‘Improvising is learning to think’: Chick Corea returns to Colombia

Chick Corea, the American jazz legend, is coming to Colombia after a nine-year hiatus along with the other members of his “very special trio,” Eddie Gomez and Antonio Sanchez. They will perform in the Teatro Jorge Eliever Gaitan, Bogota, on May 25, reports Vive.in.

“What we do is improvised music…  jazz… or something!” he said of the sound of his new trio.”I’m not sure what we’ll play in Bogota, but it is very likely to include some of the music of Bill Evans.”

Since the ’60s, he has written a number of jazz classics, performed with Miles Davis, and received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for “Five Peace Band Live.” When he last appeared in Bogota and Medellin, he performed with the driving bassline-playing Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard.

The last time Corea visited Colombia he was greeted by an ecstatic crowd, ready to hear something new. With his return to the country, he intends to break new ground and establish new paradigms.

“It’s always a challenge to make new music, because if you do something with a different sound, you may not be familiar to the public, but to me, that’s one aspect of making music, creating something new and always trying to continue that,” the musician said.

“I think there is something wrong with the artists and even the public, who have a low estimate of their own ability to understand. They think that the public will not understand things that seem complicated, and that’s not true, because if the music has the feeling and emotion, and a rhythm to grab people, the public can understand anything.”

Corea, a keen Scientologist, has made two albums based on the fiction of the movement’s founder, Ron Hubbard. “As for philosophy, everyone has their own. I made two albums that really explore Hubbard’s fiction, not philosophy, because he is a great writer of fantasy too.”

Asked for advice for keen young musicians, he said “What I say to young jazz musicians is to develop your mind. Of course, you take information from the world and things around you, but eventually you will have your own opinion about life, music, everything.”

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