. Says Corea, “When I was a tot, I grew up in an atmosphere of my dad playing his record collection of 78 rpm vinyl. It was Diz and Bird. Bud Powell was in some of those bands… I used to like to listen to his piano solos. My father pointed them out. I was 6 or 7 years old. As I was beginning to play the piano, I couldn't nearly approach trying to play anything like what Bud played. It was too technical for me.”

Another early influence was Horace Silver: “I did a lot of transcribing of Horace's compositions, transcribed his piano solos. He was a pianist I was very much interested in.” And over the years, he has identified many other influences: “I finally sat down and made the list of pianists I feel I learned from or got inspired by in one way or another. And gee, it's a whole page of pianists, from Vladimir Horowitz through to Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans and Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner. The list could be extended now, because there are other pianists I've found as well. It's a piano club, you know?”

Young Corea cut his teeth in the mid-60s with Blue Mitchell, with whom he recorded his earliest compostions. Leading his first project, Tones for Joan’s Bones, he also fell under the Latin influences of Herbie Mann and particularly Mongo Santamaria, influences that would frequently inform his music throughout his career. He also cites work with the Stan Getz Quartet as pivotal in his early development. After a year with Sarah Vaughn, Corea hit the mother lode playing electric piano on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way recordings, leading to his famous and highly influential band, Return to Forever. Of his work with Miles, Corea notes that “It was a pretty emotional experience, after what for me at that time was a lifetime of listening to Miles and following his recordings and learning from the musicians around him and so forth, to actually be on the stage with him…Miles approached that whole thing kind of like he was cooking up a spiritual brew. He was like a witch doctor. He brought all of these musicians together and he was brewing the pot.”

With the early edition of Return to Forever (1971), Corea created a samba-flavored ensemble featuring Flora Purim on vocals, her husband Airto on drums, young Stanley Clarke on guitar, and reedist Joe Farrell. After a few acclaimed recordings, Corea electrified RTF and ushered in the fusion era of the 70s, featuring manic drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors (replaced later by Al DiMeola). By the time the group disbanded in 1975, they had produced several popular (and Grammy-winning) recordings, and Moog synthesizers had become part of the common arsenal of modern jazz.

Post RTF, Corea engaged in a variety of ensemble and solo projects, electric and acoustic, and in the company of such legends as Herbie Hancock and Gary Burton. He reassembled some of his RTF bandmates along with Lee Konitz, Paco de Lucia, and others to record the Latin-fusion Touchstone in 1982 (Stretch), returning to this sound 20 years later with his current band, Touchstone. From the mid 80s, Corea continued to find success on acoustic piano as well as synthesizer, with his “Elektric Band” and with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Chaka Khan, and Nancy Wilson. Then, in 1992, Corea, along with manager Ron Moss, formed Stretch Records, a label committed to stretching musical boundaries. Early productions included projects by Bob Berg, John Patitucci, Eddie Gomez, and Robben Ford.

When Stretch Records became a subsidiary of Concord in 1996, Corea began recording for his label, starting with a tribute to his early idol, Bud Powell. At about the same time, he recorded a duet album with Bobby McFerrin which won a Grammy, and another classical album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (both for Sony). Productive as well as eclectic, Corea followed in 1998 with another Grammy, this time paired with Gary Burton on Native Sense (Stretch). In the late 90s, Corea initiated another ensemble, the acoustic sextet Origin, releasing three recordings over a few years. Meanwhile, he continued his series of classical recordings with the release of his own Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Sony, 1999).

Always seeking new ways of expressing his musical spirit, Corea now leads another ensemble, Touchstone, a return to his explorations of flamenco and other Latin rhythms. With a core made up of members of Paco de Lucia’s band, Touchstone includes bassist Carles Benavent (who appeared on the original Touchstone recording), Jorge Pardo (sax/flute), Rubem Dantas (percussion), and Tom Brechtlein (drums). Noted the London Guardian, Touchstone “…sometimes sounded like early Return to Forever playing snatches of Concierto de Aranjuez, but the Spanish rhythms were given new twists by a superb percussion section and Corea’s inventiveness.”

Photo by Andrea Canter

Joining Corea at Orchestra Hall will be special guest Nachito Herrera. A child prodigy who studied classical music in Havana, Herrera went on to serve as music director for several bands before leading Cubanissmo! His travels to the US caught the eye of potential sponsors, including the Dakota’s Lowell Pickett, and with some wrangling with state department redtape, this amazing musician found himself in Minnesota. After his inaugural band Puro Cubano recorded Live at the Dakota, Herrera developed another great ensemble featuring Cuban musicians (The Cuban All-Stars), and together this ensemble released Bembe en mi Casa this past winter. Noted Michael Dumbrow (Urban Pioneer), “His hands move at a blinding pace over the keys, trilling not only with his dominant hand but with both, turning the piano keys into an extension of his very self.” The Orchestra Hall performance will be a rare opportunity to see and hear this keyboard monster outside of his usual Cuban band context. Where classical structures merge with native Cuban rhythms, where dexterity and fluidity merge with passion and joy, this is the intersection that is home to Nachito Herrera.

Chick Corea and Touchstone perform at Orchestra Hall on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis on June 21, 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at www.minnesotaorchestra.org. On June 22, the band will be in Ann Arbor at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival at Power Center (www.annarborsummerfestival.org). Most quotes of Chick Corea from All About Jazz interview, available at www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=226. For a sonic introduction to Chick Corea’s music, see his 60^th birthday double CD recording, Rendezvous in New York (Stretch, 2003).