JAZZ - CHICK COREA WITH FRIEDRICH GULDA - THE MEETING

Recorded in the Kongressaal, Muich, during the Klaviersommer, this concert marks the first meeting of Chick Corea and Friedrich Gulda. The highlight of their concert was their performance on two pianos. Alongside various improvisations, they performed standard jazz pieces such as Some Day My Prince Will Come (Churchill/Morey), Put Your Little Foot Out (Miles Davis) and Poems No. 3 (Pauer).  At the end of the duo came a lyrically rendered paraphrase of Johannes Brahms’ Wiegenlied (Cradlesong).

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American jazz pianist, keyboardist, drummer, and composer.

 He is of Sicilian and Spanish descent. Armando's father, a jazz trumpet player who had led a Dixieland band in the Boston area in the 1930s and 1940s, introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Growing up surrounded by jazz music, he was influenced at an early age by bebop stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, and Lester Young. At eight Corea also took up drums, which would later influence his use of the piano as a percussion instrument.

Corea developed his piano skills by exploring music on his own. A notable influence was concert pianist Salvatore Sullo from whom Corea started taking lessons at age eight, who introduced him to classical music, helping spark his interest in musical composition. He also spent several years as a performer and soloist for The Knights of St. Rose, a Drum & Bugle Corp based in Chelsea.

Given a black tuxedo by his father, he started doing gigs when in high school. He enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroy's band at the time, and had a trio which would play Horace Silver's music at a local jazz club. He collaborated with Portuguese bandleader and trumpet player Phil Barboza, and with conga drummer Bill Fitch who introduced him to Latin music.

I liked the "extroversion" of Latin music, especially the dance and salsa style music - bands like Tito Puente's band and Machito's band. The Cuban dance music was a great kind of antidote to some of the more serious, heady jazz that I was into. I liked the "outgoingness" and exuberance of the music. I just stayed interested in all kinds of Latin music. Then I discovered Spanish Latin music, which is flamenco.

He eventually decided to move to New York where he studied musical education for one month at Columbia University and six months at The Juilliard School. Among his Juilliard teachers was Peter Schickele, who described Chick as "the most awake student I ever taught." He quit after finding both disappointing, but liked the atmosphere of New York where the musical scene became the starting point for his professional career.

Corea started his professional career in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Blue Mitchell and Latin greats such as Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria. One of the earliest recordings of his playing is with Blue Mitchell's quintet on The Thing To Do. This album features his composition "Chick's Tune", a clever retooling of "You Stepped Out of a Dream" that demonstrates the angular melodies and Latin-and-swing rhythms that characterize, in part, Corea's personal style. (Incidentally, the same tune features a drum solo by a very young Al Foster.)

His first album as a leader was Tones for Joan's Bones in 1966, two years before the release of his album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Roy Haynes on drums, and Miroslav Vitouš on bass.

He is known for his work during the 1970s in the genre of jazz fusion. He participated in the birth of the electric fusion movement as a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, and in the 1970s formed Return to Forever.

He continued to pursue other collaborations and explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

 Source: Wikipedia