Chick Corea

Born Armando Corea on June 12, 1941 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the acclaimed jazz and fusion keyboardist was better known by his nickname Chick Corea. Learning to play the piano at the age of four, Chick Corea cut his teeth by working with Stan Getz and Herbie Mann and became a key member of Miles Davis' group, playing on the legendary albums Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968) and Bitches Brew (1969), which helped take jazz into an ever more avant-garde, free-form and psychedelic territory. He delved into acoustic jazz with the quartet Circle and formed the Brazilian/Latin inspired group Return to Forever alongside Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Joe Farrell, and Stanley Clarke. The band won a Grammy Award for the album No Mystery in 1975, which was the first of 23 total Grammys that Chick Corea won during his lifetime. Corea's experimental playing style is notable for its use of electric keyboards and synthesizers, and as a band leader he has produced over 100 albums including early releases such as Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (1968) and the acclaimed The Leprechaun (1976), Friends (1978) and The New Crystal Silence (2008). He was renowned for his signature composition 'Spain' and he has become one of the most influential and studied musicians, noted for his role in creating electric jazz fusion and expanding the realms of the genre. He created a new band Chick Corea & The Vigil in 2013 and celebrated his 75th birthday by playing a marathon of six weeks at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, accompanied by 20 different groups. In 2018, he recorded the album Chinese Butterfly with veteran drummer Steve Gadd. Chick Corea formed a new group, The Spanish Heart Band, in 2019 and released the Grammy-winning album Antidote. He released the album Plays in 2020. Chick Corea died of cancer on February 9, 2021.