#chic corea

Image via Facebook

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Chick Corea, a towering jazz pianist with a staggering 23 Grammy Awards who pushed the boundaries of the genre and worked alongside Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, has died. He was 79.

Corea died Tuesday of a rare form of cancer, his team posted on his website. His death was confirmed by Corea’s web and marketing manager, Dan Muse.

“Throughout his life and career, Chick relished in the freedom and the fun to be had in creating something new, and in playing the games that artists do,” said a statement on his website.

From his Facebook -

It is with great sadness we announce that on February 9th, Chick Corea passed away at the age of 79, from a rare form of cancer which was only discovered very recently.

Throughout his life and career, Chick relished in the freedom and the fun to be had in creating something new, and in playing the games that artists do.

He was a beloved husband, father and grandfather, and a great mentor and friend to so many. Through his body of work and the decades he spent touring the world, he touched and inspired the lives of millions.

Though he would be the first to say that his music said more than words ever could, he nevertheless had this message for all those he knew and loved, and for all those who loved him:

“I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.

“And to my amazing musician friends who have been like family to me as long as I’ve known you: It has been a blessing and an honor learning from and playing with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has been the richness of my life.”

This week has been a roller-coaster. But it is as I say: At one point there needs to be a cosmic-suck to balance out the good karma heading our way.

2 people of importance of my life left this earth yesterday, one being my father-in-law who passed away at 6:13 am, February 12th after a proposed 7 months of battle with cancer in his bones and lungs. He was in good spirits until last Monday when everything flipped to the worse.

The doctor insisted many times they would only allow 1 visitor per day for each of the people who are in the elderly-home to minimize and prevent the spread of Covid-19, but this week was the first time in 4 months I had seen him.But for this once, they would allow me to enter the building to see him together with my significant other.

This was last Thursday. The doctor said the lungs are not producing enough oxygen, rendering my father-in-law unable to communicate through speech and he was too weak to even hold a pen or point of the sounds of the Japanese hiragana-system. I’ve never seen a person struggle so hard to catch air with so much pain at once. It hit me so hard and I promised myself I would not go out like that when I’m old. (This is why I don’t smoke kids, you look younger as a result.)

Already the week before I started to change my lifestyle, teaching from home I decided not to sit down anymore after I had a conversation with my friend in Maryland who said his health just gotten a lot worse previously, starting him to get some kind of urine-infection and small cases of kidney stones. That was the moment I decided no more to be “inactive”, even though working from home in these hard times naturally made a lot of people gain weight. I try to see any spot where I could get in a few squats, push-ups, high-kicks/knees, one-leg yoga balancing exercises out of view while teaching. I’ve started to feel the effects after a week and even more interesting, I will start to eat more apples as a result.

Now, let’s move over to the legend, Chick Corea...

First time I heard Chick Corea was a tape my father had, simply called “Friends”.

I was probably around 5 or 6 years old and the cover of these toys performing a musical tune made me love the album.

Legendary players in the line-up who then made great solo-careers like the like of:

Joe Farrell – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute

Eddie Gómez – double bass

Steve Gadd – drums

I think through this album Joe Farrell was one of the first saxophone players that started to peek my interest for the melodies that Chick had written and later on, Chick would be an influence of some of my fusion-numbers, especially Zeku’s theme I wrote for SFV in season 2.

Desconhecidos Por vezes, sinto-me próximo de quem não conheço em pessoa, e na música tenho muitos amigos.

Quando me recordo de alguém que não me é próximo, pela notícia da sua morte, sou invadido pela certeza da distância ser, em suma, o catalisador da falta de urbanidade e relação social entre humanos. Estar por estar não é critério, mas antes a leviandade de uma vida ausente e demente na sua forma insana de criar uma parte do nosso mundo. Ligar mentes, com pontes de querer, bem e simples, não tem…

Chic Corea

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