Jazz pianist Chick Corea on his original Elektric Band’s 30 years of evolution, ahead of their Hong Kong gig
Bandmates who were in their 20s are now well established and Corea is 75, but their enthusiasm is undimmed three decades on from their debut, he says
During those 30 years, including both concert and studio recordings, he has released more than 50 albums as a leader or co-leader. He has also picked up 16 Grammy awards to add to another six that were already on his shelf.
Always an artist who thrives on collaboration, he has begun, maintained or renewed musical partnerships with, among many others, vocalist Bobby McFerrin, banjoist Bela Fleck and guitarist John McLaughlin, and reconvened the band which made him famous in the early 1970s, Return to Forever, for a successful international tour.
He has also returned more than once to Hong Kong, most recently in 2009 with The Five Peace Band which he co-leads with McLaughlin, and before that in 2005 with the Elektric Band .
On that occasion, original bassist John Patitucci was missing from the personnel – Ric Fierabracci stood in – but for the Elektric band’s upcoming return to the venue where the band first appeared in Hong Kong we have, in the language of rock reunion tours, the “classic line-up”.