Chick Corea, 1941 – 2021

Synth and Software comments on the jazz great’s legacy.

How many Chick Corea albums do you own?

Public figures die every year, and that includes famous musicians. But Chick Corea’s death has hit a lot of us musicians hard. And not only musicians – three friends who aren’t musicians texted me (separately) to tell me he’d died.

It’s not that we all knew him personally, it’s that he was a musical hero to so many of us who came of age in the latter part of the 20th century. We listened – probably still listen – to his music all the time. I can’t even remember how many of his concerts I went to. At least four.

You couldn’t walk down the practice or ensemble rooms hallway at Berklee College of Music (my alma mater), without hearing multiple people playing “Spain.” Our contributors picked it for the Best Electric Piano Performance of All Time – maybe not quite up there with his 23 Grammys, but close. And of course that’s only one of hundreds of his lasting compositions and performances.

A genuine icon. 🙁 Here’s the New York Times obit.

May all our legacies amount to even 5% of what he’s left behind.

– Nick Batzdorf (those are the Chick Corea albums in my collection, by the way)