Chick Corea Set To Make Only U.S. Solo Piano Appearance Trio Recording At The New Blue Note Las Vegas Club Also Planned

Pianist/Composer Chick Corea will make his only scheduled U.S. solo performance on a double bill with the legendary John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet at the Blue Note in New York from Tuesday, August 29 through Sunday, September 3. These U.S. only dates immediately follow solo performances in Norway, Japan and Korea.

The mercurial pianist will work the first half of September in California and Oregon with his Origin group rhythm mates, bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Jeff Ballard in preparation for their debut trio recording at the new Blue Note club in Las Vegas on September 17. The album to be released on Stretch is scheduled for Spring 2001.

Corea who is no stranger to solo piano recording and performance--he first recorded two classic albums of piano improvisations for ECM in the early 70's--recently released companion solo piano performances that were recorded on tour in Japan and Scandinavia in November of last year. Titled Standards and Originals, these new Stretch releases come on the heels of multiple Grammy nominations for Chick Corea & Origin's 1999 release Change, and a Grammy win for Like Minds with Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes. The prolific artist also released Corea: Concerto, a recording of original compostions for orchestra and sextet on Sony Classical.

At each performance Corea would open with a diverse set of classic tunes from the great jazz and American songbook. This is music that has informed and influenced his musical accomplishments as one of the music world's most critically acclaimed and popular jazz artists of the last 30+ years. He would follow this set each night with a program of original compositions that highlights the depth and emotional richness of his own artistic vision. Corea selected his favorite renditions for these two releases, each of which capture all of the innovation and sensibility of an artist at his musical zenith.

Not only was this music a thrill for the audiences but Corea spoke of what he learned from night to night. “Playing this program verified how the communication of music lives absolutely far above all other human differences - such as differences in language, religion, race, culture, age, sex, politics, etc. etc."

Corea is also currently authoring three guest editorial columns for Down Beat magazine to appear in late 2000 and early 2001. He'll also be contributing on the web to E! On-line, followed by a discussion on playing solo piano or acoustic music as opposed to working in other disciplines for Amazon.com.