Chick Corea Quotes & Sayings

I call myself a teacher because they want me to call myself a teacher, but actually, what I'm doing is I'm studying. — Chick Corea

It's made music more accessible with YouTube and the ability to trade audio files. But it hasn't made it more popular. — Chick Corea

Without a doubt, my richest relationships are my long-term friendships with musical partners, because we make music together. That's what we love to do with our lives. — Chick Corea

You get a zero at the end of your age number, and you get some extra attention. That's what I found out. — Chick Corea

Every time I see a musician - it doesn't matter what age - that inspires me, there's always a secret little wish that maybe we'll play together, because that's how I learn and grow and so forth, you know. But hopefully there's a lot more. — Chick Corea

My dad was all about music. He was a musician, leading a band when I was born. His band was active all through the 40s. He'd started it in the late 20s and 30s. According to the scrapbook, his band was doing quite well around the Boston area. During the Depression they were on radio. It was a jazz-oriented band. He was a trumpet player, and he wrote and arranged for the band. He taught me how to play the piano and read music, and taught me what he knew of standard tunes and so forth. It was a fantastic way to come up in music. — Chick Corea

It's a constant challenge to get your arrangement and musical expression across to a new audience, especially when you're playing live every night like we are. — Chick Corea

My one thing is I continue to be interested and want to be a student. I don't want to be a master. When I'm learning something, I'm in my element. — Chick Corea

When I hear the piano played in a compositional way, like in a songwriter's way in a compositional way, there's a certain arc to that that I love. — Chick Corea

Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me. — Chick Corea

You'll find little schools of musicians experimenting with different ways of making music in Brooklyn, all through Manhattan, in Queens, in Jersey, you know? The city is still bubbling with creativity. — Chick Corea

I haven't traveled in Africa nearly as much as I'd like to. I've been there a few times, and I'd like to learn more about the various cultures in Africa. But that's the basis point of where all of the music that I love is based upon, from Africa to Cuba to Puerto Rico to South America. — Chick Corea

When I came to New York after high school in 1959 and started to meet musicians, 'Hot House' was like a standard jam session tune. — Chick Corea

You've got to create the space, then fill it. — Chick Corea

I enjoy playing the band as the band. I 'be' the whole band and I'm playing the drums, I'm playing the guitar, I'm playing the saxophone. To me, the most wonderful thing about playing music is that. — Chick Corea

I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it. — Chick Corea

I've noticed that the more adventurous and in that mode that I am, it seems that the more the audience really likes it. — Chick Corea

It's one thing to just play a tune, or play a program of music, but it's another thing to practically create a new language of music, which is what Kind of Blue did. — Chick Corea

If I had to look at 'Now He Sings' ... from outside myself, I see it as a natural part of the growth of the jazz culture, which I've always been so happy - honored, really - to be a small part of. — Chick Corea

I came along in the '60s having absorbed as much as I could up until then and added my own tastes and search into the equation. I guess that's how I see 'Now He Sings, Now He Sobs' in relation to the development of jazz in general. — Chick Corea

I decided that I didn't want to spend my time in a liberal arts college. — Chick Corea

It's very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he's creating, the fact that he's experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we're in a brotherhood of some kind ... we're in it together. — Chick Corea

As a musician, I don't have one thing that's "my thing." I like to create, and have a lot of outlets for it. Dustin Hoffman is one of the guys that sets a model for me, because of how good he is at being such different characters. Every time you see DeNiro, he's pretty much DeNiro - great, but DeNiro. Hoffman is different every time, depending on his character. That's how I see myself as a performer. — Chick Corea

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man. — Chick Corea

Talking about the body getting old, there's a sadness to it in a way. — Chick Corea

Only a spiritual being has awareness. — Chick Corea

Now, when I play soul piano, for instance, and I play a rendition of 'Spain,' I do it deconstructively. That's the most fun, but I can only do that when I'm on my own. — Chick Corea

People in the music business say don't make too many records because they'll compete against one another. — Chick Corea

My wife, Gayle, is a wonderful musician and singer. We share music, so it's a deep bond. — Chick Corea

I like Stevie Wonder as my favorite non-pianist pianist. I mean, I shouldn't call him a non-pianist, because he's really a great pianist, but he doesn't feature it that much - he uses his keyboards and his piano technique to support his great songs and so forth, but he can really blow. — Chick Corea

The sound of the orchestra is one of the most magnificent musical sounds that has ever existed. — Chick Corea

Art is a subject that is inundated with opinions. In fact, that's all it is about is opinions. — Chick Corea

I don't think any artist really knows why a song gets popular. — Chick Corea

I searched through rebellion, drugs, diet, mysticism, religion, intellectualism and much more, only to begin to find that truth is basically simple and feels good, clear and right. — Chick Corea

You don't have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form. — Chick Corea

The title 'Now He Sings, Now He Sobs' comes from 'I Ching,' an ancient Chinese book that I was into in the '60s when I was studying different philosophies and religions. — Chick Corea

I no longer wanted to satisfy myself. I really want to connect with the world and make my music mean something to people. — Chick Corea