Chick Corea

Concord have announced details of a new Chick Corea album this summer, the title of which is confirmed as Antidote by Chick’s nascent Spanish Heart Band, the great pianist revisiting songs from his albums My Spanish Heart and Touchstone with a multi-cultural octet, plus new compositions and guest appearances by vocalists Rubén Blades, his wife Gayle Moran Corea, and Maria Bianca.  

“My genetics are Italian,” Corea says in quotes provided by the label, “but my heart is Spanish. I grew up with that music. This new band is a mix of all the wonderful and various aspects of my love and lifetime experience with these rhythms that have been such a big part of my musical heritage.”

The band is Flamenco guitarist Niño Josele and saxophonist/flutist Jorge Pardo who both hail from Spain and have both worked with the late flamenco master Paco de Lucía. Bassist Carlitos Del Puerto was born in Havana, Cuba and played on Chinese Butterfly, Corea’s 2017 collaboration with legendary drummer Steve Gadd – as did Venezuelan percussionist Luisito Quintero with Trumpeter Michael Rodriguez and trombonist Steve Davis plus Marcus Gilmore who follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, the great Roy Haynes, as a master drummer (and close collaborator with Corea). The band is augmented by flamenco dancer Nino de los Reyes.

Look for the album in late-June. Chick and the Spanish Heart Band are playing the Love Supreme festival this summer.