He played with a host of musicians, starting with Miles Davis, who replaced Herbie Hancock. He was at the forefront of the emergence of jazz fusion. Legendary pianist and keyboardist Chick Correa died Tuesday at the age of 79.
André Maynard, co-founder of the Montreal International Jazz Festival (FIJM), was little shocked by the fact that Chick Correa, one of the festival’s jazz icons, could call a friend of hers, who has cancer. “The last time I saw him, about a year and a half ago, he was still enjoying all his usual vitality,” said, who was clearly affected by this disappearance.
The American artist succumbed, on Tuesday, to a rare type of cancer “very recently discovered”, which one can read Thursday on his official Facebook page. His death was confirmed by Dan Musa, director of web and marketing at Jazzman. “Throughout his life and career, Cheek [Corea] I enjoyed the freedom and pleasure to create something new and play the games that the artists made, “says a text announcing his death.
Chick Corea, born in 1941 in Massachusetts, started out with Cab Calloway in the early 1960s before joining Miles Davis at the end of the decade, with whom he recorded albums like Girls of KilimanjaroAnd the SilentlyAnd the Brew bitches And the a Tribute to Jack Johnson. Alan Simard, another co-founder of FIJM, states that “no more jazz rock was invented, no less”. Then, Chick Correa formed the Back Forever program with Billy Cobham.
He featured in the Miles Davis group, but soon became one of those who marked the history of jazz with the rise of what was termed a jazz fusion. He has always alternated between fusion jazz and acoustic jazz over the years. You can’t say it was a one-dimensional musician.
André Maynard, co-founder of the Montreal International Jazz Festival
Both men remember him as an “open” musician. Chick Corea was a very good person, Alan Simard insists. He took his role in music very seriously and this desire to propel him forward. Chick Corea has formed several groups over the course of his long career, which has also been marked by recordings of classical music. “Like Miles Davis, he always knew how to surround himself and form groups that created an era in which famous musicians such as Lenny White and Stanley Clark emerged.”
Chick Corea also performed a duet with Herbie Hancock, his predecessor with Miles Davis, and made an impressive duet with vibraphone bassist Gary Burton. “The duo with Burton, it’s cool, it’s a lace,” insists Alan Simard, who ranks Chick Correa among his favorite musicians.
FIJM Champion
FIJM founders vividly remember the time, in 1982, when Corea and Burton soon replaced Dexter Gordon to attend a concert at Théâtre St-Denis that was scheduled to be filmed for television. The two musicians were returning from Moscow and stopped at New York Airport where they agreed to board a plane bound for Montreal to meet on stage – and in front of TV cameras – that same night.
Photography by Robert Skinner, Press Archives
Cheek Correa, upon receiving the Miles-Davis Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2002
“I’ve created friendship and an admiration for Chick Corea that has never wavered over the years,” says André Ménard, who ranks pianist and pianist among FIJM’s “heroes”. In 2002, the festival also awarded him its most prestigious award, the Miles Davis Award, which Chick Correa said she wanted to find a good spot for her in her home with pictures of him and the legendary trumpeter.
Chick Corea’s Facebook page has a post he left “for everyone who knows and loves him, and for everyone who loves him”. “I would like to thank all those who, throughout my journey, have helped keep the fires of music burning. I hope that those who feel like playing, writing, composing and presenting in the scene will do so. If this is not the case for you, then the rest of us. Not only does the world need more artists, it is also a lot of fun. ”
Cheek Correa is the highest-grossing jazz Grammy Award-winning artist in the event’s 63-year history. Posthumously, he will have the opportunity to win more honors on March 14th, as he was nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, with All bluesAnd also for the best jazz album with Triple 2.
– The French News Agency