Sep 15, 2011
Chick Corea’s return to recording on ECM appears this week, when his duet album with Stefano Bollani, Orvieto, is released. At the age of 70, Corea shows no sign of slowing down or stopping his widely differing artistic output. He spent most of the spring and summer on tour with a new version of Return to Forever, having released a trio album with Lenny White and Stanley Clarke in June, entitled Forever. 2012 should find him playing with long-time collaborator Gary Burton and with Bollani.
Orvieto is their first album release drawn from New Year performances at the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival where the two pianists played several nights of concerts together. Chick and Stefano have been giving such concerts, mostly in the context of Italian festivals, for more than two years now. They started out in Ravello in July 2009, and from the outset it was clear to both artists that this was a combination of great musical potential. Bollani points out that he has been listening to Corea’s music since he was eleven years old, taking what he could “from his style, his phrasing and his incredible rhythm”, and feels honored, he says, to be playing in such company. Corea, from his side, has been monitoring Bollani’s playing for a few years, his liner notes to the ECM box set reissue of Solo Piano Improvisations/Children’s Songs already mentioning Stefano as a pianist who inspired him.
Podcast 231 is a too brief overview of Corea’s brilliance in both writing and playing acoustic and electric jazz. It kicks off with a track from the new CD, and then heads back to his days as a sideman with Stan Getz, moves through his years as a leader of acoustic groups, and ends with some collaboration with his Return to Forever bandmates. Click here and listen to:
Chick Corea and Stephano Bollani – “Darn That Dream” from Orvieto.
Stan Getz – “La Fiesta” from Captain Marvel.
Chick Corea – “Matrix” from Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.
Chick Corea – “Litha” from Tones for Joan’s Bones.
Chick Corea & Gary Burton – “Senor Mouse” from Crystal Silence.
Chick Corea – “Armando’s Rhumba” from Spanish Heart.
Chick Corea – “500 Miles High” from Trios – The Boston Three Party.
Return to Forever – “Spain” from Light as a Feather.
Corea, Clarke & White – “Captain Marvel” from Forever.