Veteran jazz pianist Chick Corea has announced a new solo double album called Plays.
The record features new takes on songs by Stevie Wonder, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Antônio Carlos Jobim and more.
The album arrives Sept. 11 via Concord Jazz.
In the meantime, Corea has shared the first single, a recording of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F, KV332 (2nd Part – Adagio).
Corea’s last album was last year’s Antidote, recorded with his Spanish Heart Band. At the end of the year, JAZZ.FM91 named it one of our 10 favourite albums of 2019.
Corea and his trio with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade were two weeks into their seven-week Trilogy tour through Europe when the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown, forcing the group to end the tour early and postpone the remaining shows.
Since then, Corea has also launched an online school to help a future generation of artists learn how to discover their love of music.
Beginning this month, the Chick Corea Academy offers video lessons, weekly live workshops, community discussions and rare recordings from the multiple Grammy Award winner’s extensive archive of music.
Corea says that after publishing his book A Work in Progress… On Being a Musician, he found that there was still so much more that he wanted to share. So, he set up this online school with the goal of balancing musical theory and practical performance, with an emphasis on individual goal-setting and progress tracking.
“I believe there is no limit to how much one can achieve – or how able and competent one can become. Therefore, I like to regard the Academy’s activities and development a ‘work in progress’ — the same way I regard my own music and life,” Corea says.
“I want to encourage those who have the desire to create music and art to go for it and do it as a professional life’s pursuit or simply as an enjoyable hobby,” he adds. “I have observed that the more art and music there is in a family or a community, the more pleasant and livable it is. The creative impulse is basic to all human beings. It just needs to be recognized and nurtured to grow into something beautiful.”
Visit the Chick Corea Academy’s website at chickcoreaacademy.com.