32 Facts About Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist.

Chick Corea continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Chick Corea won 27 Grammy Awards and was nominated more than 70 times for the award.

Armando Corea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on June 12,1941, to parents Anna and Armando J Corea.

Chick Corea was of southern Italian descent, his father having been born to an immigrant from Albi comune, in the Province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region.

Chick Corea developed his piano skills while exploring music on his own.

Chick Corea was a performer and soloist for several years in the St Rose Scarlet Lancers, a drum and bugle corps based in Chelsea.

Chick Corea enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroy's band at the time and had a trio that played Horace Silver's music at a local jazz club.

Chick Corea eventually moved to New York City, where he studied music at Columbia University, then transferred to the Juilliard School.

Chick Corea quit both after finding them disappointing, but remained in New York.

Chick Corea began his professional recording and touring career in the early 1960s with Mongo Santamaria, Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, and Stan Getz.

In 1968, Chick Corea began recording and touring with Miles Davis, appearing on the widely praised Davis studio albums Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and On the Corner.

Chick Corea appeared as well as the later compilation albums Big Fun, Water Babies, and Circle in the Round.

Holland and Chick Corea departed the Davis group at the same time to form their own free jazz group, Circle, featuring multireedist Anthony Braxton and drummer Barry Altschul.

In 1971, Chick Corea decided to work in a solo context, recording the sessions that became Piano Improvisations Vol.

In 1976, Chick Corea released My Spanish Heart, influenced by Hispanic music and featuring vocalist Gayle Moran and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

Towards the end of the 1970s, Chick Corea embarked on a series of concerts with fellow pianist Herbie Hancock.

In 1982, Chick Corea performed The Meeting, a live duet with the classical pianist Friedrich Gulda.

In December 2007, Chick Corea recorded a duet album, The Enchantment, with banjoist Bela Fleck.

Fleck and Chick Corea toured extensively for the album in 2007.

In 2008, Corea collaborated with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara on the live album Duet.

Chick Corea signed a record deal with GRP Records in 1986 which led to the release of ten albums between 1986 and 1994, seven with the Elektric Band, two with the Akoustic Band, and a solo album, Expressions.

Chick Corea participated in 1998's Like Minds with old associates Gary Burton on vibraphone, Dave Holland on bass, Roy Haynes on drums, and Pat Metheny playing guitars.

Chick Corea continued recording fusion albums such as To the Stars and Ultimate Adventure.

Chick Corea worked on a collaboration CD with the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.

The ensemble included John McLaughlin whom Chick Corea had previously worked with in Miles Davis's late 1960s bands, including the group that recorded Davis's classic album Bitches Brew.

Chick Corea celebrated his 75th birthday in 2016 by playing with more than 20 different groups during a six-week stand at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Chick Corea was excluded from a concert during the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart, Germany.

Chick Corea was not banned from performing in Germany and had several appearances at the government-supported International Jazz Festival in Burghausen; he was awarded a plaque on Burghausen's "Street of Fame" in 2011.

Chick Corea died of a rare form of cancer shortly after his diagnosis.

Chick Corea died at his home near Tampa Bay, Florida on February 9,2021, at the age of 79.

Chick Corea won 27 Grammy Awards and was nominated 71 times for the award.