You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Remembering Chick Corea

Episode Date: February 18, 2021

The jazz world (and the music world as a whole) lost one of its most cherished artists last week: Chick Corea. Today, Peter and Adam pay tribute to his iconic music.Links from this episode:To see Chick's 1982 White House performance, follow this link.To hear in full all of the Chick Corea tunes covered in this episode, here's a link to our Spotify playlist.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music, advice, and appreciation. Coming at you. Coming at you today with much appreciation. Today we are honoring a master, a man that we lost about a week ago. We found out we lost the amazing Chick Korea.

And Peter, we had plans for something else, but obviously this is a really important moment for appreciators of music, appreciators of jazz specifically. And, you know, we have a lot of jazz pianists. that listened to this podcast. And obviously, Chick was a hero to almost all of us. I haven't yet met anybody that doesn't at least respect

Chick. So I thought it would be just a real would be a miss if we didn't honor one of our main heroes. Absolutely. His life and his music. I mean, yeah, probably the least polarizing figure ever in jazz.

Yeah. So true. And probably, you know, it's so many different angles that you can admire his legacy, which has been, you know, one of the joys that has come out of this, you know, not a joyful thing as far as losing chikaria, the person and his human vessel. But in looking at his legacy, obviously, his compositions, his bands, his recordings, his incredible live performances, he was so prolific and consistent over the years. and then, you know, just an extreme level of versatility in terms of being able to play and interact and compose and perform and record in different styles on multiple instruments. I mean, and then he never let up and he had that joy and that ultimate level of service to the listeners. Like he was always ready to tour even when he didn't need to, you know, and reveled in that and bringing music. So it's such a rich legacy, but I would say he's probably, you know, the most consistent performer since a very young age.

And I know that that's a relatively early recording, but we're going to go even earlier, I believe, if I'm looking at your Spotify playlist correctly. Yeah, that's right. And we do have a playlist here linked in the description that you can follow and you can enjoy yourself even later. We're not going to listen to every minute of every one of these tunes. We've got 13 tracks. We might even add a couple more before we leave here. today. Yeah, and I think we look at this really as we're not trying to just jump in and out, but a little bit of a sampler pack for you guys. I know there's some stuff in you putting

this together that I didn't, had never heard. Well, and we, we've been in contact with our listeners, with our Yule Hill listeners on YouTube, with our Open Studio members. And I've put in some things that I haven't heard of, actually, that, I mean, here's the thing with Chick Korea, with someone so prolific, someone who made several albums for every year that he started, since he started. Yeah. Is that his sound, while he always sounded like Chick, he made so, such a wide variety of music, so many different kinds of genres and, and players, and really just an incredibly

rich tapestry of music. And so we just thought we would try to do our best here to represent a little bit of all that. And listen, we're going to miss some things here. And so send your angry letters to Peter Martin. At Adam Maness. No, actually, it would be great, though. If you wanted to reach out and let us know your favorite Chick-Correa songs,

you can tag us on all of the social media at Adam Anus at Peter Martin. I am Peter Martin. Yeah, exactly, at I am Peter Martin. Hashtag you'll hear it. You can hashtag Open Studio as well. You would be checking no hashtag. What are you talking about? No, but Rachel Morgan is.

And I know. But yeah, let us know what we missed because, you know, there's actually not enough time in even a show as long as we do now with our longer format. There's not enough time to cover such an incredible career. Absolutely. And I think, no, I mean, that was well said. And it's funny because, you know, when you hear in the mainstream press of which there was quite a few notices, as there should be, you know, which just was a reminder that Chick wasn't just our. in our community, in the jazz community. I mean, he was a household name kind of.

Yeah. You know, I mean, I don't know, you know, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chick-Korea. He was up there with Lewis Armstrong in terms of like just the public, which surprised me. I didn't realize that. 100%. Yeah. But also someone that you might see at your local jazz club touring through town. Yeah.

Which is awesome. Well, and one of the great videos I saw, I've been on a deep dive of, and I'd seen a lot of Chick Korea YouTube videos. But he was playing maybe. five years ago, six years ago at Catalina's. Talk about your local. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And there's a great one from Scullors, too. Ah, awesome. You've seen that it's like a whole hour long concert. Right. And there's so much stuff. He must not have been very restrictive as far as having his people like, go get that camera or whatever. He seemed, yeah, that wasn't really a style.

No. Now we'll see if he takes down this podcast because we, you know, his people do that. Yeah. But they, Stevie Wonder was at the gig. Oh, yeah. And Chick-Karia kind of calls them up and they do pastime paradise. And somebody's got some cell phone video that's actually kind of... You know you're good when Stevie Wonder's a fan.

That's what I'm saying. Stevie Wonder comes to your show. Yeah. You're in your... I've heard Stevie Wonder live play Spain. Oh my gosh. With his band very well. Wow.

Very well. That's cool. And like harmonically and keys. Yeah. He doesn't sing it or anything. And probably like his little guitar pegy or whatever. Yeah. You could do all of it.

Yeah. The intro's over there. Yeah. Well, let's get started here. So we'll start at the beginning. This is really going to try to cover on, you know, know, the breadth of his life as much as we can. Like I said, well, we're sure to leave some important things out for... So this is his first? You were just telling me beforehand. Well, this is the first

thing I could find with a little bit of research. This is a recording from 1962, so he would have been very young. 20 or 21. This is with Mongo Santa Maria. And I actually, let's just listen. We can talk about it. Yes. Even at a young age there, a 20-year-old chick. still very playful. Yes. Very much chick. It's very much chick, not Horace Silver. Very much chick.

Has his own touch for sure. That's Mongo Santa Maria on percussion. Playing a lot of skins there. The album is skins. And the name of that track is Chambolero. Chambolero. Yeah, yeah. So that's Chick's first known,

at least that I'm aware of his first known recording with a major artist. The next step in 1960, I believe this was 1963, very next year, Blue Mitchell. Yes. And this is kind of a more famous recording. This was the one I always thought was his first record, but maybe it was first Blue Note or whatever. You know, Mongo San Francisco is, I'm sure, fantastic percussionist, but he's definitely not on the level of like Blue Mitchell as far as like in the jazz scene. You know what I mean?

as far as like straight ahead and jazz goes. So I'm sure. That was Adam Manus that said that, not Peter Martin, just to put that out there. No, nothing against Mongo. It sounds. To the bowl. Feels awesome. Feels awesome.

But, you know, so what I was going to say, which is interesting, is that if you look at sort of the first part of Chick's career, like the first five years, he was getting a lot of these gigs, you know, quote unquote Latin gigs, even straight ahead artists. Like when they did a Latin album, it's like, oh, let's hire that young kid Chick Korea. He sounds Latin. Yeah. You know what I mean? He's from Chelsea, Massachusetts. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And he's like the swing in this player you've ever heard. We should hire him for the Latin thing. Right, right. Yeah. So this is Chick's tune. This is a Chick-Korea tune, I believe, from Blue Mitchell. Here we go. That's Chick-Korean on Chick's tune.

That's a, you stepped out of a dream. Contra-Fact. Did you know that term contra-fact? Of course. It's a contra-fact. I just learned it by context clues. I did too, actually, I think. Yeah, it's one of those fancy music school words.

You better hope, you know, sometimes your attorney knows that term to defend you on a publishing lawsuit, perhaps. right? I didn't steal those changes. It's a contra effect. It's a contra effect. So that was 1964, actually. And then we're going to go now to Chick's very first solo album. This was recorded in 1966. And I have here released in 1968,

although I'm not sure if that's true. Yeah, this was a funny thing because wasn't it like we're talking about Tones for Jones, right? Yeah, Tones for Jones, it wasn't a complete album or something or some of the tracks didn't come out. Yeah, I'm not short. There's a weird, like all these things from the

mid-60s is kind of a weird publishing history to it. And this is on Atlantic, I believe, or was acquired by Atlantic. It was acquired by it. I think when you hear it, when you hear the quality of sound, you're going to not

think that this was done at Atlantic. Yeah, you're not a big fan of the tuning on this piano. I just wish, you know, you have these masters. It happens on Herbie, some of Herbie's early recordings, too. It's just like, can we tune the piano folks? Right. There was a whole industry of piano tuners back in the day. They needed the work.

They needed the, there was a whole series of people that would come and do. I mean, there still is, but it was like a bigger industry then. You could have had the piano tune for Chick Korea. That's all I'm saying. Even though he was a young cat. This is Tones for Jones Bones. Despite the piano, this is just lovely. This is Chick, Chick, Korea's, sorry, Peter.

This is Chick Korea's debut as a leader, Tones for Jones Bones. And produced by Herbie Mann, you said. Yes. Yeah, I just saw that. kind of feel like, you know, Herbie, like, is the discussion there like, you know what, would sound great? And the engineer was like, should we tune the piano? And they're like, no, no, but what if we put it all on the left side?

Then it's only halfway on the tune. Yeah, then it's only halfway. If we don't tune it, but we pan it over to one side completely. Let's do that. Sorry, that's, I'm getting dark on it because I just want to hear chick, you know what I mean, crystal clear. Now luckily, we've got about 300 more records, not today, unfortunately, but, you know, that are available with perfectly tuned pianos.

Well, luckily, just a few years later, he made one of his many masterpiece albums. Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. Ever heard of it? And the piano sounds amazing in that. And there's nothing for me to bitch about there. And this is, I think, we're going to listen to Matrix, which is...

Well, didn't we already listen to a track from this album? We started off, yeah. Pan Onica, which is the monk tune we started the whole show with, was from Now He Sing Now Sowns. Panonica. Thank you. But actually that was a release well later, like in the 80s or 90s, on the CD release. Oh, right, right.

Yeah, it wasn't on the original track listing. Which is weird. Which is weird. It's beautiful. And that and my one only love, same thing, which is now those are both, I think, pretty iconic. So were they left off, you think, because there just wasn't space on the LP? I have no idea. I don't know.

Because they're definitely complete. They aren't like, you know, cast offs or anything like that. No, everything from this session is not a cast off. So let's check it out. This is, let's just listen to the first part of the solo of Matrix. And if you've never heard this, I mean, we might as well listen to the whole solo. This is just a masterpiece. This is Matrix from Now He Sing, Now He Subs.

It just doesn't get better than that. That's just unbelievable. What are you hearing there now when you listen to this? I know you've heard this a billion times, but what do you hear when you hear that solo? Well, I think, first of all, I have not like some pianists yourself probably included. And really most, I've not heard this a billion. I've heard a lot. but not as much as song.

Oh, that's right. Actually, we did a session on this album, and this wasn't one of your big chick albums. It was, I mean, it was, of course, because it's like, you know, you don't love chick and not love this and this, but just it's just more of circumstantial. It's just never been a record I've listened to a whole lot. Yeah.

Well, actually, I thought I had, and then I met different people that just know every note on it. Yeah. But I think that, you know, like most of the recordings and live performances, especially when you would see Chickeria, they're so multifaceted in terms of like what's going on because he was he had such big ears and he had such a welcoming kind of personality even like back at a young age here he was ready to go in so many different directions but but to me what's really interesting about this one of the things is the sort of early stages the genesis of this trio that would they would come back together and work together and make great recordings and but to see like how the foundation of the way that they interacted mirislav and Roy Haynes and Chick, the way that they interacted and heard the music,

like was already set there. Yeah. You know, it was like they were friends. And I have no idea. I figured they probably, well, I know him and Roy Haynes were friends. But I mean, like, I'm just talking about musical friends now.

Like, they had that kind of musical communication. By the way, can we just a little Mirzlaw of appreciation? Oh, man. He was lighting it up at this time. Yeah. And then you got to figure, like Roy Haynes is a little bit older.

I always think of him as, you know. Yeah. And he's still with us. God bless him. Oh, my God. But no, he's back in the day. playing with Sarah Vaughn in the late 50s. Exactly. Yeah. So there's probably an element of chick being like, well, I know there was where he's like, oh man, this is like Roy Haynes, you know, like Elvin Jones and Tony Williams and these guys. But it's like, Roy Haynes, you know, Thelonious Monk. I've heard him talk about that, you know, like he went to New York. He's like, these are the cats that he wanted to be around and be inspired by and hopefully play with. But then on just a purely musical level, even especially knowing what they went on to play with in later years as a trio. Like they had that conversation.

Like that beautiful kind of conversation. So there's the, of course, the great eighth note, the articulation, the technique of Chick that he's known for and has been copied so much. Guilty is charged. Oh, no, me too. But this is a great kind of, like, because you're taking a specific kind of technique and you're not, you're never going to copy his spirit. I wish I could copy it. Exactly. Yeah.

But it's almost like I figured like a drummer that's got that really good, like, snare drum technique or something. It's like if you can aspire to that, it's going to improve your story. And I think Chick already had it was so effortless. You know, but then you combine that with the chances that he would take. And I love the way that they let the beat. Like, it's not like a strict, like, this is exactly how we're feeling the beat. Like, there's an elasticity. There's a give and take.

And I think Roy Haynes really is the one on this that opens the door to that. And Chick is like, yeah. And Miroslav is like just holding it right there. But that gives it that great conversation of like just being, like, if you were around them and to see them, it's just like three really cool guys having this great musical conversation. But it's not like a square thing. Hello, how are you? I am fine.

No, it's like, come on. It's the bending and it's, it's incredible. It's incredible. It really is. If you haven't really checked out, all of Nowey sings, now he sobs, I envy you. Go listen to it. Go get to know it. It's so great.

I would just say, and for this, something that I saw recently, just because of this deep dive that we've been doing on all things, Chick, and there's, it doesn't matter how much you think you know this stuff. There's so many videos. For sure. But if you go on YouTube and look for 1982, and we'll link to this, 1982, Chick-Korea, Roy Haynes. It's the same trio

at the White House. It's kind of a random, like, I guess this was the Reagan White House. And it's in the green room there, like the color green room. It's just like kind of a stiff place. And they're playing and they, and Chick says some words.

And then it's just so cool because he just kind of goes on this really open improv. Yeah. And they're going, and then they go into Autumn leaves. And you're like, is Nancy Reagan digging this? Probably not.

Is Barbara Bush into this? I doubt it. Yeah. But it's kind of like you can see, it's the same spirit. And I think about it's like two to eras because this is when I first became aware, not because of the White House, but 1982 was right, probably right at the time I first heard Spain and like, oh my God, I want to be like

that. But you talk about 1960. What was 90s? 68. Yeah, we're talking about like the difference between now and ear food, buddy. I know. It's not long ago. I know.

But it feels like the 60s where I wasn't alive. I know. And then to the 80s, what I was very alive. Very, very much alive. Well, we would be remiss if we did not mention chicks run with Miles Davis's late 6th. early 70s group made a flurry of records with Miles. Ever heard of him? Playing electric piano, of course.

And probably the most famous, if not the most famous, was Bitches Brew. And Bidges Brew is a record, actually, for me, Peter, that I was not one of my canon records. It wasn't allowed in your household. It wasn't allowed in my household. But, no, it wasn't one that I, I mean, I heard, of course, like you listened to everything,

but it wasn't one that I was playing on repeat when I was a teenager, even though it's weird because it seems like a very much a thing you would smoke some weed and play as a teenager over and over again. I just never went through that phase. But the older I get, the more I've actually appreciated Bitchers Brew. I actually got to do a show here at Jazz St. Louis of all of Bitchers Brew. We chose a selection of the sketch. I mean, they really are sketches that this band and Miles put together. And Chick is a huge part of this sound. Yeah.

And so let's just listen to a little bit of Farrow's Jance from Bitch's Brue. If you haven't really given Biches Brew, it's Fair Shot, go give it a listen. Oh, it's a classic. Recently, you know, and, you know, if you want to smoke up a little bit before. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a family show. Family show. But it does help.

It does help. If you want to smoke up some chord changes, check out what chick's going. There you go. There you go. Well, if that's not a you'll hear it kind of track, I don't know what is. That's right. You're going to have to hear it. Yeah.

What amazing. First of all, can we just shout out to that edit there. there's that really famous edit in Pharaoh's dance there or just all of a sudden the bottom drops out I love it that they would just back in the day

they would just leave like just gashes yeah that wasn't a multi-track edit that was a mono edit it was a good stuff razor blade so that's from 1970 that's from Bitches brew that's Pharaoh's dance

you're my birth man your your bitch's brew's birth year of my birth when Peter Martin came into the world to that drag Daz died no actually I I saw, I was on a jazz cruise for, remember this cruise, like Crystal Cruises?

They would do jazz cruises. Right. I was on, there was a lecture from a guy who said like, and then Ornette Coleman came and jazz went into its death spiral. And I was like, come on, buddy. Ornette, I mean, well, I mean, maybe Kenny G. I mean, there's some, you know, if you're going to get harsh, there's a lot of people you could say, but.

Dang. That's too, it's too fancy, man. Right. So, okay. So from here, Chick, obviously, dig in the roads. Yes. forms his band Return to Feverever. They make the album Return to Feather,

and then they make one of my favorite chick albums and one of many people's favorite, Light as a Feather. Return to Feather, the album's great. Right. But Light as a Feather, to me, is another masterpiece album. Absolutely. And that, of course, has probably his most famous original tune

on it, which is Spain. Yes. And that's what we're going to listen to. Let's do it. Next. That's Spain from Light as a Feather. Yep. That is, I mean, that is,

now iconic. And you were saying that we were talking a little bit as that was playing and you were saying you even prefer some of the later solo piano versions of that, which I agree. This is a tune that has evolved because it became kind of a standard. You and I actually both talked about how we played this in our high school

big band, our high school jazz band. There must have been some kind of who is the dude Mark someone arrangement going around in the 80s and 90s. Right, right. One of those, yeah, the big band arrangers. That was, I mean, it was a good, you know what? It was probably thinking back to it, that arrangement was really, like, we'd listen to it now and be like,

you know, I want to hear chickplate. Yeah. But it's like one of those gateway drugs. It's one of those entry points. For sure. A lot of kids fell in love with Chickaria. You're right. So it must have been like playable because we had a good jazz, you know, high school jazz band,

but I mean, if it had been like a Chick Maria big band arrangement or like a professional level. Yeah. Like, you know, you can play it. And it's a difficult tune anyway. Yeah. So, you know, it has to be playable. But then when you can connect. I always figure like a high school jazz band or an orchestra or anything in music in high school.

Like if you're not having fun doing it, I always blame like the band director or the high school orchestra director. Because it's like it's kind of like if you're playing basketball. I mean, if you're on the bench and you want to get in, that's one thing. But if you're playing, there's so much fun associated with it that anybody who takes the fun out of it. You know, like now trigonometry and, you know, AP physics, I don't know. I mean, that can be fun, but not for everybody. No, and we've been, you know, since we've been talking so much about Chick all week and we'll, I'm sure, continue for the rest of month. Fun keeps coming up.

And Spain is fun to play. Yeah. That's a great point. And actually, we're already at a place, too, if you think about it. Think about where we started, right, with the Mongo Santa Maria. Yeah. And Chick's tune from Blue Mitchell. We're already in the place that's way different, way different, way different Spain.

You know, the sounds are so different and there's still the sense of childlike playfulness. We're not going to look into all this, just to let you know. I'm looking. This is a great, regardless, we're going to touch. leave all this on here. We're going to touch on a little bit of it. So next is from my birth year, 1978. Oh, what do you know about 78?

And there's a ton of records from the late 70s, Madhatter, Tap Step. There's one where he's in like a Matador. Man, he was so prolific. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Well, he had his own studio by then, too. Because he had Madhatter Studios. I picked this one.

I like the sound of this record. I don't know this record very well, but I picked this one because for me as a kid who was born in 1978, this has the greatest cover ever. I had the. these smurf these smurf figurines I had the whole set when I was a kid

I watched the cartoons this is the one this is from friends this is friends dude I don't know how we could have both because we're eight years apart but I did too

and well by the time I was there they came in the McDonald's happy meal yeah I remember that but also we still have Kelly Martin is a big figurine and a huge

smurf person so we have to do you still have your collection no are we getting off topic here a little bit but it's relevant go check out the cover to the Chick Korea's

friends you'll see what we're talking about these figurines were dope though. Yeah. This is from 1978's friends. This is friends. That's Chick-Corea's friends from 1978, obviously.

Yes. That's 1978 written all over it. So much fun. Okay. So that's light and pretty and playful, of course, very chick-like. Yes.

Let's go on to something that is still very playful, but this is friggin heavy. This is his three quartets album. This is another one we might let play a little bit longer. This is intense, man. This is Michael Breck.

Eddie Gomez, Steve Gad. This is quartet number one from three quartets. Yes, check it out. Chickariah, Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez, Steve Gad. At period, it's weird. It's like Michael Brecker when the time machine and somehow ripped off a bunch of saxophone players 20 years in the future, because there's a bunch of players

that sounded like that. I know. Not too long after that. That's weird. Yeah, he was, I know. I just, what a reminder of the huge outsized influence he had. My goodness. From that point.

This was a great record. I forgot about this record. I'm so glad that you put that on there, three quartets. I remember when that came out, and it was, that was a fun one. All right, so neither of us are, we're not. I would just say, can I just add? Please. Not my favorite piano sound for Chick on that.

I know that it's not to the level of your disdain for the out-of-tune piano. Well, the whole late 70s, early 80s recording, I mean, the bass two is very, you know, mid-rangey, which was the sound. It was amp heavy back then, but I don't know, not my favorite either. But, I mean, Chickoria could transcend, you know, not only transcend, like, he loved, like, just being, he was so great. Yeah. He loved being in the moment. He wasn't like, oh, I have to. I got it.

Like, he's just, like, cool. I mean, in the outfits he wore it this time. He was in the moment. Come on, you know. And you know what else is cool, too? Like, right around this time, everybody was like, you know what? We don't even need to record acoustically. Yeah.

Why don't we just go electric? Hello. That's got a match from Chickoria's electric band, of course, Petitucci, Weckle, you know the crew. I mean, this had to have been. you know for a period here and really up you know still now we were talking about like more influential specifically on musicians I mean well loved by listeners too and that's the thing chick like he could man he was so versatile but I mean like this band was just like I mean you talk about drummers copying and just geeking out of weckle this is really I think when when this about

Patatucci was first really started to get noticed or known of course yeah weckle too this is what really made their names you know was this chick Korea electric band I mean I remember drummers that I was friends with bass players that I was friends with in high school had these you know on VHS tapes and the electric band they were posters of Dave Weckle's setup that was just like yeah yeah totally they had the they had the drum shoes you know what I talk about the special they were really just wrestling shoes it didn't Weckle have like some pant like some pantalones with like um drum pantalones with like an extra stick holder yeah yeah yeah yeah and then like you know like a little strap like a little waist strap around the ankle or something I think you that's all you you made that up

But it does show just how versatile chick was, man. This was as much part of his sound, and it still sounds like chick as much as anything. We're going to move on now to something completely different. This is actually something you hit me to. Yes. This is from a Bud Powell tribute album. This is with Christian McBride. Was it Wallace Rooney?

Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett, and Roy Haynes. Man, okay. Let's check it out. This is bouncing with Bud. These are all Bud Palat tunes. Yep. How does he do it, Peter? You're somehow, like, completely honoring Bud Powell.

You can hear it. Yeah. And still completely himself, completely playful, completely, you know, in control. Amazing. Super modern and super just like fitting, fitting right into the truth. Like if you were a chick fan or maybe even not and you just went and heard this and you're like, wow, okay, I like that. Who's Bud Powell? I don't really know.

Like this could there be any kind of better entry point? Well, I guess seeing Bud Powell play. No, it's true. But seeing as there was no Bud Powell anymore, I mean, it's just what a great. connection there and I know that that was, he was a big fan coming up you know, and I guess listening to records of Lumpel. Yeah. I don't know.

Maybe he heard him live, who knows. So this next one that we're going to listen to is Rendezvous in New York. This is one of the first ones that was like Chick was making new music that I was listening to. It was kind of like right in my wheelhouse. This was him with a bunch of different people. Yeah. I love this version. All duos, right?

All duos. This is a great version. And I think he just like kind of set up shop at the blue note. Yeah. And people would come through. you know this is him and bobby mcfarin doing blue monk this is just masterful on both both accounts bobby mcfarin yeah man living his life right there on stage with chick korea just we were we were just talking about that chick would do these residences there at the blue node this one was a few months long i believe yes and people would just come out and that would be it yeah they would make whatever they would make and just beautiful we'll leave today peter martin this is um with his last really i think

and possibly best trio. I'm going to put that out there. I'm going to put that state. Well, it gets overlooked. That's out of menace. That's not me saying that. No, no, no, no. I think every trio he had was equally great.

You are such a politician. No, this is. This is with Christian McBride. I mean, we look at it up. Giant picture of Christian McBride. It's hard not to. Don't get nervous. I'm not nervous.

No, this is a great trio. Chris McBride and Brian Blade. First of all, no, you know how I'm such a Brian Blade fan. I know he's your friend and you guys are tight. But no, but you know what it is for me? me with this trio, I would say musically, you're absolutely right. And as much, as much to do, of course, with Chick-Korea and kind of been like everything leading up to this as it were, because it turned out to be his final performances last year. They were on tour with this trio. I know. And I remember

texting with Christian that when all the lockdown happened, they were in Europe and we were supposed to go to Spain and we were going to see them like a couple days later. I'm about to get on the plane. Like, oh, it's the Lambert International Airways. Is it international? used to be international. You know, that TWA hub. Yeah. Well, I was flying internationally. I'm sure I was going somewhere first.

But then they were like flights canceled, tourists canceled. Everything's locked down. This is the beginning of the COVID. And so they were like had just played their last, what turned out to be the last gig, got stuck there a couple days and then eventually had to fly back. Man. But that was like,

I believe that was Chick's last, before sure his last touring because there hasn't been anything, you know. You know what I like about this trio? This is with Christian McBride and Brindlade. Is that when I think of Chick, I think of this incredible mix of playful, sophistication, and earthiness. And I think about those things with Christian and Brian, too.

Christian has this amazing sophistication. You know, he knows every record ever made it seemingly to us. And has kind of came, even when he was young and on the scene, and you knew him when he was a teenager, and he was already like a fully developed person, you know, as a player. And then Brian Blade has this real earthiness, you know, where he just feels so organic. natural. And I think they just help to shade those parts of Chick's personality. And of course,

all three are just amazing artists that I can't say enough about this trio, these two recordings they made. We're going to go out here with Joe Henderson's Serenity is the tune. And it's this trio from Trilogy Part Two. Yeah. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Chick. Thank you, Chick. Thank you, rest in peace. And thank you for the artistry, for the humanity, for all just the life lessons, the music lessons, and for your musical legacy. And thank you guys for listening. and just, you know, it's kind of a collective thank you to check for, we're going to have for hundreds, thousands, forever. Yeah, yeah.

Here's serenity.