Chick Corea at JSC

October 1, 2006

Legendary powerhouse pianist Chick Corea teams up with longtime collaborator, vibraphonist Gary Burton, for a much-anticipated concert at Johnson State College’s Dibden Center for the Arts, Saturday, October 21, at 8 p.m.

Corea and Burton first worked together 35 years ago on the sublime album Crystal Silence that will be a centerpiece of the reunion performance.

Since he began his professional career in 1962, Corea has won 10 GRAMMY awards, and won or been nominated for major awards more than 130 times.

Corea celebrated his 65th birthday this year, and is renowned for his forays into jazz, fusion, bebop, avant-garde, Latin and classical music styles. Since 1966, he has recorded 99 albums.

He has also worked with many of the world’s top performers and recording artists, including trumpeter Miles Davis on some of his greatest albums: Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live-Evil and Live at the Fillmore East. Other notable performers he has worked with include pianist Herbie Hancock, flutist Herbie Mann, saxophonist Stan Getz, horn player Dizzie Gillespie, bassist Stanley Clarke, and singers Sarah Vaughan and Flora Purim.

His own work offers some of the most celebrated, groundbreaking explorations in contemporary music, with the critically acclaimed albums Piano Improvisations, Vols. 1and 2; Return to Forever; Light as a Feather; Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, with Return to Forever; The Leprechaun; andRomantic Warrior, with Return to Forever.

A restlessly creative spirit, Corea continues to push musical boundaries with his dynamic Electric Band and flamencoTouchstone band, and a recent project on a new piano concerto inspired by Mozart, penned to celebrate this year’s Mozart festivities in Vienna.

Born Armando Anthony Corea in Chelsea, MA, on June 12, 1941, Corea began studying the piano at four, and early influences included Horace Silver and Bud Powell.

Corea’s performance at Johnson State College is one of only two Northeast shows (the other is in Fairfield, CT, Oct. 20), part of a world tour that will take him to New York City, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Hawaii, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Japan.

General admission to the Oct. 21 concert at Johnson State College is $75, available from the Flynn Box Office (800-86-FLYNN). Tickets for the JSC Community and Students (including alumni) are $25, available from the Dibden Box Office (802-635-1476).