Jazz great Chick Corea, winner of 23 Grammy Awards, dies at 79

RIP. I saw him several times. A brilliant musician.

I actually met him and talked with him. Genius musician and composer and thoroughly nice guy.

Come back soon, Chick!

Him and John McLaughlin were making some great music, back in the day.

RIP, Chick Corea.

I feel like a piece of me just died ... or still lives in his music.

When I first heard 'Sorceress' playing in the background at a party of music dept. buddies from UNC-W, my world turned upside down. From then on, it was fusion / jazz / Brazilian music all the way ... the doors opened by Chick.

After that 'Romantic Warrior' album, I went back and discovered what was to become my favorites, the first two RTF albums with Airto and Flora (who I met at BlueNote Japan), and then his 'Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 and 2', 'Crystal Silence', and another varied and vibrant shocker in 'Where Have I Known You Before'. By then, I had started putting together a roadmap of jazz in my mind, radiating out from who Chick had played with ... and it was a luckily comprehensively good start, as there were few he had not.

I must have over 50 of his CDs here in Japan, and at least that many LPs back in the states when I was coming of age. I still remember a cassette of 'The Leprechaun' on my Walkman-earphones combo under my motorcycle helmet under the flat Sonoran sun and cooler foothills of Bisbee, Arizona. And was thrilled to find a great LaserDisc at Roppongi's 'Wave' of Chick hosting the history of Jazz Piano.

I can hear Chick in early Makoto Ozone and Hiromi Uehara.

And I guess I'll be hearing him when I am on my last journey.

Long live the king.

Sad day. But he live on thru his music.

Absolute loss to all the musicians and the music world. There was absolutely no other greater legend of today other than Corea. My deepest prayers are with him and his family.

RIP

"Corea died Tuesday of a rare for [sic] of cancer..."

(Correction) - form of cancer

The best of the best... Chick Corea!