Chick Corea’s Early Music with Return to Forever Was Strongly Influenced by

Chick Corea’s early music with Return to Forever was strongly influenced by Latin and Spanish music. This blog post discusses how this musical style affected his early work with the band.

Chick Corea’s Early Music

Chick Corea’s early music with Return to Forever was strongly influenced by Latin American and Cuban music. This can be heard in the song “Spain” which is a jazz fusion classic. Chick Corea was also influenced by classical music and you can hear this in his solo piano pieces.

His first band, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy

Chick Corea’s first band was Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, which he formed in 1971 with Return to Forever bandmates Stan Getz, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim. This band was strongly influenced by Miles Davis’s Electric Era music, as well as by the Brazilian music that Corea heard while touring with Getz. The result was a unique blend of jazz, rock, and Latin influences that made Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy one of the most innovative and exciting bands of its time.

His time with Miles Davis

Chick Corea’s time with Miles Davis was a major influence on his early work with Return to Forever. He was able to experiment with different sounds and textures, and his compositions became more complex. However, he still retained the melodic sensibility that made his playing so distinctive.

Chick Corea’s Return to Forever

As a kid, I was always fascinated by the way my father’s record collection was neatly organized by genre. So, when I found out that there was such a thing as jazz, I was thrilled. My father had a lot of records, but the ones that caught my attention were the ones by Chick Corea.

The formation of the band

The Chick Corea Return to Forever band was formed in 1972 and featured some of the top jazz musicians of the time, including Stan Getz, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim. The group’s self-titled debut album was a critical and commercial success, and their follow-up, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, was even more successful. Return to Forever became one of the most popular jazz groups of the 1970s, fusing elements of jazz, rock, and Latin music. The band’s final album, Romantic Warrior, was released in 1976.

The album, “Light as a Feather”

“Light as a Feather” is the second album by the jazz fusion band Return to Forever. It was released on October 13, 1972 by CTI Records. It reached number two on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and number 34 on the Billboard 200.

The album was recorded during July 1972 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It features Chick Corea on keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, Flora Purim on voice and percussion, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, and Joe Farrell on flute and saxophone.

Chick Corea’s Later Career

Chick Corea’s later career was strongly influenced by his early music with Return to Forever. Corea’s composition “Spain” was born out of his experiences with the band and his desire to explore different aspects of his musicality. Chick Corea’s return to jazz in the late 1990s was also shaped by his experiences with Return to Forever.

His work with The Vigil

In 2013, he formed the Chick Corea Akoustic Band with John Patitucci (bass) and Dave Weckl (drums). The trio recorded an album called Trilogy, which won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2014. Corea followed this up with another album featuring the Chick Corea Akoustic Band, called Also Sprach Zarathustra. In 2015, he released The Vigil, his first album with Christian McBride (bass) and Brian Blade (drums) since the 1990s. The Vigil won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2016.

His return to jazz

Chick Corea’s return to jazz in the late ’70s signaled a change in his musical direction. No longer content to stay within the confines of straight-ahead jazz, he began to experiment with other styles, incorporating elements of Latin music, rock, and even pop into his work. This new approach culminated in a series of highly successful albums that saw him embracing an ever-increasing range of genres.

Some of his most notable releases from this period include “The Mad Hatter” (1978), “My Spanish Heart” (1978), and “The Electric Band” (1982). Each of these records demonstrated his ever-expanding musical palette, as well as his knack for writing catchy melodies and accessible arrangements. His experimentation continued throughout the ’80s and ’90s, leading to some of his most celebrated work, such as “TheAkoustic Band” (1993) and “Origin” (2000).

In recent years, Corea has returned to his roots with a series of albums that feature him playing straight-ahead jazz. These includes “To the Stars” (2014) and “Trilogy 2” (2017), which both received critical acclaim. It is clear that, even at the age of 80, Chick Corea shows no signs of slowing down or resting on his laurels. He remains one of the most innovative and exciting musicians in the jazz world today.