My friend, jazz aficionado and the immensely talented artist Jonathan Glass is contributing today’s Mental Jukebox pick from Chick Corea—in honor of a true legend’s passing last week. Not only is Jonathan intimately familiar with Chick Corea’s catalog and live performances, he also gifted one of his signature ink sketches to the legendary jazz pianist.
As pianist Renee Rosnes put it best, "It's hardest to think of Chick Corea in the past because no other musician was as ‘present’ as he". It’s hard to overlook Corea’s vast stylings, especially with the electronic fusion band, Return to Forever. But I choose a song that I first heard pianist virtuoso Helen Sung play at Smalls, "Armando's Rhumba", a song dedicated to Chick Corea's dad, Armando, (it should also be noted that Chick's full name is ARmando Anthony "Chick" Corea).
This song has elements of flamenco mixed with jazz as many of his "Spanish" albums do. Hearing Helen's version felt definitive, but I later heard Chick Corea play this song at Jazz At Lincoln Center with another pianist virtuoso, Chucho Valdes, as a duo concert. While Helen Sung's version felt like a tightly woven composition, Chick offered some gorgeous soloing. "Armando's Rhumba" is decidedly a jazz standard while proving once again that Chick's writing and playing had an openness to all styles of music.
