Chick Corea - Notes From the Road

One of the hippest guys in the universe–Ornette Coleman

Fuzzy picture of Chick and Elvis Costello backstage at a Sly and the Family Stone concert at North Sea Jazz Festival

Hey, thanks for tuning in. I thought I’d start letting you all in on what’s cookin’ from on “The Road” (the infamous “Road” which basically means playing gigs and being anywhere and everywhere except home. Don’t get me wrong - it’s great) with entries into our new “Notes From The Road”. — Chick

2 Jul 07 - en route from Newcastle, UK to Düsseldorf, Germany

I made I’d like to share with my music-loving friends is the piano music of a French composer I had heard of through John McLaughlin. It took me a year or so to finally get a CD of this man’s music - performed by a wonderfully spirited and technically immaculately pianist named John Chen. These compositions immediately became favorites of mine. Check it out! Oh, the composer’s name is Henri Dutilleux (born 1916).

2 Jul 07 - en route from Newcastle, UK to Düsseldorf, Germany 

Two great album cover designers– Marc Bessant {Peter Gabriel and Chick’s Latest} (right), and Marc’s hero, Sgt. Pepper’s designer, Peter Blake (left)

A cool thing happened on that tour. I overheard Béla and my friends talking avidly and deeply about the Beatles. I was kind of out of it since I never really delved into the Beatles’ music too deeply - my interest was elsewhere in the 60’s. But they were really having at it and it got me interested. I thought I ought to know more about what was obviously a musical phenomenon. So Béla offered me a crash course on the Beatles since we had a five-hour drive coming up (a flight got cancelled and we had to quickly rent some cars to scoot to a gig that night in Grand Rapids). He had a lot of Beatles music on his computer and so gave me a two-and-a-half hour chronological journey through their recordings.
And. . .well. . . I was blown away! Their creativity and high-toned spirit really captured my imagination. More to come on that - I’m still listening and looking. Oh yeah - then, two nights ago in London, I met renown artist Peter Blake, the renowned cover artist for the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was meant to be.

2 Jul 07 - en route from Newcastle, UK to Düsseldorf, Germany

Last month, Béla Fleck and I finished our June tour at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That was wild! I didn’t know what to expect from the bluegrassers because our duet music isn’t really blue grass. But it was pretty cool the way the audience dug on our “Joban Dna Nopia” (banjo and piano) wanderings.

2 Jul 07 - en route from Newcastle, UK to Düsseldorf, Germany

Weirdly cold weather for July - but the concerts with Gary Burton have been going great so far and we’ve got another five weeks of fun to go. We’re recording the gigs as we go and will have a new recording coming sometime soon. This should include the duet’s live performances as well as a recording a of our performance last May with the Sydney Symphony - new arrangements by Tim Garland of five of our older tunes including Crystal Silence.

2 Jul 07 - en route from Newcastle, UK to Düsseldorf, Germany

Some more recreation I’m having on this tour is mixing a new recording project of mine. I call it “long distance mixing” or “road mixing”. The project is a box set - five CDs of five different trios I have recorded over the last few years (mostly this year). Big Fun making this music with some incredible musicians, mostly old friends. The set will be released in the fall only in Japan but will also and be offered here on the website as well. Stay tuned.

Well there’s lots more, but that’s all for now. Let me know if you like these notes from the road. If so, I’ll try to put in more installments as the tour goes on.

Chick