In jazz and blues, a blue note (also "worried" note^[1]) is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the diatonic pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are often seen as akin to relative pitches found in traditional African work songs.

Blue notes (*): ♭3, (♯4)/♭5, ♭7

Like the blues in general, the blue notes can mean many things. One quality that they all have in common, however, is that they are flatter than one would expect, classically speaking. But this flatness may take several forms. On the one hand, it may be a microtonal affair of a quarter-tone or so. Here one may speak of neutral intervals, neither major nor minor. On the other hand, the flattening may be by a full semitone--as it must be, of course, on keyboard instruments. It may involve a glide, either upward or downward. Again, this may be a microtonal, almost imperceptible affair, or it may be a slur between notes a semitone apart, so that there is actually not one blue note but two. A blue note may even be marked by a microtonal shake of a kind common in Oriental music [sic].
The degrees of the mode treated in this way are, in order of frequency, the third, seventh, fifth, and sixth.

—Peter van der Merwe (1989), ^[2]

The blue notes are usually said to be the flattened third, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh scale degrees.^[3] Though the blues scale has "an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly 'forced' over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities".^[4] A similar conflict occurs between the notes of the minor scale and the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as "Why Don't You Do Right?."

In the case of the flattened third over the root (or the flattened seventh over the dominant), the resulting chord is a neutral mixed third chord.

Blue notes are used in many blues songs, in jazz, and in conventional popular songs with a "blue" feeling, such as Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather." Blue notes are also prevalent in English folk music.^[5] Bent or "blue notes", called in Ireland "long notes", play a vital part in Irish music.^[6]

See also[link]

• Blues scale
• Harmonic seventh

References[link]

Herbie Hancock
Hancock in concert at the Nice Jazz Festival 2010
Background information
Birth name	Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Also known as	Herbie Hancock
Born	(1940-04-12) April 12, 1940 (age 72) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Jazz, bebop, post bop, jazz fusion, hard bop, jazz-funk, funk, R&B, electro funk, classical
Occupations	Musician, composer, bandleader
Instruments	Piano, synthesizer, organ, clavinet, keytar, vocoder
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Columbia, Blue Note, Verve, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Miles Davis Quintet, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder
Website	www.herbiehancock.com

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer.^[1] As part of Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music (characterized by syncopated drum beats). Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.

Hancock is a member of Sōka Gakkai International.^[2][3]

On July 22, 2011 at a ceremony in Paris, Hancock was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of Intercultural Dialogue.

Early life and career[link]

Hancock was born in Chicago, Illinois. Like many jazz pianists, Hancock started with a classical music education. He studied from age seven, and his talent was recognized early. Considered a child prodigy,^[4] he played the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 5 at a young people's concert with the Chicago Symphony at age eleven.^[5]

Through his teens, Hancock never had a jazz teacher, but developed his ear and sense of harmony. He was also influenced by records of the vocal group the Hi-Lo's. He reported that:

the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings -like the harmonies I used on 'Speak Like a Child' -just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it came from.^[6]

In 1960, he heard Chris Anderson play just once, and begged him to accept him as a student.^[7] Hancock often mentions Anderson as his harmonic guru. Hancock left Grinnell College, moved to Chicago and began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins, during which period he also took courses at Roosevelt University. (He later graduated from Grinnell with degrees in electrical engineering and music. Grinnell also awarded him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1972).^[5][8] Donald Byrd was attending the Manhattan School of Music in New York at the time and suggested that Hancock study composition with Vittorio Giannini, which he did for a short time in 1960. The pianist quickly earned a reputation, and played subsequent sessions with Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods. He recorded his first solo album Takin' Off for Blue Note Records in 1962. "Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off) was to provide Mongo Santamaría with a hit single, but more importantly for Hancock, Takin' Off caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was at that time assembling a new band. Hancock was introduced to Davis by the young drummer Tony Williams, a member of the new band.

Miles Davis quintet and Blue Note[link]

Hancock received considerable attention when, in May 1963,^[5] he joined Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet. Davis personally sought out Hancock, whom he saw as one of the most promising talents in jazz. The rhythm section Davis organized was young but effective, comprising bassist Ron Carter, 17-year-old drummer Tony Williams, and Hancock on piano. After George Coleman and Sam Rivers each took a turn at the saxophone spot, the quintet would gel with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. This quintet is often regarded as one of the finest jazz ensembles, and the rhythm section has been especially praised for its innovation and flexibility.

The second great quintet was where Hancock found his own voice as a pianist. Not only did he find new ways to use common chords, but he also popularized chords that had not previously been used in jazz. Hancock also developed a unique taste for "orchestral" accompaniment – using quartal harmony and Debussy-like harmonies, with stark contrasts then unheard of in jazz. With Williams and Carter he wove a labyrinth of rhythmic intricacy on, around and over existing melodic and chordal schemes. In the later half of the sixties their approach became so sophisticated and unorthodox that conventional chord changes would hardly be discernible; hence their improvisational concept would become known as "Time, No Changes". 

While in Davis's band, Hancock also found time to record dozens of sessions for the Blue Note label, both under his own name and as a sideman with other musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Grant Green, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard.

His albums Empyrean Isles (1964) and Maiden Voyage (1965) were to be two of the most famous and influential jazz LPs of the sixties, winning praise for both their innovation and accessibility (the latter demonstrated by the subsequent enormous popularity of the Maiden Voyage title track as a jazz standard, and by the jazz rap group US3 having a hit single with "Cantaloop" (derived from "Cantaloupe Island" on Empyrean Isles) some twenty five years later). Empyrean Isles featured the Davis rhythm section of Hancock, Carter and Williams with the addition of Freddie Hubbard on cornet, while Maiden Voyage also added former Davis saxophonist George Coleman (with Hubbard remaining on trumpet). Both albums are regarded as among the principal foundations of the post-bop style. Hancock also recorded several less-well-known but still critically acclaimed albums with larger ensembles – My Point of View (1963), Speak Like a Child (1968) and The Prisoner (1969) featured flugelhorn, alto flute and bass trombone. 1963's Inventions and Dimensions was an album of almost entirely improvised music, teaming Hancock with bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin percussionists, Willie Bobo and Osvaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez.

During this period, Hancock also composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup, the first of many soundtracks he recorded in his career.

Davis had begun incorporating elements of rock and popular music into his recordings by the end of Hancock's tenure with the band. Despite some initial reluctance, Hancock began doubling on electric keyboards including the Fender Rhodes electric piano at Davis's insistence. Hancock adapted quickly to the new instruments, which proved to be instrumental in his future artistic endeavors.

Under the pretext that he had returned late from a honeymoon in Brazil, Hancock was dismissed from Davis's band. In the summer of 1968 Hancock formed his own sextet. However, although Davis soon disbanded his quintet to search for a new sound, Hancock, despite his departure from the working band, continued to appear on Miles Davis records for the next few years. Noteworthy appearances include In a Silent Way, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On the Corner.

[edit] Fat Albert and Mwandishi

Hancock playing a Roland AX-7 keytar, at The Roundhouse, Camden, London, 2006

Hancock left Blue Note in 1969, signing up with Warner Bros. Records. In 1969, Hancock composed the soundtrack for the Bill Cosby animated children's television show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Titled Fat Albert Rotunda, the album was mainly an R&B-influenced album with strong jazz overtones. One of the jazzier songs on the record, "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", was later re-worked as a more electronic sounding song for the Quincy Jones album, Sounds...and Stuff Like That.

Hancock became fascinated with accumulating musical gadgets and toys. Together with the profound influence of Davis's Bitches Brew, this fascination would culminate in a series of albums in which electronic instruments are coupled with acoustic instruments.

Hancock's first ventures into electronic music started with a sextet comprising Hancock, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart, and a trio of horn players: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), and multireedist Bennie Maupin. Dr. Patrick Gleeson was eventually added to the mix to play and program the synthesizers. In fact, Hancock was one of the first jazz pianists to completely embrace electronic keyboards.^{[citation needed]}

The sextet, later a septet with the addition of Gleeson, made three experimental albums under Hancock's name: Mwandishi (1971), Crossings (1972) (both on Warner Bros. Records), and Sextant (1973) (released on Columbia Records); two more, Realization and Inside Out, were recorded under Henderson's name with essentially the same personnel. The music often had very free improvisations and showed influence from the electronic music of some contemporary classical composers.

Synthesizer player Patrick Gleeson, one of the first musicians to play synthesizer on any jazz recording, introduced the instrument on Crossings, released in 1972, one of a handful of influential electronic jazz/fusion recordings to feature synthesizer that same year. On Crossings (as well as on I Sing the Body Electric), the synthesizer is used more as an improvisatory global orchestration device than as a strictly melodic instrument. This reflected Gleeson's (and Powell's) interest in contemporary European electronic music techniques and in the West Coast synthesis techniques of Morton Subotnick and other contemporaries, several of whom were resident at one time or another, as was Gleeson, at The Mills College Tape Music Center. An early review of Crossings in Downbeat magazine complained about the synthesizer, but a few years later the magazine noted in a cover story on Gleeson that he was "a pioneer" in the field of electronics in jazz. Gleeson used a modular Moog III for the recording of the album, but used an ARP 2600 synthesizer, and occasionally an ARP Soloist for the group's live performances. On Sextant Gleeson used the more compact ARP synthesizers instead of the larger Moog III for both studio and live performances. In the albums following The Crossings, Hancock started to play synth himself and unlike Gleeson, he plays it as a melodical and rhythm instrument just like electric pianos.

Hancock's three records released in 1971–1973, became later known as the "Mwandishi" albums, so-called after a Swahili name Hancock sometimes used during this era (Mwandishi is Swahili for writer). The first two, including Fat Albert Rotunda were made available on the 2-CD set Mwandishi: the Complete Warner Bros. Recordings, released in 1994, but are now sold as individual CD editions. Of the three electronic albums, Sextant is probably the most experimental since the Arp synthesizers are used extensively, and some advanced improvisation ("post-modal free impressionism") is found on the tracks "Hornets" and "Hidden Shadows" (which is in the meter 19/4). "Hornets" was later revised on the 2001 album Future2Future as "Virtual Hornets".

Among the instruments Hancock and Gleeson used were Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP 2600, ARP Pro Soloist Synthesizer, a Mellotron and the Moog synthesizer III.

All three Warner Bros. albums Fat Albert Rotunda, Mwandishi, and Crossings, were remastered in 2001 and released in Europe but were not released in the U.S.A. as of June 2005. In the Winter of 2006–7 a remastered edition of Crossings was announced and scheduled for release in the Spring.

[edit] Headhunters and Death Wish

Hancock performing in concert, 2006

After the sometimes "airy" and decidedly experimental "Mwandishi" albums, Hancock was eager to perform more "earthy" and "funky" music. The Mwandishi albums – though these days seen as respected early fusion recordings – had seen mixed reviews and poor sales, so it is probable that Hancock was motivated by financial concerns as well as artistic restlessness.^{[citation needed]} Hancock was also bothered by the fact that many people did not understand avant-garde music. He explained that he loved funk music, especially Sly Stone's music, so he wanted to try to make funk himself.

He gathered a new band, which he called The Headhunters, keeping only Maupin from the sextet and adding bassist Paul Jackson, percussionist Bill Summers, and drummer Harvey Mason. The album Head Hunters, released in 1973, was a major hit and crossed over to pop audiences, though it prompted criticism from some jazz fans. Head Hunters was recorded at Different Fur studios.

Despite charges of "selling out", Stephen Erlewine of Allmusic positively reviewed the album among other friendly critics, saying, "Head Hunters still sounds fresh and vital three decades after its initial release, and its genre-bending proved vastly influential on not only jazz, but funk, soul, and hip-hop."^[9]

Mason was replaced by Mike Clark, and the band released a second album, Thrust, the following year. (A live album from a Japan performance, consisting of compositions from those first two Head Hunters releases was released in 1975 as Flood. The record has since been released on CD in Japan.) This was almost as well received as its predecessor, if not attaining the same level of commercial success. The Headhunters made another successful album (called Survival of the Fittest) without Hancock, while Hancock himself started to make even more commercial albums, often featuring members of the band, but no longer billed as The Headhunters. The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for Return of the Headhunters, and a version of the band (featuring Jackson and Clark) continues to play live and record.

In 1973, Hancock composed his second masterful soundtrack to the controversial film The Spook Who Sat By The Door. Then in 1974, he also composed the soundtrack to the first Death Wish film. One of his memorable songs, "Joanna's Theme", would later be re-recorded in 1997 on his duet album with Wayne Shorter 1 + 1.

Hancock's next jazz-funk albums of the 1970s were Man-Child (1975), and Secrets (1976), which point toward the more commercial direction Hancock would take over the next decade. These albums feature the members of the 'Headhunters' band, but also a variety of other musicians in important roles.

[edit] Back to the basics: VSOP and Future Shock

During late 1970s and early 1980s, Hancock toured with his "V.S.O.P." quintet, which featured all the members of the 1960s Miles Davis quintet except Davis, who was replaced by trumpet giant Freddie Hubbard. There was constant speculation that one day Davis would reunite with his classic band, but he never did so. VSOP recorded several live albums in the late 1970s, including VSOP (1976), and VSOP: The Quintet (1977).

In 1978, Hancock recorded a duet with Chick Corea, who had replaced him in the Miles Davis band a decade earlier. He also released a solo acoustic piano album titled The Piano (1978), which, like so many Hancock albums at the time, was initially released only in Japan. (It was finally released in the US in 2004.) Several other Japan-only releases have yet to surface in the US, such as Dedication (1974), VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum (1977), and Direct Step (1978). Live Under the Sky was a VSOP album remastered for the US in 2004, and included an entire second concert from the July 1979 tour.

From 1978–1982, Hancock recorded many albums consisting of jazz-inflected disco and pop music, beginning with Sunlight (featuring guest musicians including Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on the last track) (1978). Singing through a vocoder, he earned a British hit,^[10] "I Thought It Was You", although critics were unimpressed.^[11] This led to more vocoder on the 1979 follow-up, Feets, Don't Fail Me Now, which gave him another UK hit in "You Bet Your Love".^[10] Albums such as Monster (1980), Magic Windows (1981), and Lite Me Up (1982) were some of Hancock's most criticized and unwelcomed albums, the market at the time being somewhat saturated with similar pop-jazz hybrids from the likes of former bandmate Freddie Hubbard. Hancock himself had quite a limited role in some of those albums, leaving singing, composing and even producing to others. Mr. Hands (1980) is perhaps the one album during this period that was critically acclaimed. To the delight of many fans, there were no vocals on the album, and one track featured Jaco Pastorius on bass. The album contained a wide variety of different styles, including a disco instrumental song, a Latin-jazz number and an electronic piece in which Hancock plays alone with the help of computers.

Hancock also found time to record more traditional jazz while creating more commercially oriented music. He toured with Tony Williams and Ron Carter in 1981, recording Herbie Hancock Trio, a five-track live album released only in Japan. A month later, he recorded Quartet with Wynton Marsalis, released in the US the following year. Hancock, Williams and Carter toured internationally with Wynton and his brother Branford Marsalis in what was affectionately known as "VSOP II". This quintet can be heard on Marsalis' debut album on Columbia (1981). In 1982 he contributed to the Simple Minds album New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84), playing a synthesizer solo on the track "Hunter and The Hunted".

In 1983, Hancock had a mainstream hit with the Grammy-award winning instrumental single "Rockit" from the album Future Shock. It was perhaps the first mainstream single to feature scratching, and also featured an innovative animated music video which was directed by Godley and Creme and showed several robot-like artworks by Jim Whiting. The video was a hit on MTV and reached No.8 in the UK.^[12] The video won five different categories at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards. This single ushered in a collaboration with noted bassist and producer Bill Laswell. Hancock experimented with electronic music on a string of three LPs produced by Laswell: Future Shock (1983), Sound-System (1984) and Perfect Machine (1988). Despite the success of "Rockit", Hancock's trio of Laswell-produced albums (particularly the latter two) are among the most critically derided of his entire career, perhaps even more so than his erstwhile pop-jazz experiments. Hancock's level of actual contribution to these albums was also questioned, with some critics contending that the Laswell albums should have been labelled "Bill Laswell featuring Herbie Hancock".

During this period, he appeared onstage at the Grammy awards with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones, and Thomas Dolby, in a famous synthesizer jam (The video on Youtube can be found here.). Lesser known works from the 1980s are the live album Jazz Africa and the studio album Village Life (1984), which were recorded with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso.^[13] Also, in 1985 Hancock performed as a guest on the album So Red The Rose by the Duran Duran offshoot group Arcadia. He also provided introductory and closing comments for the PBS rebroadcast in the United States of the BBC educational series from the mid-1980s, Rockschool (not to be confused with the most recent Gene Simmons' Rock School series).

In 1986, Hancock performed and acted in the film 'Round Midnight. He also wrote the score/soundtrack, for which he won an Academy Award for Original Music Score. Often he would write music for TV commercials. "Maiden Voyage", in fact, started out as a cologne advertisement. At the end of the Perfect Machine tour, Hancock decided to leave Columbia Records after a 15-plus-year relationship.

As of June 2005, almost half of his Columbia recordings have been remastered. The first three US releases, Sextant, Head Hunters and Thrust as well as the last four releases Future Shock, Sound-System, the soundtrack to Round Midnight and Perfect Machine. Everything released in America from Man-Child to Quartet has yet to be remastered. Some albums, made and initially released in the US, were remastered between 1999 and 2001 in other countries such as Magic Windows and Monster. Hancock also re-released some of his Japan-only releases in the West, such as The Piano.

1990s and later[link]

Hancock live in concert

After leaving Columbia, Hancock took a break. Then, with friends Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Davis admirer Wallace Roney, they recorded A Tribute to Miles, which was released in 1994. The album contained two live recordings and studio recording classics, with Roney playing Davis's part as trumpet player. The album won a Grammy for best group album. He also toured with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Pat Metheny in 1990 on their Parallel Realities tour, which included a memorable performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1990.

Hancock's next album, Dis Is Da Drum, released in 1994, saw him return to Acid Jazz. Also in 1994, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African-American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine.

1995's The New Standard found Hancock and an all-star band including John Scofield, Jack DeJohnette and Michael Brecker interpreting pop songs by Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel and others. A 1997 duet album with Wayne Shorter entitled 1 + 1 was successful, the song "Aung San Suu Kyi" winning the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. Hancock also achieved great success in 1998 with his album Gershwin's World, which featured inventive readings of George and Ira Gershwin standards by Hancock and a plethora of guest stars, including Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Shorter. Hancock toured the world in the support of Gershwin's World with a sextet that featured Cyro Baptista, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ira Coleman, Eli Degibri and Eddie Henderson.

In 2001, Hancock recorded Future2Future, which reunited Hancock with Bill Laswell and featured doses of electronica as well as turntablist Rob Swift of The X-Ecutioners. Hancock later toured with the band, and released a live concert DVD with a different lineup which also included the "Rockit" music video. Also in 2001, Hancock partnered with Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove to record a live concert album saluting Davis and John Coltrane entitled Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, recorded live in Toronto. The threesome toured to support the album, and toured on and off through 2005.

The year 2005 saw the release of a duet album called Possibilities. It features duets with Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Sting and others. In 2006, Possibilities was nominated for Grammy awards in two categories: "A Song For You", featuring Christina Aguilera was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and "Gelo No Montanha", featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance. Neither nomination resulted in an award.

Also in 2005, Hancock toured Europe with a new quartet that included Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and explored textures ranging from ambient to straight jazz to African music. Plus, during the summer of 2005, Hancock re-staffed the famous Headhunters and went on tour with them, including a performance at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.

However, this lineup did not consist of any of the original Headhunters musicians. The group included Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Lionel Loueke and John Mayer. Hancock also served as the first artist in residence for Bonnaroo that summer.

Also in 2006, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which bought out Hancock's old label, Columbia Records) released the two-disc retrospective The Essential Herbie Hancock. This two-disc set is the first compilation of Herbie's work at Warner Bros. Records, Blue Note Records, Columbia and at Verve/Polygram. This became Hancock's second major compilation of work since the 2002 Columbia-onlyThe Herbie Hancock Box, which was released at first in a plastic 4x4 cube then re-released in 2004 in a long box set. Hancock also in 2006, recorded a new song with Josh Groban and Eric Mouquet (co-founder of Deep Forest) entitled "Machine". It is featured on Josh Groban's CD Awake. Hancock also recorded and improvised with guitarist Lionel Loueke on Loueke's debut album Virgin Forest on the ObliqSound label in 2006, resulting in two improvisational tracks "Le Réveil des Agneaux (The Awakening of the Lambs)" and "La Poursuite du lion (The Lion's Pursuit)".

Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Joni Mitchell released a 2007 album, River: The Joni Letters, that paid tribute to her work. Norah Jones and Tina Turner recorded vocals,^[14] as did Corinne Bailey Rae, and Leonard Cohen contributed a spoken piece set to Hancock's piano. Mitchell herself also made an appearance. The album was released on September 25, simultaneously with the release of Mitchell's album Shine.^[15] "River" was nominated for and won the 2008 Album of the Year Grammy Award, only the second jazz album ever to receive either honor. The album also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and the song "Both Sides Now" was nominated for Best Instrumental Jazz Solo.

Recently Hancock performed at the Shriner's Children's Hospital Charity Fundraiser with Sheila E, Jim Brickman, Kirk Whalum and Wendy Alane Wright.

His latest work includes assisting the production of the Kanye West track "RoboCop", found on 808s & Heartbreak.

On June 14, 2008, Hancock performed at Rhythm on the Vine at the South Coast Winery in Temecula, California, for Shriners Hospital for Children. Other performers at the event, that raised $515,000 for Shriners Hospital, were contemporary music artist Jim Brickman, and Sheila E. & the E. Family Band.^[16]

On January 18, 2009, Hancock performed at the We Are One concert, marking the start of inaugural celebrations for American President Barack Obama.^[17] Hancock also performed the Rhapsody in Blue at the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards with classical pianist Lang Lang. Hancock was named as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's creative chair for jazz for 2010–12.^[18] In June 2010, Hancock released his newest album, The Imagine Project.

On June 5, 2010, Hancock received an Alumni Award from his alma mater, Grinnell College.^[19]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

As a Leader[link]

• 2000: Dejohnette, Hancock, Holland and Metheny – Live in Concert
• 2002: Herbie Hancock Trio: Hurricane! with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham^[20]
• 2002: The Jazz Channel Presents Herbie Hancock (BET on Jazz) with Cyro Baptista, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ira Coleman, Eli Degibri and Eddie Henderson (recorded in 2000)
• 2004: Herbie Hancock – Future2Future Live
• 2006: Herbie Hancock – Possibilities with John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Joss Stone, and more

Awards[link]

Academy Awards[link]

• 1986, Original Soundtrack, for Round Midnight

Grammy Awards[link]

1. 1984, Best R&B Instrumental Performance, for Rockit
2. 1985, Best R&B Instrumental Performance, for Sound-System
3. 1988, Best Instrumental Composition, for Call Sheet Blues
4. 1995, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group, for A Tribute to Miles
5. 1997, Best Instrumental Composition, for Manhattan (Island Of Lights And Love)
6. 1999, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), for St. Louis Blues
7. 1999, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group, for Gershwin's World
8. 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall
9. 2003, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for My Ship
10. 2005, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for Speak Like a Child
11. 2008, Album of the Year, for River: The Joni Letters
12. 2008, Best Contemporary Jazz Album, for River: The Joni Letters
13. 2011, Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for A Change Is Gonna Come
14. 2011, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for Imagine

Playboy Music Poll[link]

• Best Jazz Group, 1985
• Best Jazz Keyboards, 1985
• Best Jazz Album – Rockit, 1985
• Best Jazz Keyboards, 1986
• Best R&B Instrumentalist, 1987
• Best Jazz Instrumentalist, 1988

Keyboard Magazine's Readers Poll[link]

• Best Jazz & Pop Keyboardist, 1983
• Best Jazz Pianist, 1987
• Best Jazz Keyboardist, 1987
• Best Jazz Pianist, 1988

Other notable awards[link]

• MTV Awards (5 awards in total) – Best Concept Video – Rockit, 1983–84
• Gold Note Jazz Awards – NY Chapter of the National Black MBA Association, 1985
• French Award Officer of the Order of Arts & Letters - Paris, 1985
• BMI Film Music Award Round Midnight, 1986
• U.S. Radio Award "Best Original Music Scoring – Thom McAnn Shoes", 1986
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association "Best Score – Round Midnight", 1986
• BMI Film Music Award Colors, 1989
• Miles Davis Award, granted by the Montreal International Jazz Festival, 1997
• Soul Train Music Award "Best Jazz Album – The New Standard", 1997
• Festival International Jazz de Montreal Prix Miles Davis, 1997
• VH1's 100 Greatest Videos Rockit is "10th Greatest Video", 2001
• NEA Jazz Masters Award, 2004
• Downbeat Magazine Readers Poll Hall of Fame, 2005

^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website of Herbie Hancock
• Official Herbie Hancock MySpace page
• Herbie Hancock at Verve Records
• River:The Joni Letters at Verve Records
• Possibilities Herbie Hancock
• Discography Herbie Hancock Discography
• Interview with Herbie Hancock on music and technology from AppleMatters
• Interview with Herbie Hancock on the "Possibilities" album release from LiveDaily
• Herbie Hancock: Outside The Comfort Zone Herbie Hancock interview from JamBase
• "Herbie Hancock: Essential Recordings" by Ted Gioia (www.jazz.com)
• Herbie Hancock's Grinnell College Alumni Award citation from Grinnell College Alumni Assembly on June 5, 2010.

Grant Green (St. Louis, Missouri, June 6, 1935 – New York, January 31, 1979; some sources erroneously give the birth year as 1931^[1]) was a jazz guitarist and composer.

Recording prolifically and almost exclusively for Blue Note Records (as both leader and sideman) Green performed well in hard bop, soul jazz, bebop and Latin-tinged settings throughout his career. Critics Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn write, "A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar ... Green's playing is immediately recognizable -- perhaps more than any other guitarist."^[2] Critic Dave Hunter described his sound as "lithe, loose, slightly bluesy and righteously groovy".^[3] He often performed in an organ trio, a small group with an organ and drummer.

Apart from Charlie Christian, Green's primary influences were saxophonists, particularly Charlie Parker, and his approach was therefore almost exclusively linear rather than chordal. The simplicity and immediacy of Green's playing, which tended to avoid chromaticism, derived from his early work playing rhythm and blues and, although at his best he achieved a synthesis of this style with bop, he was essentially a blues guitarist and returned almost exclusively to this style in his later career.^[4] Green used a Gibson ES-330, then a Gibson L7 with a Gibson McCarty pickguard/pick-up, an Epiphone Emperor (with the same pick-up) and finally had a custom built D'Aquisto. George Benson said he would turn all the bass and treble off the amp, and max the midrange. This way he could get his signature punchy, biting tone.

Biography[link]

Green was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He first performed in a professional setting at the age of 12. His influences were Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Ike Quebec, Lester Young, Jimmy Raney, Jimmy Smith and Miles Davis, he first played boogie-woogie before moving on to jazz. His first recordings in St. Louis were with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest for the Delmark label. The drummer in the band was Elvin Jones, later the powerhouse behind John Coltrane. Grant recorded with Elvin again in the early Sixties. Lou Donaldson discovered Grant playing in a bar in St. Louis. After touring together with Donaldson, Grant arrived in New York around 1959-60.

Lou Donaldson introduced Grant to Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records. Lion was so impressed with Grant that, rather than testing Grant as a sideman, as was the usual Blue Note practice, Lion arranged for him to record as a bandleader first. Green's initial recording session went unreleased until 2001, however, owing to a lack of confidence on Green's behalf. [1] [2]

Despite the shelving of his first session, Green's recording relationship with Lion and Blue Note was to last, with a few exceptions, throughout the Sixties. From 1961 to 1965, Grant made more appearances on Blue Note LPs, as leader or sideman, than anyone else. Grant's first issued album as a leader was Grant's First Stand. This was followed in the same year by Green Street and Grantstand. Grant was named best new star in the Down Beat critics' poll, 1962, and, as a result, his influence spread wider than New York. He often provided support to the other important musicians on Blue Note, including saxophonists Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Stanley Turrentine and Harold Vick, as well as organist Larry Young.

Sunday Mornin' , The Latin Bit and Feelin' the Spirit are all loose concept albums, each taking a musical theme or style: Gospel, Latin and spirituals respectively. Grant always carried off his more commercial dates with artistic success during this period. Idle Moments (1963), featuring Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson, and Solid (1964), featuring the Coltrane rhythm section, are acclaimed as two of Grant's best recordings.

Many of Grant's recordings were not released during his lifetime. These include Matador, in which Grant is once again in the heavyweight company of the Coltrane rhythm section, and a series of sessions with pianist Sonny Clark. In 1966 Grant left Blue Note and recorded for several other labels, including Verve. From 1967 to 1969 Grant was, for the most part, inactive due to personal problems and the effects of heroin addiction. In 1969 Grant returned with a new funk-influenced band. His recordings from this period include the commercially successful Green is Beautiful and the soundtrack to the film The Final Comedown. Grant was also a huge influence on guitarists, from George Benson to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Still to this day guitarists try to get his signature sound, Idle Moments is considered one of the top 100 jazz albums of all time.

Grant left Blue Note again in 1974 and the subsequent recordings he made with other labels divide opinion: some consider Green to have been the 'Father of Acid Jazz' (and his late recordings have been sampled by artists including US3, A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy^[5]), whilst others have dismissed them (Michael Cuscuna wrote in the sleeve notes for the album Matador that "During the 1970s he made some pretty lame records").

Grant spent much of 1978 in hospital and, against the advice of doctors, went back on the road to earn some money. While in New York to play an engagement at George Benson's Breezin' Lounge, Grant collapsed in his car of a heart attack in New York City on January 31, 1979. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and was survived by six children. Since Green's demise, his reputation has grown to legendary status and many compilations of both his earlier (post-bop/straight ahead and soul jazz) and later (funkier/dancefloor jazz) periods, exist.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

Blue Note Records

Other labels

As sideman[link]

1959

• Jimmy Forrest - All the Gin Is Gone (Delmark)
• Jimmy Forrest - Black Forrest (Delmark)

1960

• Sam Lazar - Space Flight (Argo)
• Willie Dixon - Blues Roots Series, Vol. 12 (Chess)

1961

• Lou Donaldson - Here 'Tis (Blue Note)
• Baby Face Willette - Face to Face (Blue Note)
• Baby Face Willette - Stop and Listen (Blue Note)
• Brother Jack McDuff - The Honeydripper (Prestige)
• Stanley Turrentine - Up at "Minton's" (Blue Note)
• Dave Bailey - Reaching Out (Jazztime)
• Hank Mobley - Workout (Blue Note)
• Horace Parlan - Up & Down (Blue Note)
• Brother Jack McDuff - Steppin' Out (Prestige)
• Brother Jack McDuff - Goodnight, It's Time To Go (Prestige)
• Stanley Turrentine - ZT's Blues (Blue Note)
• Lou Donaldson - A Man with a Horn (Blue Note)
• Sonny Red/Grant Green/Barry Harris - The Mode (Jazzland)
• Sonny Red - Images (Jazzland)
• Ike Quebec - Blue and Sentimental (Blue Note)

1962

• Joe Carroll - Man with a Happy Sound (Charlie Parker Records)
• Dodo Greene - My Hour of Need (Blue Note)
• Don Wilkerson - Elder Don (Blue Note)
• Lou Donaldson - The Natural Soul (Blue Note)
• Don Wilkerson - Preach Brother! (Blue Note)

1963

• Lou Donaldson - Good Gracious! (Blue Note)
• Jimmy Smith - I'm Movin' On (Blue Note)
• Jimmy Smith - Special Guests (Blue Note Japan)
• Booker Ervin - Back from the Gig (Blue Note)
• Herbie Hancock - My Point of View (Blue Note)
• Horace Parlan - Happy Frame of Mind (Blue Note)
• "Big" John Patton - Along Came John (Blue Note)
• Gloria Coleman - Soul Sisters (Impulse!)
• Harold Vick - Steppin' Out! (Blue Note)
• "Big" John Patton - Blue John (Blue Note)
• Don Wilkerson - Shoutin' (Blue Note)
• George Braith - Two Souls in One (Blue Note)
• Mary Lou Williams - Black Christ of the Andes (Saba/MPS)
• George Braith - Soulstream (Blue Note)
• Bobby Hutcherson - The Kicker (Blue Note)

1964

• Lee Morgan - Search for the New Land (Blue Note)
• George Braith - Extension (Blue Note)
• "Big" John Patton - The Way I Feel (Blue Note)
• Larry Young - Into Somethin' (Blue Note)
• Donald Byrd - I'm Tryin' to Get Home (Blue Note)

1965

• Johnny Hodges/Wild Bill Davis - Joe's Blues (Verve)
• Grassella Oliphant - The Grass Is Greener (Atlantic)
• "Big" John Patton - Oh Baby! (Blue Note)
• Lou Donaldson - Musty Rusty (Cadet)
• Johnny Hodges/Wild Bill Davis - Wings and Things (Verve)
• "Big" John Patton - Let 'em Roll (Blue Note)

1966

• George Braith - Laughing Souls (Prestige)
• "Big" John Patton - Got a Good Thing Goin' (Blue Note)
• Art Blakey - Hold On, I'm Coming (Limelight)
• Stanley Turrentine - Rough 'n' Tumble (Blue Note)

1969

• Rusty Bryant - Returns (Prestige)
• Charles Kynard - The Soul Brotherhood (Prestige)
• Reuben Wilson - Love Bug (Blue Note)
• Don Patterson - Brother-4 (Prestige)
• Don Patterson - Donnybrook (Prestige)
• Don Patterson - Tune Up! (Prestige)

1970

• Charles Kynard - Afro-Disiac (Prestige)
• Fats Theus - Black Out (CTI)
• Houston Person - Person to Person! (Prestige)

1973

• Houston Person - The Real Thing (Eastbound)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Great Jazz Guitar Players: Grant Green
• Grant Green discography at MusicBrainz
• Grant Green Pages
• The Grant Green Tone
• Grant Green Discography Project
• Evergreen - Grant Green Tribute Page
• German Grant Green site with fully illustrated discography
• Grant Green discography with cover photos

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2010)

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (July 2010)

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941)^[2] is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.

Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever.^[2] Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.^[3]

His career has been driven by his will to operate as a free agent and compulsively explore different avenues of music making. This hunger has positioned him as an important catalyst in the world of serious, mainstream acoustic jazz, and he is one of the most influential and widely studied figures in the last 40 years.^[4]

Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, such as eradicating social illiteracy,^[5] and is a Scientologist.^[6]

Life and career[link]

Youth[link]

Armando Corea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He is of Sicilian and Spanish descent.^[7] His father, a jazz trumpet player who had led a Dixieland band in the Boston area in the 1930s and 1940s, introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Growing up surrounded by jazz music, he was influenced at an early age by bebop and stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, and Lester Young. At eight Corea also took up drums, which would later influence his use of the piano as a percussion instrument.

Corea developed his piano skills by exploring music on his own. A notable influence was concert pianist Salvatore Sullo from whom Corea started taking lessons at age eight and who introduced him to classical music, helping spark his interest in musical composition. He also spent several years as a performer and soloist for the Knights of St. Rose, a drum and bugle corps based in Chelsea.

Given a black tuxedo by his father, he started doing gigs when in high school. He enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroy's band at the time, and had a trio which would play Horace Silver's music at a local jazz club.

He eventually decided to move to New York where he studied musical education for one month at Columbia University and six months at The Juilliard School. He quit after finding both disappointing, but liked the atmosphere of New York where the musical scene became the starting point for his professional career.

Early career[link]

Corea's first major professional gig was with Cab Calloway. Corea started his professional career in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Blue Mitchell and Latin greats such as Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaría. One of the earliest recordings of his playing is with Blue Mitchell's quintet on The Thing To Do. This album features his composition "Chick's Tune", a clever retooling of "You Stepped Out of a Dream" that demonstrates the angular melodies and Latin-and-swing rhythms that characterize, in part, Corea's personal style. (Incidentally, the same tune features a drum solo by a very young Al Foster.)

His first album as a leader was Tones for Joan's Bones in 1966, two years before the release of his album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, with Roy Haynes on drums and Miroslav Vitouš on bass.^[2]

He made another sideman appearance with Stan Getz on 1967's Sweet Rain (Verve Records).^[2]

Avant garde period[link]

Chick Corea, 2007

From 1968 to 1971 Corea had associations with avant garde players and his solo style revealed a dissonant, avant garde orientation. His avant garde playing can be heard on his solo works of the period, his solos in live recordings under the leadership of Miles Davis, his recordings with Circle, and his playing on Joe Farrell's Song of the Wind album on CTI Records.

In September 1968 Corea replaced Herbie Hancock in the piano chair in Davis' band and appeared on landmark albums such as Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a Silent Way, and Bitches Brew. In concert, Davis' rhythm section of Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette combined elements of free jazz improvisation and rock music.^{[citation needed]} Corea experimented using electric instruments with the Davis band, mainly the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

In live performance he frequently processed the output of his electric piano with a device called a ring modulator, producing sounds reminiscent of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Using this style, he appeared on multiple Davis albums, including Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West and Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East. His live performances with the Miles Davis band continued into 1970, with a great touring band of Steven Grossman, tenor sax, Keith Jarrett, additional electric piano and organ, Jack DeJohnette, drums, Dave Holland, bass, Airto Moreira, percussion, and Miles on trumpet.^[2]

Holland and Corea left to form their own group, Circle, active in 1970 and 1971. This free jazz group featured multi-reed player Anthony Braxton and drummer Barry Altschul. This band was documented on Blue Note and ECM. Aside from soloing in an atonal style, Corea sometimes reached in the body of the piano and plucked the strings. In 1971 or 1972 Corea struck out on his own.

The concept of communication with an audience became a big thing for me at the time. The reason I was using that concept so much at that point in my life – in 1968, 1969 or so – was because it was a discovery for me. I grew up kind of only thinking how much fun it was to tinkle on the piano and not noticing that what I did had an effect on others. I did not even think about a relationship to an audience, really, until way later.^[8]

Jazz fusion[link]

Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2008

In the early 1970s Corea took a profound stylistic turn from avant garde playing to a crossover jazz fusion style that incorporated Latin jazz elements. He founded Return to Forever in 1971. This band had a fusion sound and even though it relied on electronic instrumentation it drew more on Brazilian and Spanish-American musical styles than on rock music. On its first two records, Return to Forever featured Flora Purim's vocals, the Fender Rhodes electric piano, and Joe Farrell's flute and soprano saxophone. Airto Moreira played drums. Corea's compositions for this group often had a Brazilian tinge. In 1972 Corea played many of the early Return to Forever songs in a group he put together for Stan Getz. This group, with Stanley Clarke on bass and Tony Williams on drums, recorded the Columbia label album Captain Marvel under Getz's name.

Only Clarke remained from the group's first lineup; Bill Connors played electric guitar and Lenny White played drums. No one replaced vocalist Purim. (Briefly, in 1977, Corea's wife, Gayle Moran, served as vocalist in the band.) In 1974 Al Di Meola joined the band, replacing Connors. In this second version of Return to Forever, Corea extended the use of synthesizers, particularly Moogs. The group released its final studio record in 1977 named "Romantic Warrior". Thereafter, Corea focused on solo projects.^[2]

Corea's composition "Spain" first appeared on the 1972 Return to Forever album Light as a Feather. This is probably his most popular piece, and it has been recorded by a variety of artists. There are also a variety of subsequent recordings by Corea himself in various contexts, including an arrangement for piano and symphony orchestra that appeared in 1999, and a collaborative piano and voice-as-instrument arrangement with Bobby McFerrin on the 1992 album Play. Corea usually performs "Spain" with a prelude based on Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez (1940), which earlier received a jazz orchestration on Miles Davis' and Gil Evans' "Sketches of Spain".

In 1976 he issued My Spanish Heart, influenced by Latin American music and featuring vocalist Moran and electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.The record was somewhat misunderstood at the time but it is considered nowadays as a true example of Corea's ability to write fussion material. The album combined jazz, flamenco, supported by plenty of mini- moog backup and a powerful horn section.

The late Ana Mazzotti, a Brazilian jazz pianist and vocalist, dedicated what is perhaps her last ever recorded track, "Grand Chick", to Corea. The song may be found on her "Ao Vivo Guaruja 1982" album. As Ana Mazzotti worked with Brazilian jazz fusion masters Azymuth in her first album, it was further testament to Corea's influence in the genre.

Duet projects[link]

In the 1970s Corea started working occasionally with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he recorded several duet albums on ECM, including 1972's Crystal Silence. They reunited in 2006 for a concert tour. A new record called The New Crystal Silence (which has received 3 nominations for the 51st Grammy Awards) was issued shortly into 2008. The package includes a disc of duets and another disc featuring the Sydney Symphony.

Later, toward the end of the 1970s, Corea embarked on a series of concerts and two albums with Herbie Hancock. These concerts were presented in elegant settings with both pianists formally dressed, and performing on Yamaha concert grand pianos. The two jazz greats traded playing each other's compositions, as well as pieces by other composers such as Béla Bartók.

In December 2007 Corea recorded a duet album, The Enchantment, with banjoist Bela Fleck.^[9] Fleck and Corea toured extensively behind the album in 2007. Fleck was nominated in the Best Instrumental Composition category at the 49th Grammy Awards for the track "Spectacle."^[10]

In 2008 Corea collaborated with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara on the live album Duet (Chick Corea and Hiromi). The duo played a concert at Tokyo's Budokan arena on April 30.^[11]

Later work[link]

Corea performs with Béla Fleck, March 1, 2008

Corea's other bands include the Elektric Band, the Akoustic Band, and Origin.

The Akoustic Band released a self-titled album in 1989, and featured John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums. It marked a turn back toward traditional jazz in Corea's career, and the bulk of his subsequent recordings have been acoustic ones. The Akoustic Band also provided the music for the 1986 Pixar short Luxo Jr. with their song The Game Maker.

In 1992 Corea started his own label, Stretch Records.^[2]

In 2001 the Chick Corea New Trio, with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard on bass and drums, respectively, released the album Past, Present & Futures. The 11-song album includes only one standard composition (Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"). The rest of the tunes are Corea originals.

He also participated in 1998's Like Minds, which features Gary Burton on vibes, Pat Metheny on guitar, Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums.

Recent years have also seen Corea's rising interest in contemporary classical music. He composed his first piano concerto – and an adaptation of his signature piece, Spain, for a full symphony orchestra – and performed it in 1999 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Five years later he composed his first work not to feature any keyboards: His String Quartet No. 1 was specifically written for the Orion String Quartet and performed by them on 2004's Summerfest.

Corea has continued releasing jazz fusion concept albums such as To the Stars (2004) and Ultimate Adventure (2006). The latter album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.

In 2008 the second version of Return to Forever (Corea, keyboards; Stanley Clarke, bass; Lenny White, drums; Al Di Meola, guitar) reunited for a worldwide tour. The reunion received positive reviews from most jazz and mainstream publications.^[12] Most of the group's studio recordings were re-released on the compilation Return to Forever: The Anthology to coincide with the tour. A concert DVD recorded during their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival was released in May 2009. He is recently working on a collaboration CD with the Grammy Award winning jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer, due to be released in August 2009.

A new group, the 5 Peace Band, which features Corea and guitarist John McLaughlin, began a world tour in October 2008. Corea had previously worked with McLaughlin in Miles Davis' late 1960s bands, including the group that recorded Davis' album Bitches Brew. Joining Corea and McLaughlin in the 5 Peace Band are saxophonist Kenny Garrett and bassist Christian McBride. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta played with the band in Europe and on select North American dates; Brian Blade played all dates in Asia and Australia, and most dates in North America.

Scientology[link]

Corea says that Scientology has helped deepen his relationships with others, and helped him find a renewed path.^[3] Under the "special thanks" notes, found in all of his later albums, Corea mentions that L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, has been a continual source of inspiration. In 1968 Corea discovered Dianetics, Hubbard's principal work, and in the early 1970s developed an interest in Hubbard's science fiction novels. The two exchanged letters until Hubbard's death in 1986, and Corea had three guest appearances on Hubbard's 1982 album Space Jazz: The Soundtrack of the Book Battlefield Earth, noting, "[Hubbard] was a great composer and keyboard player as well. He did many, many things. He was a true Renaissance Man."^[6]

Corea said that Scientology became a profound influence on his musical direction in the early 1970s:

I no longer wanted to satisfy myself. I really want to connect with the world and make my music mean something to people.^[13]

Due to Corea's religious affiliation, he was banned from performing in a concert to be held in Stuttgart, Germany, on August 15, 1993.^[14] Members of the U.S. Congress sent letters to the German government concerning a violation of basic human rights that are upheld by the German Constitution. The ban was not upheld, and in later years Corea performed in festivals in Germany, including several times at the government-supported International Jazz Festival in Burghausen where he was awarded a plaque in Burghausen's "Street of Fame" in 2011.^[15]

In 1998, Corea and fellow entertainers Anne Archer, Isaac Hayes, and Haywood Nelson attended the 30th anniversary of Freedom Magazine, the Church of Scientology's investigative news journal, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to honor 11 human rights activists.^[16]

Discography[link]