Chick Corea’s piano jazz: stylistic syntheses and “conglomerates”
The article is devoted to revealing the peculiarity of the creative work by C. Corea — one of the leading representatives of the art of jazz of the last decades of XX — early XXI centuries. Being a jazz pianist by avocation and character of his creative genius, C. Corea creates in his style an “encyclopedia of jazz” (L. Auskern), in which models of various forms of it – traditional and modern – are presented. A characteristic feature of C. Corea’s creative work, singled out in this article, is universalism. This means a combination of different intonation and stylistic sources by the parameters of the “vertical” (in the same composition, in the same album) and “horizontal” (in the sequence of changes in the stylistics of compositions and albums created). The article traces the basic stylistic stages of C. Corea’s creative work, their generalized characteristics associated with the implementation of such various ingredients as symphonic jazz and ragtime, jazz-rock and “fusion” are given. The creative contacts of C. Corea-pianist with musicians of other specializations, among which the figure of B. McFerrin stands out, are also considered. In order to reveal the peculiarities of C. Corea’s style, it was necessary to connect them with the formation of his creative personality, that range of musical impressions and skills that he acquired and implemented at different stages of his activity. Like many jazz musicians of the late 1960s and 1970s, C. Corea was selftaught, that is he did not receive special training of a professional musician at the beginning of his career. At the same time, being gifted and curious by nature, he quickly absorbed and reproduced the impression of the jazz mainstream that sounded everywhere then, as well as the emerging rock on his favorite instrument. Nevertheless, C. Corea acquired certain professional skills, for which he even entered the famous Juilliard School on a class of piano, where he studied, however, not for long. At that time, the main training base for jazz musicians was private lessons of leading jazz masters, as well as their schools, among which C. Corea choses Miles Davis school. C. Corea received from this master not only the training of the technical level, but also the attitude to jazz as an art, which must be, on the one hand, highly professional, on the other hand, communicative in a special manner, capable of attracting a democratic audience. That is why the early period of C. Corea’s creative work is notable for experiments in the synthesis of jazz and rock, as well as the predominance in this regard of ensembles with musicians of other specializations — the vibraphonist G. Burton, flutist S. Kuyal, guitarist Al Di Meola and others. At the same time (which is typical of C. Corea’s general jazz thinking), he creates albums in a completely different style, close to free jazz. These were, basically, solo improvisations on his own themes in the spirit of the bebop style. However, almost at the same time, C. Corea combines similar “unstructured” free compositions with the style of Latin jazz, which marked the beginning of the second stage of his creative work (middle 1970s — late 1980s). The work in this style significantly expanded not only the “intonation geography” of C. Corea’s creative work, but also affected the features of the compositions of the ensembles involved in the albums he produced. Along with the traditional chamber-instrumental duets and trios, as well as quartets (freer-jazz quartet “Circle” composed of, except for C. Corea himself, the drummer B. Altshuler, bassist D. Holland, saxophonist E. Braxton), vocals are also used in C. Corea’s compositions, in particular the Brazilian “family” duo composed of the percussionist A. Moreira and singer F. Purim (albums “Return To Forever” and “Light As A Feather”). Attention is also drawn to C. Corea’s academic piano practice, which he addressed while studying at the Juilliard High School. The jazz musician chose Mozart’s piano music for himself, performing several of his piano concerts in public. In the same period, Corea’s jazz experiments, combined with the conductor and vocalist B. McFerrin, also appeared. The most famous, already classic for jazzing, is their joint song named “Song For Amadeus”, where the initial theme of Adagio from the Second Piano Sonata F-Dur by W.A. Mozart was used as the jazz standard. Here the skills of both musicians in the interpretation of Mozart’s masterpiece, in which they reveal “eternal” content, encompassing the finest strings of the human soul expressed through piano harmony and scat-vocals, are presented. The end of the 1980s and the 1990s in the style of C. Corea are marked by further experiments in the field of combining acoustics and electronics, for which jazz mainstream and jazz rock are involved. This is reflected, respectively, in the compositions of the two albums — ‘The Electric Band” (1986) and “Chick Corea Akoustic” (1989). It is characteristic that this music is intended for different consumers: electronic – for the youth audience, acoustic – for the older one, remembering traditional jazz. In the late 1990s, “the Noughties” and 2010s, C. Corea continues to create his “jazz encyclopedia”. A characteristic feature of this period of his work is working with young musicians, with whom he creates joint albums. These are in particular tenor saxophonist J. Redman and contrabass player and bass guitarist K. McBride, with whom C. Corea created the album “Remembering Bud Powell” (1997). C. Corea continues his solo piano improvisation practice in the albums “Oginals” and “Standarts” (2000), whose names speak for them. The special theme “Memory”, presented by C. Corea in five albums dedicated to the memory of famous jazz musicians — “5 trios — 1. Dr. Joe” (2007) and “5 trios — 2. From Miles”, (2007), should be pointed out. In the summary of the article, conclusions confirming the universal nature of C. Corea’s creative work, the meanings of which goes beyond piano jazz and even beyond the jazz art itself, since many tendencies, characteristic for today in the world musical art, where “unconnected” is connected, sometimes are reflected in the creative work of this musician on the American national style basis, are drawn