Chick Corea

Though he passed away a week ago, it’s been hard for me to process the loss of Chick Corea. I can’t even verbalize the impact that he’s had on my musical journey. I’m only now coming to grips on how to do this.

There have been plenty of things written about what he’s accomplished so I won’t waste time here. But I will say that he’s impacted me profoundly in that my path was very similar to his. He was willing to break so many barriers and cross boundaries during his time. Playing with Miles during his electric period was the start of so many different genres that he would not only explore but excel at. He was at the forefront of fusion, mixing jazz with rock, funk, latin, etc.

Yet despite all of his different forms of music, you always knew Chick’s voice. His playing was easily identifiable no matter what genre he played in. Chick had that God given gift to be able to make his instrument a voice that could tell any type of story, though it was almost always a happy, light one. There may be only a handful of distinct Rhodes players since the Fender Rhodes came out, and his was one.

I think the best way I’ve been able to honor Chick is that my path looks completely different. While I have roots in Jazz, I’ve been steeped in Electronica, Funk, and Reggae in the last 5 years; my vision of “Fusion” is different than what Chick did. And that’s okay, I think. The last thing any one of these greats would want is to have someone imitate them note for note. Just as Chick, Herbie, Tony, Marcus, etc. all took distinct paths from Miles; and Glasper, Henry, Semrad, etc. took distinct paths from those guys, it’s up to us to find our way. Though I follow a lot of Chick’s concepts, I strive for my own voice. I don’t claim to be innovative but I’m willing to experiment — I don’t know if “DAWless Jazz” exists but I think I found my calling.

RIP Chick